Stewardship Reflection: Going the Extra Mile

Stewardship is about deep transformation. It is about getting people excited to offer their time, talent and treasure to make parishes — and the archdiocese as a whole — more vibrant.

But sometimes we have problems thinking about stewardship. To help with this, the Office of Formation for Discipleship has created a resource with stewardship reflections. The resource provides a stewardship reflection every week based on that weekend’s readings. You can find documents with reflections for lectionary cycles A, B and C here (we are currently in year A). Both long and short reflections are provided for parishes that would like to include these in their bulletin.

Readings:

1st Reading: Sirach 15.15-20
2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 2.6-10
Gospel: Matthew 5.17-37 – Various Teachings of Jesus

Going the Extra Mile

In today’s Gospel we hear some of Jesus’ bold proclamations to the people of Israel which are still applicable to us 2000 years later. Jesus says “You have heard what was said to those of ancient times … but I say to you…” He challenges his followers to go above and beyond their limits of charity and to not settle for their old previous notions of what it meant to love.

This is an important lesson for us as stewards who strive to follow Christ and serve Him and the Church. We should not just offer our gifts to our parish community in a mediocre way, but strive to do so as generously as possible. Cardinal Collins in his Pastoral Letter on Stewardship* says that “as good stewards, we are meant to use God’s gift fruitfully and creatively, so that with true gratitude for what we have received we may return God’s gifts to Him with increase.” The key word in the Cardinal’s exhortation is “increase.”

How often do we go the extra mile in our sharing of our time and talent? How often do we surpass our comfortable notions of how much we want to love? Jesus is asking all of His stewards to give of themselves generously. Perhaps we can try to take a little more time this week for prayer and commit more wholeheartedly to the ministries we are involved in. Let us always strive to be better and remember the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who said, “You were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.”

Summary

In today’s Gospel Jesus boldly says “You have heard what was said to those of ancient times … but I say to you…” He challenges his followers to go above and beyond their limits of charity and to not settle for their old previous notions of what it meant to love. As stewards we should not just offer our gifts of our time and talents to our parish community in a mediocre way, but strive to do so as generously as possible. * Thomas Cardinal Collins, Pastoral Letter on Steward