This is our last week of the Christmas Season. Please allow yourself still to celebrate!
I’d suggest occasionally singing together or on your own “We Three Kings of Orient Are!” Its middle verses parse the three gifts the Magi brought and capture their significance in portraying fully who Christ is: gold, his being himself a king; incense, his being God as well as man; myrrh, a chilling reminder of his fate in our haves, his death, his burial seemingly being the last word on God’s gift of Himself, in Him, for our sake.
That each tell us more deeply who Christ actually is.
I wonder if I might suggest the same to you? Might you please parse the gifts you’ve been given and allow that reflection to hint at your callings, your particular paths in this life.
You could do that by unpacking three of your implicit gifts! Sound the promise of your talents, your temperament, and the trials that have given you resilience for the roles you’ll have in the days ahead.
Many people struggle to develop skill in a field they’ve set themselves to. They’re determined to make it work. Yet force-fitting isn’t always the best way to discern the field for our dreams. Much is to be said for sounding out the aptitudes inherent in us: in those talents we are ‘naturals’ and will find mastery and ‘flow’ more quickly and fully. Talents oft illumine the way in which we should walk.
Some avoid their natural style, led perhaps by guesses at approaches more ‘popular’ in the world’s estimate, more in vogue at the time. But why set one’s compass from such passing things? Better to navigate by our intrinsic temperament! Some prefer to shine in a large group, others are more shy and become superb mentors one-on-one. Some are have great energy to attract others to a cause and energize them amidst it, others, seemingly phlegmatic, possess a staying power undreamt by the rest of us. Temperaments are a kind of talent as well!
Last of all we are last to take full estimate of the trials we have faced. No one asks for crosses, but we all face them in each life. They are crucibles that give us guts and perseverance and set us apart in being able to hold up under conditions where others could not serve. It seems impossible to conceive that trials are a help, yet they give us our mettle, steel us for demanding tasks ahead!
Many ask me what they should do after school. Helping them, puzzled, discern their path in life is an honor. Of course there are many approaches, many different suggestions I make to help graduate students and young professionals dis earn a possible calling.
Notice, this week of the Epiphany, how the kings three gifts helped us discern the full and monumental role ahead for the miniature baby barely beginning life. Notice them as well how the three gifts given you - of your own your own Talents, Temperament and Trials have fitted you for great deeds in the years ahead - if you will but allow yourself to discern and learn all that they portend.
May God Bless You All Your Days!
Father George Salzmann, O. S. F. S.