A young priest preached a sermon on the parable of the talents. Remember that famous story Jesus told about the faithless servant who buried his talent in the ground? Well, the priest urged his people to not do what the unfaithful servant did, but rather to place at God’s disposal the gifts and abilities with which God had endowed them.

After the service, a man came up to him and said, “Father, I am not a particularly gifted man. I really don’t feel capable of teaching in the Sunday school or canvassing for money or doing any of the other things that you talked about this morning. But I do have one talent that might be of use to the church.”

“And what is that?” asked the priest.

“Well,” said the young man, “I have the talent of criticism. I can criticize your sermons. I can criticize the choir. I can criticize everything about the church. What should I do with my talent?”

The priest thought about it for a moment, and then he said, “Bury it, son, bury it!”