Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The scripture from Ezekiel asks, “Whose way is fair?”  Good question!  And a contemporary question, too.  What’s the fair and just response to questions about immigration?  What’s the fair and just way to settle the present economic crisis?  What’s the fair resolution of competing rights in the homeless debate?

These are big issues.  How do we determine what’s fair?  Too often, what I determine to be fair is what I think is fair for me and for my needs.  Being fair and just in the Christian scheme of things calls us to offer more than a fair share to the other person, especially if the other is poor, defenseless, or oppressed.

Here to help us understand more about fair share in stewardship of talent is David Ard, new head of our Faith Formation Commission.  How much might I be willing to share?  The Lord let himself be broken, poured out, divided and emptied, taking nothing for himself and giving everything to us.

Paul A. Magnano, Pastor

Good evening. My job this evening is to talk to you about my experience of stewardship. Let's start with my standing up here talking to you as an example of stewardship. As Catholics we believe that God is working through the Church, and so when I was CCed on an email from Fr. Paul to the archdiocesan office of Faith Formation telling them to send all future updates to me, I discovered I was responsible for Faith Formation at Christ Our Hope. Then I heard that I was to give witness to my stewardship activities at all the Masses this weekend. Since a major part of stewardship is obedience, here I am. Jesus said in Luke's gospel: When you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done.”

Now I know that my activities will not necessarily look like yours. Everyone has their own life to live, and through that journey find the work God is calling them to do. I think about my stewardship in four areas of my life: my career, my family life, community service and my commitment to the parish.

I am a retired college professor of Theology. I can say that in my daily work, I was called by God to help my students develop an intellectual and spiritual grasp of God's presence and actions in creation, the people of Israel, Jesus, and the great spiritual traditions of the world. It is my prayer that every student I had benefited from my teaching and was not harmed in any way. I kept in mind what The letter of James tells us, “Not many of you should become teachers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”

As a husband and father, I made our household the primary place to be. Raising 7 kids required four adult hands, and often two cars, and so I learned how to cook as well as change diapers.

Most of my community service was related to my career. I have spent years in inter-religious dialogue with Muslims, Buddhist, Hindus and especially with our Jewish friends. However, I also volunteered at local Catholic Worker House for a few years in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and after Deacon Sam Basta asked me to join Operation Night Watch a couple of years ago, I have been doing street ministry with the homeless on Wednesday evenings.

As a teacher of religion, I had to volunteer in my parish in Iowa. My wife was the Director of Religious Education, and I could not get out of it. I mostly taught in the RCIA process and Adult Education programs, but best of all, for 5 years I taught 2^nd grade RE which prepares the little ones for first communion and reconciliation. I have also been on parish councils and various outreach committees.

But I want to tell you why I come to Christ Our Hope and volunteer. Before we moved here from Iowa 7 years ago, Deacon Sam called us and told us that this will be our parish. Again, we did what we were told. We arrived just as the parish opened. We felt deeply moved by the liturgy, and since the parish was new and small we thought we could find our community here. It takes time. After a couple of years, the parish offered the Just Faith program, and we signed up. Through that experience we became real members of the parish, not just one of those who show up and pay up, because we spent months and months taking with committed people about the most important things in our selves, our church and society.

This parish is small and always will be. But to be a beacon of light in downtown Seattle, we only need to be a single light bulb. But to be that bulb, we need to be one family, one people who pray together, who learn together, who work together, who socialize with each other. Then perhaps people will say what Jesus hopes they will say of us: Look how they love one another.

I ask you to consider your commitment to the parish as one of the most important aspects of your life. Jesus asks us to love him above all people and things, and the parish is the place to begin to show him that love. You are needed and your help is wanted.

David Ard