Hoarders of His Love

I love the show Hoarders on A&E. If you haven’t seen it before, it’s basically a show about severe pack-rats whose houses have mounds of clothes, trash, bags, and more. The obsessive-compulsive neat freak in me loves to see the people go from a cluttered mess to an organized living space that allows them to function so much better. And as I watch it, I always think to myself, ‘Thank God I’m not like that”.

But the truth is, I AM a hoarder. And in fact, we all are hoarders. Maybe not of peanut butter or games of Candy Land, but we all are hoarders of our talents and more importantly, of the love we have received from God. In Mark 4, Jesus says to his disciples, “Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lamp stand?” The obvious answer to that question is NO; hiding a lamp under a basket would most certainly be a bad choice and would defeat the purpose of having the light in the first place.

In just the same way, each of us has been given gifts and talents that are to be used in service of the Kingdom. Whether the gift of organization, enthusiasm, athleticism, intelligence, or humor, we all have been granted gifts that are meant to be shared. Like the light under the bushel basket, if we hide our talents and fail to use them for God’s glory, what use are they? A lamp under a bed fails to bring light into darkness. Do we fail to bring light into our darkened world by the hoarding of our gifts?

And even beyond receiving gifts, each of us has been given the love of God the Father who has given us his Son to redeem us and has poured out his Spirit to be ever-present with us. But the truth is that we often hoard this love. We receive grace in the Eucharist but do not allow our hearts to be changed or lead by it. We hear about God in homilies and youth group nights but rarely share the specifics of these messages with others. We have been loved so beautifully and radically by God but are only willing to share that love in the way we want to or in a way that’s easy.

And so we must ask ourselves, do we perceive our gifts as merits of hard work or personal accomplishment instead of recognizing that they are gifts meant to be used in service of God? Do we take time for prayer and say yes to the Holy Spirit, but then hoard the love and the revelations we receive? Do we fear that the gifts we have been given will be perceived as weird or useless? I pray that each of us, through grace, may be open to be used by God. I pray that we will not stifle his will by placing limitations on how we want him to use us. I pray that we may respond to the Holy Spirit who leads us to people that are in desperate need of love. And I pray that we may be willing to bring the light of love into a world of darkness instead of allowing the darkness, ignorance, and clutter of sin to permeate our society. Praise to God, the giver of light!