We all reach times in our lives when we are not sure where to go next. That’s when the excitement of the guidance of the Holy Spirit becomes so evident and so absolutely necessary. Sixteen years ago when Pat and I decided, along with Chris and Sheri Danze, that it was time to take a risk and launch the John Paul II Life Center (JPII Life Center) and Vitae Clinic, about the only thing we were certain of was that the future was uncertain.
Our conviction became too strong to ignore
As Pat put it, “We know the Catholic Church wants women not to have an abortion, but what is being done to help the mother and baby once born?” I agreed. It was so clear that not enough was being done. So, I ventured, “Let’s create a Center to improve this situation.” Pat, Chris, and Sheri agreed. We wholeheartedly jumped in with a plan and with both feet, uncertain where things would end up or even whether we would succeed in helping mothers and babies.
God took the reins, a wonderful team formed
Fast forward 16 years, now nearly 2,000 babies’ lives are saved by the JPII Life Center!
These amazing results are thanks to sonogram machines, obtained through the generosity of the Knights of Columbus; thanks to the blessing of our amazing physicians, who are able to perform abortion pill reversal procedures; and thanks to the tireless, patient, listening guidance of our trained volunteers who continue to embrace the needs of each individual person who comes through our doors or calls our center.
Countless additional mothers’ lives have been positively impacted. Some 300 women who were told they could not conceive, now each has one or more children using Natural Procreative Technology (NaPro).
Without question, looking back over the past 16 years, many women and their babies’ lives are much bette
r because we took that first step of launching the JPII Life Center and Vitae Clinic.
All we did was work hard, persevere, and pray, and by the grace of God we were able to form a remarkable team…
It was not easy, and there’s always more that needs to be done.
Today, our next mountain is EVEN BIGGER!
It is time for us to take another RISK and place the uncertainty in God’s hands.
This risk involves taking a leap of faith because of the Center’s unprecedented growth over the last three years:
To bring our message and programs nationwide, and
To buy a permanent location for the JPII Life Center so that it might continue serving mothers and babies for decades to come.
Echoing a parable: When people trust you, you must do your best to succeed
Thinking of RISKS makes me think of the parable of the Talents.
In that parable, the Master had three servants to whom he entrusted his talents (money). Each servant received a different amount according to the Master’s opinion of that servant’s ability. As you know, the first servant received five talents, the second received two, and the third received one.
After a fairly long time the Master returns and asks each for an accounting. The First gives him the five talents plus five more. Like the first servant, the second doubles the two talents he had been given. The Master highly praises these first two, calling each “a good and faithful servant.”
But the third servant only returns the one talent which he had been given, having buried it in the ground until the Master’s return. The Master spared no rebuke for this action, “Thou wicked and slothful servant. Take the one talent from him and give it to the one with 10
talents… and cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth,” (Mt. 15: 14-30.)
Peeling back the mystery
There is much substance to this parable and multiple layers. Of course on the surface, when we think of the talent numbers in today’s terminology—totaling 5, 2 and 1—they do not seem large in quantity. However, in addition to the talents, the gifts from God each of us has received includes a capacity or aptitude.
In terms of money, in those days, 1 talent equaled 6,000 denarii. Each denarius equaled 1 day’s wages. Thus 6,000 denarii equaled 6,000 days of work. There are 365 days in a year, so 6,000 denarii is 16.44 years worth of wages! Five denarii equals 82.2 years of wages.
Now, using the current U.S. federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour ($58 daily), just 1 talent had a current value of $352,692. That means, the servant who received five talents received a minimum equivalent value of $1.74 million. That’s a huge amount to place in one’s care
and trust!
Father Sirico insights on this parable
Let’s look at the way Father Robert Sirico describes what’s happening in the parable of the Talents:
The Parable, like the whole of Christianity, is about the challenge of the unifying power of love. As the servants take on the responsibilities entrusted to them and enter a world open to enterprise and use of their intellects, risk and investment, their faithfulness comes into focus.
The master who has gone on the journey clearly represents Jesus himself, and the judgment is on our wholehearted fidelity.
An eternal reward is granted to those who have been fruitful and faithful stewards of the gifts received. Our work for Christ is expected to be robust, enthusiastic, fearless, and total, aimed at the highest possible result from that with which we have been entrusted.
To simply hide this gift is to not employ it; that is obviously not what the master’s gift was given for.
Ownership and investment are regular features of life. They are dynamic. This principle applies not just within the realm of economics; it also clarifies the relationship between the material and spiritual realms, both of which must be kept in mind to fully comprehend the lesson in its entirety.
The talents are seen as referring to all the various gifts—natural, spiritual, and material—that God has given us for our use. That would include our natural abilities and resources—our health, education—as well as our possessions, money, and opportunities.
