After Mass I congratulated a very young reader, still a teenager, on how well he had proclaimed one of the readings at that Mass. It was his first time reading at a Sunday liturgy. In his response to me, intending to highlight that it was his first time as a reader, he replied to me, "It was my first time ‘preaching’ and I was a little nervous." When he realized his mistake, we both had a good laugh.

I would like to focus on our second reading today, taken from St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. Before we get into the portion proclaimed today, let me explain why we have this as our second reading.

Generally, on Sundays there is a semi-continuous reading of the letters of the Apostles for the second reading. St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians is quite long and deals with diverse issues. For this reason, this letter has been spread over three years at the beginning of Ordinary Time. This year we are reading the third and final part of this letter.

St. Paul spent a year and a half founding and building up the community in Corinth. Five years after his departure from there, St. Paul wrote this letter to deal with disturbing issues that were unfolding there. For example, there were divisions within the community, excessive personal pride amongst some of its members, and disorder in the liturgy.

In today’s reading, St Paul addresses the diversity of spiritual gifts and forms of service. In his letters, St. Paul admonishes, teaches, and exhorts the reader. St. Paul knew his communities very well. He saw himself as a parent, with believers as his beloved spiritual children. As a spiritual parent, he knew the abilities that each person had.

One very important teaching in this passage is that St. Paul tells the Corinthians not to think that they possessed those spiritual gifts by their own merits. He insists that all the good things that they had were first and foremost a gift from God, a gift of the Holy Spirit. Another important point that St. Paul makes is that the gifts received from God were not for personal use but for the common good. "To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit” (1 Corinthians 12:7).

Here we can recall the parable of the Talents in which the Lord tells us the story of the servants who received different amounts of talents. Those who put those talents to work were able to get more. When their master returned and asked them for an account, they were able to present the original talents back with the other talents they had collected. One servant did not put the talent received to work. Instead, he buried it. In the Lord’s parable, that servant was reprimanded and punished. When we do not put the gifts of the Holy Spirit to work for the benefit of others, we act just like the servant who buried the talent.

When I look at this parish, I can see the abundant spiritual gifts that God has given you. Our parish grows and flourishes thanks to the faith of many of you who have understood the messages of the Lord and St. Paul. You put many spiritual gifts and different forms of service to work for the service of the Church. Still, there is much to do for our parish to flourish. It is through your faith and generosity that a parish becomes more perfect in service, in fraternal love.

Let us humbly ask the Lord to give us his grace to, first, discern the spiritual and service gifts that we have received and, second, put them to use for the benefit of our community.