By SHANNON ROH For The Catholic Week If it was easy, it wouldn’t take so much practice! We learned at a young age that practice makes perfect, but how does this relate to stewardship and our faith?
The term practicing Catholic, reminds us that we are not perfect. We pray, go to Mass and practice our faith through the sacraments with the hope of eventually spending eternity in Heaven. Practicing good stewardship is a fundamental part of our faith as God clearly calls us to share the gifts He so generously gave us.
“As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” – 1 Peter 4:10
It is easy to say, “I don’t have time!” God gives each of us 24 precious hours each day. When we think we don’t have enough time, we probably need to look at where we spent our time. We might be surprised if we logged our daily time consumption like we would deduct money spent from our checking account. Would we consider our time well spent? Just remember that practicing our faith in time with God is priceless.
It is easy to say, “I don’t have any money to give.” Unlike time, we are all blessed with different means. That being said, we are not all called to give equally but sacrificially according to our means. Jesus makes this very clear to us in the Gospels with the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) and the story of the poor widow’s contribution (Luke 21:3-4).
It is not easy to talk about the reality that fewer people are practicing stewardship by making financial gifts to charities every year. In fact, 1,859 people who gave to Catholic Charities in 2020, have not yet made their pledge to the 2021 Catholic Charities Appeal. Thankfully, 220 new contributors answered God’s call to stewardship this year with a gift to Catholic Charities. Unfortunately, that leaves us with a decline of 1,639 donors. This is a steady trend many charitable organizations have experienced over the past 25 years. We can see stewardship practiced passionately at each ministry supported by the Catholic Charities Appeal, as they use every gift to serve the physical, mental and spiritual needs of tens of thousands of people throughout central and southern Alabama.
Practicing stewardship as a way of life is the only way to reverse this trend. “Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me’ ”– Matthew 19:21
As a good steward we can’t call it a sacrifice if our gift doesn’t hurt just a little.
— Shannon Roh is the Executive Director of the Office of Development and Stewardship for the Archdiocese of Mobile.