Gifts in Service of God’s People!

Monday, February 24, 2025

Sir 1:1-10; Mk 9:14-29

Today’s Gospel highlights that we are called to nourish the spiritual gifts we have been endowed with. 

There is a saying that ‘we should not crawl when we can indeed fly.’ 

Jesus’ disappointment with his disciples’ inability to cast out the demon reflects this insight. 

In Mark 6:7 we read that when sending his disciples into mission, Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits. 

When his disciples have already been made partakers of Jesus’ mission in order to strengthen his hands, they tend to ignore the presence of such a spiritual gift in them and instead suffer from self-doubt, wondering if they could ever cast demons out. 

Jesus’ disappointment with his disciples implies that we need to work on the spiritual gifts we have been endowed with. 

Why should we work on those spiritual gifts? Because we have been endowed with them for the benefit of God’s people. We have not received them for self-serving purposes. Hence, when we are negligent toward our spiritual gifts, we deprive God’s people of what they deserve. 

Let us pray that we may identify our spiritual gifts and put them in service of God’s people. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar