Fr. Michael Troha

Everyone loves springtime. The official start of Spring is less than a week away, but the weather is already getting warmer and beautiful flowers are beginning to bloom all around us.

But anyone with a beautiful garden will attest to the fact that the flowers do not magically appear as if the change in season itself miraculously makes the flowers bloom. Beautiful flowers and lush gardens are the result of hard work by the gardener.

Imagine a man is given some flower seeds. The man then buries the seeds in the ground and leaves them on their own. As the months pass and rain falls, some seeds may receive enough nourishment to bloom. But simply burying seeds in the ground will hardly make for a gorgeous garden. Rather, if the man truly wants to enjoy many beautiful flowers, there is much care and work ahead. Recognizing the hidden beauty within these simple seeds, he must cultivate the ground, plant the seeds in a solid foundation and water and fertilize them throughout the year. Only then will he see the proper fruit these seeds were made to bear.

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On May 1, 2005, the gas pumps were shut down. Not at the local filling station, but right here at my parish of Immaculate Conception in Ohio. That was the day we began to put into practice stewardship as a way of life here in our parish.

What does living stewardship have to do with gas pumps?

Gas pumps are a metaphor for the way that some people look at their Catholic parish. What this means is that you look at your parish the way that you look at the local Speedway or Shell station. You need gas, and so you go to the nearest or most convenient gas station to get your gas.

Is this image appropriate for a parish? What does your parish mean to you? Is it simply a place to go on the weekend to fulfill your obligation to attend Mass? Or is it simply a place you go to when you have a need for a baptism, wedding or funeral? Or when you don’t like something about your parish, do you go somewhere else that has “better service” or gives you “better discounts” like a gas station would? If this is all that your parish means to you, then I guess you do look upon your parish as a set of gas pumps. 

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The first time I ever bought anyone a Christmas present was when I was in the first grade. As Christmas was approaching, I asked my mother if I could have one dollar to buy someone a present. She gave me the dollar, even though I could tell that she was a bit suspicious about what I was going to do with the money. I went off to the corner drug store and bought a bright blue ballpoint pen for 79 cents. When I returned home, I gave my mother the change from the dollar and took my precious gift up to the bedroom where I could properly wrap it.

On Christmas Eve, my mother opened up a small and not too neatly wrapped object to discover the bright blue ballpoint pen. I was wondering just what her reaction would be upon opening the present. She broke out into a huge smile and thanked me for such a nice Christmas present.

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Advent is just a few short weeks away, and soon we will be celebrating the Christmas Season, although the commercial Christmas season will begin the day after Thanksgiving. In fact, for many retail outlets, the commercial Christmas season is already underway. Many stores couldn’t wait to put away the Halloween merchandise and replace it with Christmas displays, and many of us are already thinking about Christmas lists and shopping.

As we approach Thanksgiving and Advent, our focus, however, ought to be on preparing for the birth of Jesus Christ. The interplay between the commercial aspects of the season and the spiritual aspects of Advent and Christmas show us how important it is to be grounded in a stewardship way of life. Virtue stands in the middle, and in this context, somewhere between Santa Claus and Scrooge. Living a stewardship way of life helps us to keep our focus on the birth of Christ.

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For many stewardship parishes around the country, including my own parish — Immaculate Conception in Willoughby, Ohio — October is one of the busiest months of the year, as it is the month of the Annual Renewal. The renewal is another invitation to continue to follow Christ in a committed way.

Many Catholics still do not have a clear understanding of what it means to live stewardship as a way of life. I say this because, each year, when we conduct our renewal, I get complaints from people who say that all of this talk about stewardship is just about money or getting volunteers, and doesn’t have anything to do with God. Such complaints reveal a lack of understanding.

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