Author’s note: This is the third column of three about the total nature of stewardship. It is a letter I have shared with seminarians and newly ordained priests over the past eight years. You may notice some themes repeated from past columns, and you are likely to see them again in future columns.
Jesus commands us, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22: 39). He doesn’t suggest; He commands us. St. James tells us, “faith, of itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2: 17). The message suddenly becomes very, very clear that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and that means we must actually do something about it. Prayer is the most powerful action we can enter into when giving to our neighbor. What greater action could be undertaken than asking our Creator to intercede on behalf of one’s neighbor?
St. Ignatius of Loyola gives us some very good instruction in how we can have faith and action through prayer in “The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.” First, he exhorts us to commit ourselves to God in totality through prayer when he says we are “…to ask for an intimate knowledge of the many blessings received, that filled with the gratitude for all, I may in all things love and serve the Divine Majesty”(Contemplation to Gain Love, Second Prelude).
But getting all we want, including what we want for our neighbor, does not happen unless we give all we are. Ignatius’ Suscipe says:
“Take, Lord, and accept all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, my entire will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O Lord, I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and Thy grace for this is sufficient for me” (Contemplation to Gain Love, First Point).
All. All. All. It resounds through the Gospels and the writings of the Saints. The greatest, most powerful of the “All” statements is the one made by our Lord when he was asked which commandment was most important. Without hesitation, Jesus, the Son of God, the Word Made Flesh, makes it abundantly clear that we shall “…Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).
We love the Lord with all we are. We give to God all that is His. God, in his abundance, gives us more.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16).
His only Son; All; Abundance; More than we can imagine. This is our God, generous beyond all measure. Generous beyond our ability to imagine. He gives us everything, and he commands it all back.
Yet we react to God’s command with ambiguity. We are a stingy people, and this plays out in how we choose to respond to God’s commands. In one box we place the things that we believe are ours, and in a separate box we place the leftovers for God. Stewardship, however, requires one box, to which we give and from which we receive.
Stewardship transcends our ambiguity. God’s generosity transcends our stingy nature. He continues to give even when we continue to clutch what we believe is rightfully ours with a fierceness that is out of proportion to the command of our Maker. We do not realize that when we release our grip, when we give all that we have without pause, that God gives back to us in abundance; more than we could possibly imagine.
That is our challenge: To bring to God’s people the Good News that He is a generous God; that He will not be outdone in generosity; that He gives us all that we are and all that we have; that He commands us to give all back to Him.
Stewardship is not a program. Stewardship is a way of life. We give God our all: He gives us eternal life.
As always, thanks for reading. Write to me at [email protected].