FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
4 FEBRUARY 2024
Today,
Saint Mark gives us a snapshot into the daily mission of Jesus in Galilee. He preaches the Good News and proclaims the
coming of the Kingdom of God. He grasps
the hand of Simon’s mother-in-law and heals her. In gratitude, she becomes a humble
servant. After sunset, Jesus drives out
demons, demonstrating his power to bring people out of darkness into the bright
light of the Kingdom of God. Instead of
looking for praise, he goes off by himself to spend time in prayer. Responding to Simon’s invitation, he moves to
the nearby villages to continue his preaching and driving out demons.
This
snapshot gives us an insight into how disciples can embrace stewardship as a
way of life. In response to the gift of
the Kingdom of God, we commit ourselves to be humble servants, as Simon’s
mother-in-law does. We will renew our
commitment to stewardship of service during the Easter Season. We take time to enter into the stewardship of
prayer, which we renewed at Advent.
Today, all of us are invited to renew our stewardship of sacrificial
giving. Saint Paul makes a sacrificial
gift of preaching the Gospel to the Corinthians free of charge. We are invited to take a close look at the
financial blessings we have received from God and commit ourselves to giving a
first and generous portion back to God.
Please read
the materials in your stewardship of sacrificial giving packet. Pray over your decision to make a commitment
for one year. Please listen to Tim Will,
who will talk about his commitment to sacrificial giving as a way of expressing
his family’s profound gratitude to God.
My wife Lindsay and I moved to Granger and joined the Saint
Pius X community in March of 2014 when our oldest son James was 10 months old.
On Monday we closed on our house. On Wednesday, we bought a new car. And on
Friday, we found out we were expecting our second child, June.
I like to joke that it was the most exciting (and expensive)
week of our lives.
Over the last 10 years our family has grown to include four
more children (Jonathan, JT, Jack, and Josie) and each year we have been
called—just like every other member of Saint Pius—to embrace Stewardship as a
way of life by committing ourselves to prayer, service, and sacrificial giving.
Every night when we sit down for dinner, we make an effort
to go around and play “High-Low-Buffalo” where everyone talks about our “High”
(best part of the day), “Low” (a not-so-good part of the day), and our
“Buffalo” (a surprising part of the day).
I can’t help but notice so many of the conversations that
flow from this one simple prompt revolve around this place—Saint Pius—and so
many of the wonderful ways the Parish community has wrapped its proverbial arms
around our family.
From our 5-year old JT telling us that the best part of his
day at the Little Lions preschool was going to Atrium for religion class, or
7-year old Jonathan saying the high point of his Sunday was helping to set up
the placemats for the Knights of Columbus Pancake Breakfast, or Lindsay sharing
about how she met a new mom friend at Kids of the Kingdom—it’s so evident to me
how Saint Pius has blessed and impacted our family in so many positive ways.
Thinking about that—even right now—fills me with an immense
sense of gratitude for this place, and all of the good our Parish community is
trying to accomplish through our different initiatives, ministries, and
outreach programs.
When we approach Sacrificial Giving from this sense of
gratitude, rather than one of sheer responsibility or duty, it transforms our
commitment from something that we feel like we “have to” do every year into
something that we “get to” do to sustain our mission so that multitudes of
other people— such as those in our local community, our sister parish of St.
Adalbert’s, and the families of Fr. Larry’s parish in Uganda—can experience
that same sense of Christian community that we are blessed to have here at
Saint Pius.
And so I’d just like to offer this in closing. Before you
pick up your Stewardship of Sacrificial Giving Commitment Form this year, take
a moment to do a brief mental inventory of all the people, events, and graces
that have filled your life—both directly and indirectly—because of Saint Pius.
Then, with gratitude at the forefront of your mind and a
fresh realization that all of those good things come from God, complete your
commitment for this year.
I’m confident it will transform your experience. It
certainly has for our family.
Thank you for your time today, and for your continued
generosity toward our Saint Pius community.
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