She said to the students: "Do you see that Lexus? Do you see that big beautiful house? Do you see that beautiful boat? You can have all this too. You have to stay in school. You have to go to college and get a degree. Then you will make a lot of money, and then you can buy all these things."

Jesus talks about money in the gospel. He tells the story of an owner of the house giving his servants talents. The meaning of talent in this gospel is not a capacity. A talent is an amount of money.

Jesus was talking to people who were very poor. One talent was worth twenty years of work.

Ten talents were worth two hundred years of work. Five talents were worth one hundred years of work. If we were to understand these amounts in today’s terms, we would need to take the yearly amount of money that we make and multiply it by twenty and that would be the worth of one talent.

The lesson of the story is that God has given us a life that is worth more than one million talents. He invested his Son’s death and resurrection to make our life priceless.

Do we use this gift of life just to acquire expensive cars, beautiful homes and boats? Or do we live out our lives, as St. Paul says, as children of the light?

The first reading honors the woman who gives to the poor. The poor are not just those who have no food or clothing. The very poor are those who don’t have God in their lives and live in darkness.

Would we use our lives to shed light on these people by sharing our faith with them? We don’t have to get into a debate. We are not expected to know the answer to all of their questions. We just share with them what God means to us. They will invite your sharing in many ways.

Will we use our talents to help them?