Prologue:

This is the thirteenth in a series of articles that will be appearing in the Sunday bulletin over the next several weeks. These articles are designed to help our parishioners understand what stewardship is all about and guide our parishioners in supporting our parish through prayer, service, and sharing.

Chapter Thirteen:  Stewards as Church

The following is taken from the fourth chapter of Stewardship a Disciple’s Response, A Pastoral Letter on Stewardship. First published in 1993, the Pastoral Letter from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops addresses Stewardship in chapters entitled the Call, Jesus’ Way, Living as a Steward, Stewards of the Church, and The Christian Steward.  The following is a summary of Stewards of the Church:

The New Covenant in and through Christ forms a community: the new People of God, the Body of Christ, the Church.  The epistle to the Ephesians exhorts Christians to “live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. (cf. Eph 4:1-6)  Because its individual members do collectively make up the Body of Christ, that body’s health and well-being are the responsibility of the members—the personal responsibility of each of us.  Those who set their hearts upon spiritual gifts must “seek to have an abundance for building up the Church.” (cf. 1 Cor 14:12)  How is this Church built up?  There are many answers to this question, but the overarching answer is “through the personal participation in and support of the Church’s mission of proclaiming and teaching, serving and sanctifying.  This participation takes different forms according to people’s gifts and positions, but there is a fundamental obligation arising from baptism that the people place their gifts, there resources, their selves at God’s service in and through the Church

In various ways, stewardship of the Church leads people to: share in the work of evangelization or proclaiming the good news; in the work of catechesis or transmitting and strengthening the faith; and in works of justice and mercy on behalf of persons in need.  Stewardship requires support for the Church’s institutions and programs for these purposes.  But according to their opportunities and circumstances, members of the Church also should engage in such activities personally and on their own initiative.  Every member of the Church is called to evangelize and the practice of authentic Christian stewardship inevitably leads to evangelization.

While the unity arising from the covenant assumes and requires human solidarity, it also goes beyond it, producing spiritual fruit insofar as it is founded on union with the Lord.  “I am the vine, you are the branches,” Jesus says.  “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.” (Jn 15:5)  In this world solidarity encounters many obstacles.  It is essential that disciples do what can be done to remove them.

The Eucharist is the great sign and agent of this expansive communion of charity.  Christian stewards live to mirror the stewardship of Jesus Christ, who gave and still gives all he has and is, in order to be faithful to God’s will and carry through to completion his redemptive stewardship of human being and their world.  (To be continued next week….)  [Top]