Today,
the Gospel of Mark reminds of Christ's clear-minded focus on doing
God's Will no matter the difficulties, on despising the world for the
greater treasure of the Love of the Heavenly Father, on going to the
Cross to die and then be raised. This cross is the core of our
parish's sense of stewardship.
What
is this “Stewardship” stuff we always talk about? Why do we pray
this stewardship prayer every week? Well, Stewardship is simply
a part of the concrete response of Discipleship.
We practice stewardship because we, like Peter today, say to that
man on the cross, “You are the Christ,
the Son of the Living God,” and that changes all we do. We
follow Him, even to the Cross, because His words are
life.
A
steward is someone entrusted with a treasure of some kind, and along
with that treasure they have been charged with a responsibility to
use it wisely & well.
The
Christian steward realizes that everything they have is a gift
from God, never earned even if we cooperate in producing it.
This encompasses one's entire life: whether it is time, talents &
skills, or financial “treasures.”
Today
we focus on renewing our commitment to discipleship in regards to
those worldly treasures, in “Stewardship of sacrificial giving. We
call it sacrificial giving because it returns our focus to the center
of the Gospel, the Cross, where God made the ultimate Sacrificial
Gift for our salvation. And as reconsider how we are to give to the
Lord from what we have received, please hear to Scott N.'s story.
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