My trusty Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines stewardship as the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care. You've heard the word "stewardship" for a few years now. At most of the Masses this weekend, you'll hear our beloved deacons speaking about stewardship and the commitments you and I are called to make in the Lord and for the health of our parish. What is this "stewardship" all about? What has this "management" to do with our faith? Our discipleship? Our Catholic Church? Look to that definition again and ask yourself this: What are we entrusted with? And by whom? How are we to be careful and responsible with this "something" that has been entrusted to us?First of all, we must understand that life itself is pure gift. Each of us breathing today does so by the grace of God. We have not "earned" life. We do not "own" life. We have been given life by the giver of all that is good, and we have been asked to protect the gift carefully, responsibly. Life itself is entrusted to us as a sacred blessing, from the moment of conception to the last breath of natural life.
Though we have been given life as a precious and sacred gift, think about the many ways our human race has misused and abused the gift... in the way we have misused our own life... in the way we have "used" the lives of others for our own end. If we are honest with one another, we each must report that we have not been careful and responsible stewards of all that has been given to us... the gift of life, the blessing of this good earth.
But the giver of the gifts desired our good, desired the healing of creation. So in the fullness of time, the Invisible God, the Creator and giver of the gifts, sent us a remedy for our ills, a light for our darkness. In the fullness of time, a Savior was born to us. If we seek to live again the innocent joys of creation, our "work" is to dedicate ourselves... to discipline ourselves... to live according to this Light, this Savior.
Stewardship... in managing carefully and responsibly the gifts given... is another name for discipleship... for the following of the Way of Jesus... our new way of being fully human. Stewardship is the following of the Lord Jesus in community, knowing that it is the Lord's own will that all be brought into the fellowship of His love. How do we care for the gifts given us, brought about through the passion of the Lord Jesus? We live his life here and now, by living for one another, by offering our time and our talents for the good of others and the glory of God; and as we live the new Way of life, as we live within the simple joy of doing what is right, we bring renewal and joy to one another.
To follow the Way of the Lord is to l ive a disciplined life, according to the will of God. In this, in following the word and example of Jesus of Nazareth, we serve as good stewards. Regarding the gift of our time we hope to offer and the gift of our talents we hope to share, the Lord Jesus says I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him (or her) will bear much fruit (John 15.5).
To give of your time and your talents for love, in obedience to the Lord, brings such joy! Let us begin again, seeking to live the gift of life... abundantly!
AMDG
Msgr. David Talley
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