Thoughts from the Cathedra

Dear Friends in Christ,

This weekend I will visit the Diocese of El Paso to give the keynote presentation at their diocesan stewardship conference. I am grateful for Bishop Mark Seitz' invitation and thought it might be nice to share a few things with you that I will share with the people of El Paso.

My talk begins with a reflection on the nature of our relationship with God. Stewardship, or what we sometimes call tithing or the Sunday collection, must always find its footing on the foundation of our relationship with God. I've often shared in homilies that the question of our lives; the question that is the basis for all questions in life and all answers to the questions of life; the question every person must ask him or herself at some point in life is: to whom to you belong, God, or the world? The answer to this question, which of course is that we are God's, is the stepping off point in our stewardship at our parish, in our diocese, and beyond Southern Arizona.

Once we acknowledge and cultivate the awareness that we are God's, then we begin to grow in our understanding that our Sunday tithe, or a gift to the Annual Catholic Appeal, or a contribution to another worthy initiative, is less an act of us giving what we own and much more of us giving what is God's. In fact, that's the very definition of the tithe - the Sunday collection. It is simply returning to God the first 10% of what we have earned in recognition that everything we achieve in life is ultimately the fruit of the gifts and talents He has entrusted to us.

When we give the first 10% of what we earn, by God's grace and our cooperation with that grace, we are actually giving God the first of our very selves. This has always been a focus of the spiritual life - to give God the first of your heart, before giving your heart to other people and other things. Matthew chapter 5 verse 8 is often translated as blessed are the single hearted. To be single hearted means that your whole heart belongs to God, rather than your heart being divided among many other people and things. When we give God our undivided heart first, then we are ready to be generous with others.

Another focus of my talk involves giving God one hour of our work week. Just as we often engage in praying a holy hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament, giving God one hour of our work week can be a version of the holy hour. This holy hour of our work focuses our labor as an ingredient of our dignity as a person. To give one hour of our work thus becomes an act of piety (reverence for God) in response to God's generous gift of dignity to each of us. In very practical terms, what does giving God one hour of your work week look like? If you earn $15 per hour, or $20 per hour, or $150 per hour, that is what you place in the basket at the Sunday collection. This act of gratitude comes to its fullest expression when the priest says out loud, "Pray with me my brothers and sisters that my sacrifice, and yours, will be made acceptable to God the Almighty Father." In this way, one holy hour of your work becomes an integral part of the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In other words, your sacrifice is joined with Christ's sacrifice.

Ultimately, the ability and willingness to give back to God, no matter the amount of the gift, reveals the greatest gift of all - that we belong not to this world, but to God. May you find great joy in your stewardship of God's Church and may your joy in giving be a true act of prayer in gratitude for God's generosity.

I'll see you in the Eucharist.