On Christian Stewardship

photo by jay fonacier

A short talk delivered to the staff of Social Action Center of the Diocese of Legazpi

I know this is not the first time you have heard the word "stewardship." This is one of the catch phrases often used and sometimes misued or even abused in the Church. Various leaders like the Pope, bishops, priests, lay leaders, charismatic speakers, and the like use this to describe Christian service. Even leaders from other sectors like in the government use this term. There are many shades of meaning to the word "stewardship" and "steward" and let us try to examine them.

Stewardship is often defined as "the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care." Hence, a steward is a person whose responsibility is to take care of all that has been entrusted to him or her.

A steward can be a caretaker, i.e. entrusted with something to take care of. A steward can also be a manager, who is tasked to ensure the proper functioning of a group or a system. It can also refer to a custodian or someone who has direct care and management of material things. It can also mean an agent, an ambassador, even a warden for prisoners or a guardian for minors.

In all these, we see the richness of meaning to what a steward is but these words cannot fully grasp what it means to be a steward. A caretaker can run away from responsibility. A manager can be impersonal to its subjects. A custodian can perceive what is entrusted to him as merely an object of duty or responsibility. Other terms can be too self-serving, too political, or even too personal.

One of the renowned gospel passages often associated with stewardship is the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). We all know the story: a master, before leaving to travel, entrusted his property to his servants in varying amounts of talents - the first received five talents, the second had two, while the last had just one. Upon his return, the master asks for an accounting of the talents entrusted to them: the first and second doubled the talents entrusted to them while the third one didn't gain any as he dug a hole in the ground to keep his master's money. The master invited the first two to "come and share in your master's joy" while the third one was called a "wicked and lazy servant", the talent entrusted to him was taken away and given to the one with ten, and was punished for his lack of care to the talent. One of the concluding lines of the parable presents its core lesson: "For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." (Matthew 25:29)

photo by jay fonacier

From this parable, we can see three essential elements of Christian Stewardship: God's ownership, an invitation to the steward to be a partner or co-creator, and the spirit of trust that prevails in the relationship between the owner and the steward. 

God's ownership. Stewards are entrusted to care or manage the resources that do not belong to the steward. Faithful stewards manage the resources not for themselves, but for the purposes of the one who has entrusted them. Hence, Christian Stewardship respects the purpose for which things were made. Christian stewardship is a way of living in which we recognize that everything belongs to God. Part of our stewardship struggle is that we think we "own" all those things that surround us when, in truth, we are simply stewards of the things entrusted to us.All resources must be used for His glory and the common good.

Invitation to be a partner or co-creator. In Christian stewardship, God entrusts the creation to the people. God did not expect only one person to be the steward of all creation. Rather, He blessed Adam and Eve and made them fruitful. Every person contributes to the well-being of society. Collectively, we are stewards of the earth. Such requires us to find ways in which we can collaborate with others to make the resources, talents, gifts in our possession work for the good of all as intended by God. We are then invited to be partners of God's work, to continue his creative action as a co-creator in ensuring the good of every human person.

Trust. The essential idea of stewardship is trust. As stewards, we are the servants of the Lord, entrusted to manage God’s resources for God’s purposes. The owner trusts the steward to carry on the task he asked him to fulfill. As such, Christian stewardship is our faithful response to the generosity of Almighty God’s love towards us, by way of us committing out time, talent, resources, abilities, care and treasure/money to the mission and ministry entrusted to us. We are created and called, not to be served but to serve, to give ourselves to the world, for the glory of God, just as Jesus gave himself.

 photo by jay fonacier

We may think that stewardship is just about money, time and talents. But Christian stewardship is more than these. It involves our whole life: everything that God has entrusted to us to manage as faithful stewards. As stewards, we give everything and not just a part of us. We do not only give the surplus but we give "our all" for God's greater glory. Stewardship is not limited to talents, abilities and caring. It is even beyond keeping or caring and nurturing, it is first of all "living." Stewardship is not just part of life; rather it is a way of life! Stewardship is not what we have or what we give, but who we are!

photo by jay fonacier

One of the catchphrases we had in our Social Action Internship program is "May kuwento ang kuwenta." In his input to our group, Fr. Jovic Lobrigo explained to us the importance of transparency and accountability even in the smallest of things. "May kuwento ang kuwenta. Nagkakaroon lang ng kuwenta ang kinukuwenta kung kinekuwento ito." In a way that catchphrase capsulizes what stewardship is for us who are pursuing the vocation to the priesthood. We are given much and much is expected from us, and we keep in mind that what is given to us is merely entrusted to us, not for ourselves but to the people whom we are called to love and serve.