Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As we pass through these Sundays after Pentecost, I thought it would be good to focus on some thematic preaching. I still want to tie it to the readings, in some way, maybe only loosely, but still seeing how our faith and the Word of God are intertwined. So, I’ve decided, for the next weeks, to concentrate on the Precepts of the Church.
There are five precepts, which are described as “positive laws decreed by the pastoral authorities…meant to guarantee to the faithful the very necessary minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, int he growth in love of God and neighbor.” So these are not all there is to being Catholic, but we could call them the basic rules and expectations of membership in the institutional Church. The five (as found in the Catechism, paragraphs 2041-2043) are:
You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor;
You shall confess your sins at least once a year
You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season;
You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church
You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church
Again, there are other necessary aspects of being Catholic (belief in the revealed dogmas of faith and living revealed moral teachings, respect and obedience to legitimate ecclesiastical authority, daily prayer, etc.), but these give us a base line. Today, based upon our Gospel, I would like to focus on the last precept: you shall help to provide for the needs of the Church.
We probably naturally go to money when we think of the needs of the Church and possibly even the word stewardship. Priests are either very hesitant or very quick to talk about money. One layman joked that when a priest talks about money it can be called the Sermon on the Amount. Personally, I try to avoid talking about money unless I need to. But this one time probably won’t hurt too much (for you or for me).
Because, honestly, the people of St. Matthew are very generous. And I greatly appreciate your generosity. I believe that people give what they can, according to their financial realities. As St. Paul says, he does not want us to make ourselves poor in assisting others, but that each could have enough, based on their own situations. Some give weekly, others give monthly; some give cash or checks, others donate online with a credit card. We recently have been the beneficiary or a large bequest, which is helping to make our office renovation a reality, so some even remember St. Matthew after death. But, I’ll admit, it took me a while as a young man to consider giving to the church. In high school, even though I was working a summer maintenance job for my parish, I’m pretty sure I didn’t give anything. I didn’t make much, and that continued as a seminarian, and so I didn’t give much or anything. But, after I was ordained, I made a commitment to give at least 5% of my income to the Church (whether the parish or the Diocese or even the universal Church), which would then leave me to donate up to 5% to other organizations. And I think I’ve been pretty faithful to that. But I don’t remember being approached by anyone as a young man, to remember to give. So, for all you young adults, whether living with your parents or living on your own, here’s my plug: consider giving to the parish. Maybe it’s only a buck or two every week, but you’ll be part of supporting our great parish.
Why give? Because a steward is one who recognizes that what he has is not his. A steward uses the goods of the master, with the master’s authority. But they don’t, strictly speaking, belong to the steward. When it comes to us, everything we have, whether directly or indirectly, comes from God. The talents we use to get a good job come from God. The talents of entrepreneurs who form companies that then hire us come from God. Everything eventually gets traced back to God. And so, as part of the virtue of justice, we give back to God some of what He has given to us.
But I know that many of you are blessed with large families, and so don’t have a lot of money, even to give to the church. And that is why it’s important to note that stewardship is not only about money. It’s also about time and talent.
I have been so impressed by the donation of time and talent of parishioners here! We have groups that help clean the church, ushers who collect our paper hand missals, gardeners who help care for the flowers, catechists who help form children (sometimes their own) and adults in the faith, those who donate food for our potlucks, members of our Finance Council and Pastoral Council who help guide the future of the parish, sacristans, servers, cantors, and the list goes on and on (I do not mean to leave you out, so please don’t take offense if I did not explicitly mention your group or activity). People giving their time and talent to the parish are also a great sign of health and vitality. And it gives a way for all people, those with large incomes and those who struggle to make ends meet each week, a way to build up the Mystical Body of Christ.
And that is the real point of stewardship: that we do what we can to serve Christ. I’m not the judge of your stewardship: that belongs to the Lord, who sees not only the external gifts, but also the internal gifts, and judges justly. But we can never rest on our laurels when it comes to being good stewards. Each June I re-evaluate how I am being a good steward of what God gave me, just as each Lent I re-evaluate my beneficiaries for what I will leave behind. It’s a good thing not to view our stewardship with the perspective of fear, but in the freedom of being poor in spirit, relying on God for what we need and doing what we can to help others who are in need, to be, as St. Theresa of Avila says, the hands of God.
