Kevin Vost - Unearthing Your Ten Talents

Unearthing Your Ten Talents

A Thomistic Guide to Spiritual Growth through the Virtues and the Gifts

Kevin Vost, Psy.D.

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

Copyright 2009 Kevin Vost

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved

Cover design by Theodore Schluenderfritz

On the cover: Man shovelling dirt, high section, Copyright Christie & Cole Studio / Getty Images, Inc.; and St. Thomas Aquinas Reading, by Fra Bartolommeo, Museo di San Marco dellAngelico, Florence, Italy / The Bridgeman Art Library.

Biblical quotations in this book are taken from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Sophia Institute Press
Box 5284, Manchester, NH 03108
1-800-888-9344
www.SophiaInstitute.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Vost, Kevin.
Unearthing your ten talents : a Thomistic guide to spiritual growth through the virtues and the gifts / Kevin Vost.
p. cm.ISBN 978-1-933184-41-8 (alk. paper) 1. Virtues. 2. Christian lifet Catholic authors. 3. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274. I. Title.
BV4630.V67 2009
241.4 dc22200902909409 10 11 12 13 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Also available from Sophia Institute Press by Kevin Vost:

Memorize the Faith!

Fit for Eternal Life The mind of the intelligent man will ponder a parable...

Sirach 3:29

To Eric and Kyle: two talented young men

Acknowledgments

Many people helped inspire this modest tome. I thank you all, and Ill name just a few. This book would not exist if Dr. John Barger, Publisher of Sophia Institute Press, did not have the faith in my talents to let loose yet another writing project. I hope hell be well pleased (or at least sufficiently so). Mr. Todd Aglialoro, editor extraordinaire, went far beyond the call of duty in transforming the abstract and nonmaterial ideas of our active intellects into the paper and ink that you hold in your hands. I thank as well the reader of Memorize the Faith! who emailed me a couple of years ago, asking where he could read more detailed accounts of the virtues and their parts. Ive lost your name and email address, my inquisitive young benefactor, but my answer to you now is right here! (Please feel free to contact me again.)

Mr. Shane Kapler is a dynamic young Catholic writer, the author of The God Who Is Love: Explaining Christianity from Its Center. He read an early draft of some of the first chapters, praised the best lines, and did not comment on the worst. (Todd usually gives those the ax anyway.) Others whove encouraged and inspired me to write again due to their support of my previous efforts include Tarek Saab, author of Gutcheck: Confronting Love, Work, and Manhood; Nick Alexander, musician and comedian, The Catholic Weird Al; Catherine Adamkiewicz, author of Broken and Blessed and writer for Johnnette Benkovics Canticle Magazine; and Mrs. Johnnette Benkovic herself, who has featured my previous books on her Abundant Life program on EWTN. I also thank that fireball of energy and enthusiasm, Mr. Matt Swaim, producer, who has provided me the honor and privilege of speaking time and again to Brian Patrick of EWTN and Sacred Heart Radios Son Rise Morning Show.

Closer to home, Mrs. Katy Yeley, tireless promoter of Fit for Eternal Life to all (including her Episcopalian womens exercise group), has shown enthusiasm for this book that has fired up my own. Mrs. Patti Moffett gave me encouraging feedback after reading my first try at the chapter on charity (among the first I wrote). She has been my running partner for one year and my level three friend for eleven.

Almost lastly, none of my books would exist if Mrs. Kathy Ann Vost did not possess all the talents required to keep our family and household thriving as I sit, and read, and think, and type. She always inspires me to make the most of my talents.

My gratitude also goes out to you . Thank you for reading. I hope youll find it worthwhile.

Okay, lastly, I also thank God for providing you all.

Kevin Vost Springfield, Illinois Eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi June 13, 2009

Foreword

A Tale of Ten Talents

Master, you have delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.

Matthew 25:20-21

Were about to put on some very old, yet very powerful spectacles to take a fresh look at the magnificent parable of the talents. With modern lenses we tend to look at the parable in terms of making the most of the special gifts and talents God has given us. But when we view this parable through the glasses that the early Fathers of the Catholic Church passed down to St. Thomas Aquinas, we can see even deeper into the heart of things, all the way down to the lessons that apply not just to you or me, but to you and me, to all of us ,to every member of humanity, made as we are, in the image of God.

Explanation aplenty will come in the pages ahead. But before we put on our glasses, please turn on your imagination , go back two thousand years or so, and picture the scene of the original parable in your minds eye.

Long Ago, in Fruitful Lands

Long ago, in a beautiful haven of fruitful lands, nestled within the dusty sands of the ancient Middle Eastern landscape, a prosperous gentleman, preparing for a long and arduous journey, called three servants before him. He entrusted each man with a portion of his wealth, having divided it among them according to what he determined was each mans ability. To even the least able of the three, he presented an entire talent. Another servant received two talents, and to the most able of them all, five talents were given. Off the master went, entrusting his wealth to the care and judgment of these three men.

Do you recall what the master found upon his return? The man entrusted with five talents worked with them. He traded with them and produced five more for his master. The man with two did likewise, presenting his master with four talents, not two, when he came home. The master was quite pleased, of course. He told them how happy he was that they had been so faithful in caring for a little, and that he would set them over much.

But why did the third servant raise his masters ire? Had he squandered the money on wine, women, and song? No, he had not. Had he gambled it away? By no means. In fact, he returned to the master the very same talent he had been given, after he had unearthed it from the hole in the ground that he had dug for its successful safekeeping.

And how exactly did the master react? You may recall that he took that talent from the servant and gave it to the man who had ten for to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away (Matt. 25:29).

Wow! Does this sound a little harsh to you? Is this another case of one of Jesus hard sayings? Lets look a little more deeply at the meaning of this parable, since it provides the principle that the rest of this book will build upon (and I hope youll find it of interest).

The parable of the talents (described here according to Matthews rendering, but also presented in Luke 19:11-27) is very rich, not just in talents, but in meaning, and at several levels. This parable relates far more than a tale of a master and his servants, of course. It tells the story of our relationship to God, to the talents he has given us, and to our rewards, both here on earth right now and later in the eternal heavenly kingdom.

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