Catholic Stewardship: Sharing God's Gifts

by Colleen Smith

How have you used your talents, your opportunities, the light poured round you, the warnings given you, the grace inspired in you?--Ven. John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

Catholics frequently want to know what stewardship is — precisely. They hear the word, but can’t get past a vague and nebulous notion of stewardship. And because the spirituality of stewardship is so expansive and inclusive, a definition can be difficult to nail down.

In the late 1960s, as the very first reforms of the Second Vatican Council were shaking out — and shaking up — Catholic parishes around the world, I wore my St. Joseph School plaid, pleated jumper proudly and sang loudly in the student choir at Mass. One of the folky, rather hip songs we sang centered on an appealing melody and — for the times — a progressive lyric that still remains in my memory:

It only takes a spark to get a fire going.

And soon all those around will warm up in its glowing.

That’s how it is with God’s love:

Once you’ve experienced it,

You spread his love to everyone.

You want to pass it on.

For me, that song captures the concept as well as I’m able. Christian stewardship is passing on God’s love — understanding God’s love as manifest in every breath, birth to death, and everything sandwiched in between: all of creation, our families, our aptitudes, our talents, our treasures temporal and spiritual, everything.

My personal understanding of stewardship also plays on the word itself. Forgive me if this notion strikes you as simple, but I can’t help but think of stewardship somewhat literally — as a ship, a seaworthy vessel, that will carry us stewards to blessed new shores. In ancient times, iconographers used the ship to symbolize pilgrimage. Stewardship is just that: a pilgrimage. Fully lived, stewardship leads us along a journey with stops in holy places we might never have imagined. Like every pilgrimage, the travels change us, alter our very core in ways mysterious and gratifying. And like any pilgrimage, stewardship begins with but a single step. So, take that step now. Turn the page. Then another. As you embark upon the pilgrimage of Christian stewardship, you just might change the course of your very life — and not only that, but the lives of those around you, as well.

Pass it on!