Good Steward Newsletter – May 2010

Reflecting on God’s Gifts With Gratitude and Joy

“Here lies the fundamental challenge that we face: to show the Church’s capacity to promote and form disciples and missionaries who respond to the calling received and to communicate everywhere, in an outpouring of gratitude and joy, the gift of the encounter with Jesus Christ. We have no other treasure but that. We have no other happiness, no other priority, but to be instruments of the Spirit of God, as Church, so that Jesus Christ may be known, followed, loved, adored, announced, and communicated to all, despite difficulties and resistances. This is the best service – his service! – that the Church has to offer people and nations.”

— (Concluding document, Fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Conferences, Aparecida, Brazil, 2007, #14)

Bishop Jaime Soto quotes this powerful passage from the 2007 Aparecida Conference as he begins his vision statement for the Diocese of Sacramento. “We have always been a missionary people called to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God.” He continues, “Our diocese’s mission statement affirms this — challenging us to be disciples who spread the Gospel by our prayer, our personal witness, our sacramental life, and all the ministries provided by our parishes, schools and other diocesan services.”

What a powerful vision — to be disciples and missionaries who respond to the encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ with gratitude and joy!

Many of us first read words like these in the U.S. bishops’ pastoral letter, Stewardship: A Disciple’s Response. Here the connection between discipleship and stewardship was clearly made: The encounter with Jesus compels us to follow him. And in following him, we learn to be grateful, accountable, generous and willing to give back to the Lord with increase. We learn to serve him with gratitude and joy — not counting the cost to ourselves.

Bishop Soto continues with a brief, but powerful, summary of his vision for the diocese he has been called to serve: “As we give thanks to God for the gifts he continues to give our local Church, we are called to meet head-on the challenges and opportunities of our time. This is my vision for the Diocese of Sacramento: We will be faithful disciples, and zealous missionaries, who bring to the world the sacramental gifts of the Kingdom of God through our prayer, teaching, and works for charity and justice.”

Can there be a more compelling summary of what it means to be faithful disciples, zealous missionaries and responsible stewards of the Church’s mission?

Pope Benedict XVI explores similar themes in his most recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth). The Holy Father views all development (personal, economic, social, political, technological) from the perspective of stewardship of God’s gifts to us. The material we have to work with – including our intellectual and spiritual gifts – has been given to us in freedom and truth by a loving God who wants us to grow to our full potential as individuals and as brothers and sisters in the one family of God.

Without God, we cannot achieve the progress that is our human vocation. Without God, our vision narrows and we forget who we are and what the goal is (to build the City of God). Without God, we forget that all is gift, and we begin to think that we are owners, instead of stewards, masters of the universe, instead of servants of the one Lord who has called us to nurture and develop his gifts wisely and well for the good of all.

In Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict offers a new insight: one of the many gifts God bestows is influence born of experience and relationships. And to those who have been given much influence in the world of politics, economics, social services, the arts or religion, much is expected in return. As stewards, we will be held accountable for using our personal and professional relationships (our influence) for the betterment of humanity and not merely for personal gain.

Interestingly, while the pope offers the new insight that influence is a gift to be developed and used for the good of all, he also warns us that “in promoting development, the Christian faith does not rely on privilege or positions of power or even on the merits of Christians… but only on Christ.” Influence is to be exercised with humility and with the awareness that everything we possess (and everything we are) has been given to us by a loving God who will hold us accountable for the development and generous sharing of all his gifts.

We are called to be faithful disciples, zealous missionaries and responsible stewards of “the sacramental gifts of the Kingdom of God” and of all the gifts and blessing we receive on a daily basis from the loving God who created and sustains us all. The Lord calls us to know him, follow him, adore him and proclaim him to the whole world, despite all the difficulties and resistance we experience. Let us respond to this call generously out of gratitude and joy.

Copyright © 2010, Daniel Conway Permission is given to copy and distribute this Good Steward Newsletter for use in religious or educational settings provided that proper attribution is given to the author. This publication may not be sold or distributed to the general public without the express permission of the author.