When You're Talented ...

 

I’ve quoted from Wilfrid Stinissen’s book This is the Day the Lord Has Made (365 Daily Meditations) before, perhaps even the one I am going to quote below.  But it spoke to me today ---- and in case I didn’t get it, it seems the same message was just re-iterated as I am typing this.

External and Essential Talent (January 23^rd)

A special talent in a certain area is usually interpreted as a sign that God wants the one concerned to evolve precisely in this direction.  God equips a person for the task he intends for him or her.  But what is most obvious in someone is not necessarily the most important.

… Jesus tried not to flaunt that he was divinely talented.  One could say that he refrained from what could have been called God’s periphery, that is his majesty, so as to more clearly show God’s innermost being, which is love.  Love does not want to be seen or dazzle; love wants to serve.

(In case you didn’t guess, that’s my underline, not the book’s).

 

I think that line is another reminder of: It’s Hard to be Humble.  It’s easier to think you know all things.  Like the shopping I did this afternoon, to ensure I had coffee for the people who will be coming to stay with me later this week.  So, I bought a couple of bags of coffee (with, of course, a shopping cart full of stuff I didn’t plan on buying).  Now I have the coffee, in the brand I like --- I made sure of buying that.

And what I just typed reminded me that I am out of fresh coffee right now, to have a cup as I type, so I stopped to make a fresh pot with the fresh coffee I just bought.  Only ….. did you know they also sell coffee “beans” in bags that look just like coffee “ground beans”?  Well, all the wisdom I have just got a little more wise, as it turns out I bought two bags of coffee beans, and I have never owned a coffee grinder.  So, no coffee tonight (or tomorrow morning), and I’ll have to dig out the receipt and march back to the store.

No, I don’t always dazzle everyone with my talents.

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Well, enough about my talents, or lack thereof.  Lately, I’ve been receiving notices from various charities telling me of my 2022 donations, for tax purposes.  I received one today from the Jerome Lejeune Foundation.  What was very notable was the simplicity and sincerity of their thank you letter, for my pitifully small donation.  And …. Also notable was their humility.  Unlike every other notice I received, they did not enclose an envelope to send another donation, nor did they even stress it in their letter.  And they enclosed a gift, a very practical one, in my opinion. 

“Dr. Jerome Lejeune discovered the extra chromosome 21 responsible for the condition known as Down-syndrome --- which he called Trisomy 21.  … Inspired by a deep belief that a cure for Trisomy 21 would one day be found and that medicine has a duty to serve society’s weakest members, Lejeune dedicated his life to research and caring for the intellectually disabled.” 

I have met many children and adults with Down’s syndrome.  One thing that stands out in my mind is how much they love everyone.  They are always happy.  My life --- and the world --- would be a poorer place without them.  Yet they are a major target of abortion seekers, and one country (Iceland) even brags that no people with Down syndrome have been born there ---- they have all been aborted.

I support the Lejeune Foundation and the homes they operate to house and love those with Downs syndrome, who no one else will care for.  The gift they enclosed with their donation notification letter was a small fold-out card, titled Thoughts by Jerome Lejeune, with his picture on the front.  It lists 21 thoughts he has relative to the focus of his life.  These are some of them:

-          Hate the disease, love the patient.  That is the practice of medicine.

-          Either we will cure them of their innocence, or there will be a new massacre of the innocents.

-          We will beat this disease.  It’s inconceivable that we won’t.  It will take much less intellectual effort than sending a man to the Moon.

-          Ending an inconvenient life is a terrible thing.  And age is no protection against this threat.  The elderly are as much at risk as our youngest children.

-          We call on all people of good will to ensure that health protection is grounded in a renewed spirituality.  Every patient is my brother.

You can order free copies of this brochure at contact@lejeuneusa.org, or visit their website at jeromelejeune.org.  (And you might make a donation while you’re at it ---- that’s my opinion, not theirs).