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 Why does it seem that we all have to learn the hard way? If one were to take a 3 year old, girl or boy matters not, and you say, "Don’t touch that" or "Don’t put that in your mouth", what is the very first thing that they do? On the other hand if you say, "Here, eat this. It’s good for you." You may as well be talking to a brick wall. Few children take your words as gospel, especially at an early age. A recent visit by my grandchildren cemented this notion forever in my mind. And don’t believe for a second that this infallible notion ends at the age of 5, or 10, or 20 for that matter. It appears that our destiny in life is to make mistakes and hopefully, learn by them. Rarely if ever, do we take the advice given and act on it in an appropriate manner the very first time. Certainly, more often than not, we have to be burned first. Personally, I blame each of these episodes on Original sin as it is the only possible explanation that makes sense to me. In order to have ourselves feel a little bit better about this personal blemish, recall that Adam and Eve had much the same stain. Wandering the countryside with every wonder ever created at their disposal, they still insisted upon the one thing they didn’t have; a stupid red apple (or so the story goes). The point is that we humans have a serious malfunction built in to our psychological makeup. All of us have shortcomings that require our constant awareness and attention. Rarely do we get it right the first time. Living the life of Stewardship is no less difficult. Our two parishes here in Hastings have been testing these uncharted waters for the past two years. We are attempting to pattern our program after that of Wichita, KS, which has proven to be very successful. One thing for sure, this is a ‘process’ to be learned, as few grasp its meaning at the outset. For the kickoff meeting this year we invited Fr. Liam Barr to speak to us about Stewardship. And, if anyone thought that this would be just another discourse on Time, Talent and Treasure, he/she would be greatly mistaken. Fr. Barr has many accolades, the least of which might be his present position as Pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Lincoln. Dean of the Lincoln Deanery and Director of the Office of Stewardship and Development for the Lincoln Diocese, Fr. Barr also serves as a current board member of the International Stewardship Council. He is also a board member of the Pontifical Irish College/Rome/US. Believe me, there is plenty more but suffice it to say that we were honored and privileged to have Fr. Barr speak to us this year. I am incapable of relaying to you Fr. Barr’s complete message. However, there are a couple of things that I can say for sure, the first of which might be, "Most of us have it all wrong". By Fr. Barr’s own admission, it was only after he read through "Stewardship, ADisciple’s Response" that he too understood its correct meaning. This discourse by the American bishops might well be the bible for Stewardship living. Simply said but difficult to bring about, serving others first is the ission of being a good steward. Caring for others in front of ourselves is the meat and potatoes of Stewardship living. Most of us error when we conger up the notion that Stewarship has everything to do with Treasure and very little to do with Time and Talent. What we don’t see is that being good stewards will never work in that fashion. It only works when Time and Talent precedes it. Treasure will follow when we put ample Time and Talent into the life of Stewardship. An interesting statistic as stated by Fr. Barr was the number of registered members in his congregation that regularly attend Sunday Mass. He stated that 55% of his congregation attends Mass regularly. In Wichita that number is 85%. Why the great disparity? What is your parish percentage? Last Sunday we distributed our Stewardship packages for this year. 44% of the registered members of St. Cecilia’s parish picked theirs up; 30% of all St. Michael’s members were given theirs. Where in the world were our remaining parishioners last weekend? Getting stewardship right takes time. Fr. Barr recognized this fact as did the Diocese of Wichita. They are well past their 20th year. There appears to be no magic shortcuts, no easy way. Treasure will come when Time and Talent precedes it. It’s a journey, not a trip. |
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