But when a man or a woman understands God’s overflowing goodness and generosity, and loves him for it, then faithfulness to him is easy and service to him becomes a delight in itself.  Then prayer and worship and the Sacraments give to life its inner meaning and joy, a joy which is spontaneously communicated to the world at large.  And when the time comes for them to go, it will be said of them what Abraham Lincoln hoped might be said of him: “I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow”. (3)

“Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them” (RSV Catholic edition, Matthew:25:19).  And the same will happen to each one of us.  And each of us will have to give a most exact account of what we have actually made of all the opportunities which God has given us of sharing our innermost life with him and of making the world in our home and outside it, a better and a happier place.