It would also cover our personalities, our sense of thrift, our openness to new information (that is, our humility), our wit, and our level of risk-tolerance, among the various aptitudes that are unique to us as individuals. Gifts that come to us come by the fortuitousness of our genetics or geography or by the gifts of others.
Economically understood, time is money (or interest). The lazy servant’s characterization of his master is quite revealing—the lazy servant did not even try! The first servant confronted uncertainty, a persistent and undeniable feature of the world, in an enterprising way.
The worst failure is to never try at all
The fear of the unknown so often immobilizes people.
People inevitably fail, but it is true to say that there really is no failure worse than never trying at all. It is the virtues of faith, hope, and confidence in the face of great odds and obstacles—not greed—that characterize the entrepreneur.
Looking to the future with courage and a sense of opportunity
People are willing to take such risks because they look to the future with courage and a sense of opportunity. They truly do think outside of the box to the benefit of us all.
In the act of creating new enterprises, such people open up alternatives from which workers can choose in order to earn wages, develop skills and supply needed products and services for human betterment.
This is the true meaning of “speculation.”
Fundamental nature of the entrepreneurial vocation
The fundamental nature of the entrepreneurial vocation is to speculate, to focus on the needs of customers, to be other-directed. The profits attained in a free economy are an indication of just that: Meeting other’s needs.
If the businessman does not serve others, by those other’s own evaluation, he will not be a successful entrepreneur.
Each person possesses a calling that will allow him to employ the faculties, aptitudes, and talents with which he has been endowed. Each is simply called to be faithful, not necessarily successful, as Mother (now Saint) Teresa of Calcutta observed.
This insightful story [Christ’s parable of the talents] is an allegory of faithfulness to the kingdom and a commentary on the role of personal volition in bringing it about. But the implications extend to the whole life, and they are applicable to all people.
Not even trying is another way of failing to acknowledge the receipt of the gift in the first place.
What is needed is a band of people who are entrepreneurs in moral, spiritual, and material dimensions alike, facing the uncertain future with courage and faith, reforming their own lives as they reform and better the world around them. Then, when the master returns, we will be judged to have been proven faithful.
JPII Life Center echoes Christ’s faith-driven entrepreneurial challenge
The wonderfully talented Board and Staff of the JPII Life Center recently decided that it is time to take RISKS in order to move forward with the Center’s long-term mission and committed to launching a $10 million Capital Campaign to expand programming nationwide and acquire a permanent home for the Center.
This permanence allows for expansion of the Center’s programs so that people will understand the JPII Life Center is so much more than just a local crisis pregnancy center.
Our long-term mission, one that has integrated all our past and current activities, is to empower more women with the deserved dignity to choose to save their babies’ lives, and to provide enhanced educational programs, so that young girls will understand how their body works and young men understand their role and responsibility to the mother so that each truly recognizes that the power she has to protect the dignity of her femininity is in her hands. Pro-woman is pro-life.
Further, to expand our A Glimpse Inside(TM) program to educate and show more youth the human reality—first-hand, medically and scientifically, from conception to birth. We have plans to offer even more life-affirming services and to expand our collaboration with other national pro-life organizations.
JPII Life Center aims to help young girls across America learn what they need to know about their own bodies!
As Father Sirico said, in order to move forward in this calling, we need courage—and we need to cast off all fear, trusting fully in the Lord and in his awakening generosity of those inspired and called to walk with us.
Your Personal Invitation to Prayerfully Consider…
To make this three-year Capital Campaign successful, we need your help in the following ways:
- Join us in praying for the continued guidance of the Holy Spirit and success in this challenge.
- Consider volunteering to assist in one of the many ways we need assistance by contacting the Center using the QR Code below.
- Prayerfully consider a contribution or pledge which can be for up to 3 years to fulfill.
- Provide the name and contact information of persons you know to be committed to protecting the life of the unborn.
- Come take a tour of the Center’s new building and see the plans for making this ambitious project a success.
Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude!
We are so thankful to all who have helped us in the past and those who will become a part of this important campaign. I also invite you to share with me your thoughts and ideas.
What can we offer that Jesus can transform?
As a Christian friend once told me, “What can we offer that Jesus can transform? A meal? A hospital visit? A telephone call? A few hours of volunteer service? When we offer what we have, we can trust Jesus to transform it into a gift from God!”
In John 15:8, Jesus said, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
We are asking God to help make this Capital Campaign a success and we at the JPII Life Center are pledging to courageously do our best to serve God and help others!
I have trust in God who called us to this challenge. I have confidence in you. I believe that together we can accomplish what God wants done!
God bless you.
Always remember, in life the journey is everything,
– Tim
View Articles If you’ve met Tim, you know that his life was shaped by good values that were imparted to him by his parents and he... MORE »
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