What giftedness have I been given, and do I use my gifts for the building up of the Kingdom of God?

St. Paul writes in today’s Second Scripture reading:  “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;  there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.  To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.”

The many gifts that come from God’s Spirit are meant for the good of all.  What gifts has God given me?  This is the question we prayerfully reflect upon on stewardship commitment Sunday.  Am I using these gifts for the building of the parish community?  What gifts has God given me?

What gifts do we use for the building of the common good of this parish community  --  like the gift of praying, singing, teaching, caring, sharing, encouraging, supporting, motivating, writing, tithing, and social  justice commitment.

Concern for others is a most beautiful giftedness.

I share the gift of priesthood with this community as generously as I am able.  All the members of our staff share their giftedness.  But if we are only a staff-driven parish, then we are a deprived and limited parish community.  As the community of the baptized, we all have gifts to share. This is the meaning of the stewardship commitment we are asking for this weekend.

Naming our giftedness is sometimes difficult to get our head around.  “Father, I come here on Sunday.  Isn’t that enough?”  Actually, in the mind of Jesus, discipleship and stewardship is more than that.  We are to show our concern for others each and every day.

Now it is true each of us  all do individual acts of caring for others.  But the point is there is so much more potential when we are a team, when we are a community, when we are a Church acting in the name of Christ Jesus.  That’s when miracles happen.  When we share the love of Jesus with others through our love for others, this is the most basic miracle.

At the wedding feast of Cana, notice Mary’s complete trust in Jesus when she simply tells the stewards:  “Do whatever what he tells you.”  With that kind of trust and faith in Jesus, the water of our human giftedness becomes the wine of God’s presence on our lives.

There are a variety of gifts God has given this faith community.  May we welcome our diversity and see in our diversity the goodness and wisdom of God.

While we know that there is a variety of gifts and the one Spirit, we are often slow to act on it.  Until a generation ago, for example, it was often said that only priests and nuns had vocations.  Until just before 1970, everything at Mass, except for bringing the cruets to the altar, was done by the priest and all the people were just “hearing Mass.”  The gifts of the baptized were being ignored.

So this reading from St Paul prompts a series of questioning:  first, each of us must ask what gifts have I given to be put in the service of our faith community; second, as a community are we using all these gifts from the variety of all the members of the church for the building of this parish community; third, let me proactive in saying the hierarchy of the Church in its rules and regulations could be more welcoming of the giftedness of all the baptized.  Yes, this is true.  However, this does not let us off the hook in our commitment to stewardship, to name our giftedness and trusting in the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

It comes to the powerful  words of Mary spoken to us and the wine stewards:  “Do whatever He tells you.”  When we name our giftedness and become stakeholders in our parish community and trust in God’s presence among us, all things are possible with God.

What is the reason for the success of our neighbors at Browncroft Community Church?  The whole parish community is involved in proclaiming the Good News of the love of Jesus to others?  Parishioners are not passive; they are active proclaimers of the love of Jesus.  How much more so with the gifts of the sacraments that are part of our part of our spiritual DNA do we need to be motivated to embrace a life of stewardship?

I guarantee you, if all of us, work together as stewards in our parish community relying on the grace of God, miracles of God’s love will abound in our midst.

I wish to conclude by expressing my gratitude to you for coming together at the table of the Lord in the mystery of the Eucharist to give thanks to the Lord our God,  and I invite in the second collection to place your stewardship commitment card in the second collection card.  If you do have your stewardship commitment with you and you have not already returned it to us, please take a couple of moments now to fill out the card.  There are extra ones in the pews.  Again, please place in the second collection. Thank you so much.