Feast of the Baptism of the Lord January 10, 2016

BAPTISM OF THE LORD 2016
FIRST SUNDAY OF STEWARDSHIP

When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan Riven by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit descended upon him and a voice from heaven spoke, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” With his Baptism, Jesus’ own mission was now to start. And so, Jesus began his public ministry. A new people of God was about to be born. By His words and by His actions, Jesus proclaimed the Good News of His teaching, His healing and his saving ministry. The Kingdom of God was to be discovered in the mission and ministry of Jesus.

On this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we reflect on our baptism as well. Yes, we too are God’s beloved sons and daughters. In Baptism we are initiated into the life of Christ. When I am privileged as a priest to say, ‘I baptize you in the name of the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,’ the baptized infant or the baptized adult becomes God’s beloved son or daughter. We are called to discipleship of the Lord Jesus.
As we reflect on our spiritual identity as the community of the baptized, we are Catholics; we are the disciples of the Lord Jesus; another way of describing our ourselves is -- we are stewards.

We are called to a life of stewardship. What is a steward? In the Book of Genesis in the creation account, we are missioned by God to be co-stewards of all of God’s creation. St Paul says we are stewards of the mysteries of God.

In our spirituality of stewardship, our basic truths are that all is a gift of God. We are the recipients of God’s unending love. Our best response to God’s love for us is gratitude. We gather to give thanks to the Lord our God. In baptism, we are called to share in the mission of Jesus; we are to witness to the love of Jesus in all we say and do.

You have received a stewardship commitment card in the mail, and we are asking you to place this stewardship commitment card in the collection next weekend -- Stewardship Commitment Sunday.

We break down our stewardship commitment into three components; stewardship of time, of talents, and of treasure.

• Stewardship of Time: This is the most important component of stewardship. Stewardship of time is our prayer life. The fact that you are present for this celebration of the Eucharist indicates your commitment to value the Eucharist in your stewardship of time. My challenge for myself and to you is to go beyond this one hour of the week. How else during the course of the week do you commit yourself to prayer? Do you as a family pray together? Do you spend some time each day to give thanks to God for the blessings of your life? What is your preferred form of prayer? Many of us, myself included, let the busyness of life keep us from valuing more the stewardship of time spent in prayer. We need to be very, very intentional about allowing even a few minutes each day to be still and to live in gratitude for the blessings of life.
• Stewardship of Talent – What commitment, what priority do you place on sharing your talents with our parish community? What responsibility do you feel in making this community a more vibrant -- in a liturgical ministry or as a catechist? There are so many ways to participate -- liturgically, as a catechist, in social outreach, in pastoral care, and in extending the welcome of the parish to one and all. I celebrated the Eucharist this past Wednesday with the students and their families in our Wednesday evening faith formation. We are grateful to the catechists who volunteer their time each week to teach and fashion our youth after the mind and heart of Jesus. This is such a beautiful example of parishioners sharing their talents to help our youth.
• Stewardship of Treasure -- As the pastor, there is no doubt that this parish isn’t just about dollars and cents. I deeply believe stewardship of time and talent are more important. On the other hand, the parish is dependent upon your financial generosity. There is no doubt about that either. A troubling issue for me quite frankly is that when we compare our Sunday collection year to date with last year’s, we are running $30,000 behind last year. For us to keep the ministries and/or to expand the ministries in our parish life, we need to increase the tithing in the Sunday collection. I personally make the pledge to increase my Sunday offering. The way I contribute is automatic withdrawal from my checking account. Last Wednesday at our state of the parish dialogue, another parishioner has committed herself to increase her tithing to the parish. My hope is we can create a momentum, among those who are able, to increase our tithing to the parish in the Sunday collection, with the automatic withdrawal a preferred method. To whom much is given, much is expected.

It is so important as we talk about the stewardship of time, talent, and treasure that we see these as three components of our spiritual life. Stewardship is how we share in the mission and ministry of Jesus. The grace of our baptism is a lifelong grace. We are the recipients of God’s unending love. We gather to give thanks for the blessings of life. In our stewardship commitment, we vow to make a difference. We are to use our giftedness for the building of the kingdom of God in the here and now. May God bless our stewardship commitment to our parish life, and may God bless our commitment to be stewards of all of God’s creation.