A CALL FOR THE SPIRITUALITY OF STEWARDSHIP (February 23, 2008) By Archbishop Angel Lagdameo

Let me start my talk with an introduction that does not apply. You will have to reflect how it applies. This is a story by Benjamin Hawk. A Hindu, a rabbi and a critic were caught in a thunderstorm. They took shelter in a farmers house with only one room enough for two. So the other must sleep in the barn. The Hindu volunteered to sleep in the barn. Later, he knocked and said, sorry theres a cow in the barn. My religion says cows are sacred. I must not intrude. So the rabbi volunteered to sleep in the barn. Later, he knocks and said, theres a pig in the barn. I would not feel comfortable sharing sleeping quarters with a pig. So, the critic said, Ok, no problem. Ill go sleep in the barn. A few minutes later, theres a knock at the door. It was the cow and the pig. They were not able to sleep with the critic. What is the lesson? The lesson is we cant let our fear of critics hold us back from risking sensitivity to others. Thats just to entertain you. Dont you know that there are three prophecies, dark prophecies of the future, symbolized by three images. The first image of the dark prophecy of the future is the ostrich. Have you seen an ostrich - sticking its head in the sand, hiding its head in the sand in order to avoid the problem. That is the dark prophecy the image of the ostrich, unwilling to face the problem. The second image is the lame duck. The lame duck is the image of prolonged transition. responding to all problems, responding to all suggestions, responding to all people, satisfying none. The third image of the prophecy of the future, this to be avoided as the first two, is the Icarus. Icarus rides on the wave of popular support; he rides on the wave of noble intentions, embarking in huge and unsustainable public spending program which crushes the economy. I am talking about the images of the dark prophecy of the future. But theres a fourth bright vision of the future which we can work toward. This is called the flight of the flamingos. The flamingo is a kind of bird, a long legged bird. The way the flamingos fly, they fly all together but they take lead in order. When the leader gets weaker and tired, it slows down and gets to the last and the next one takes the lead. If one somewhere in the middle gets tired or is wounded, it slows

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down and the other flamingos take over. Transition of leadership is successful because all the building blocks are put in place with everyone in the society rising slowly, rising together. I have given you four prophecies. We hope that we can take note of that. The subject matter I am given is the ethics of stewardship. Probably ethics may be a little bit difficult to understand but they call it now spirituality of stewardship. Carl Runner many years ago had said, I think that a spirituality of the future, the

element of spirituality of the future is the element of fraternal, spiritual communion, of a spirituality that is lived together. This can play a more decisive role and that slowly but surely, we must continue in that direction. The spirituality that is lived together this spirituality of fraternal communion. There are three parts in my talk. Since I have given disconnected

introductions already, I will go right into the heart of my talk. It is actually divided into three parts. Number 1- We are stewards of time. No matter how many clocks we have, we do not completely own our time. In fact your time is very much controlled by the bell. During these three days, we are very much controlled by the bell. Yet the bell puts everything in order. We find ourselves in the same place at one time. Our life is measured by time. We possess neither our life nor our time. We have our free will, yes, but one can not put our life and our time under our shared will. The best expression of control over our time and our life is in the prayer. Can you guess what that prayer is that controls our life and our time? We pray it everyday. Thy will be done. Thy will be done in my life, in my time. There are seven days of the week and all these seven days are divine days. They were given to us by the Lord. They all belong to the Lord from Monday to Sunday. Even if He allows us to work six days a week and claim only one day for Himself, still those six days of work are Gods days - from Monday to Saturday. We appreciate time usually when it is already past. See sometimes in our

conversation and discussion how we reminisce the past and how we appreciate the past. Sometimes we catch ourselves saying, we have no more time, sayang. That is

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also how friends bid goodbye to one another. They bid goodbye seven times from the kitchen to the door. The bidding of goodbye sometimes takes another hour. Stewardship of time leads us to ask and this might be the question we ask ourselves during the reflection. How do I spend, manage, and administer my time? Remember we are given only 24 hours. How is each day spent? How de we

prioritize our time? This will reveal our motives and intentions. A review of our time, how we spend it, will betray who we are. Do not differentiate anymore between time spent for the Lord and time spent for people. Do not differentiate that way because time well spent for people is also time well spent for God. Sharing true service is time spent for God. Of course in this spirituality of stewardship we have an obligation to be thankful for the gift of time by giving a portion of our time to God. That is actually what we are trying to do here. We have one holy hour in the morning as if the succeeding hours can not become holy, but one holy hour in worship and prayer. When God took the seventh day and made it holy for Him, He did not mean that it is a special day because it belongs exclusively to God. That is why Sunday is called the Lords day. But how we spend Sunday, I hope it is not whole day malling, will show our stewardship of time. I go now to the second point. We are stewards of our talents. As I said, this has been foreseen already in my conference talk yesterday and my homily this morning. What does St. Peter say, As generous distributors of Gods manifold grace, put your gifts in the service of one another but in the measure you have received. The best way to spend our talents for God is to use our talents for the good of the people. Someone said, I sought my soul, it was not there; I sought my God, He was not there; I sought my brother and I found all three God, myself and my brother. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we have this quotation about lay people: By reason of their special vocation, it belongs to the lay faithful to seek the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing these temporal affairs according to the will of God. It pertains to them in a special way so to illumine and order all temporal things which they are closely associated, that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and may be to the glory of God, the Creator.

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All our personal talents, personal skills, expertise are blessings of God. They are Gods gifts to us. How we use them is our gift to God. We do not possess them as if they are exclusively ours. Our talents must be shared or participated with others who have similar or have none of it. Imagine how this great event that we have, the inter district conference that we have how many people have been involved here and each one only contributing what he might even say a little but when you combine all the little, it becomes a great event that many of us are happy to be engaged in. Participation is the necessary and generous engagement of a people in social inter-change. It is necessary that all participate each according to his position and role in promoting the common good. This obligation is inherent in the dignity of the human person. Participation is achieved, first of all, by taking charge of the areas for which one assumes personal responsibility. By the care taken for the education of his family, by conscientious work and so forth, man participates in the good of others and in the good of society. The talents that each one of us has received must be used to worship and honor God directly or indirectly through the wise use of them to permeate social, political, economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life for the good of the Church and society. The welfare of people becomes a measure of our good use of our talents. People are more important than things. You can go on with your reflection on this but I have to go to the third point. The third is we are stewards of treasures treasures of the earth, natural resources, our environment, other peoples money and even our own money, the air conditioner in our room where it says, when not in use, when you are not in the room, put it off. Very simple. Again what is the purpose of treasures? St. Peter writes and you will find this 1 Peter 4:10 Like good stewards of the manifold graces of God, serve one another with whatever gifts each of you has received. St. Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 4:7, What do you have that you have not received? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? examination of our consciousness. Money as such is not evil. They usually say, money is the root of evil but we also need roots. How much good can be done with money; and how much evil also? St. Paul says, The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. In their eagerness to Spirituality of Stewardship by Abp Angel Lagdameo, February 23, 2008 Page 4 of 9 This leads us to reflect, to an

be rich, some have wandered away from the faith and they pierced themselves with many pains. You can find this in 1 Timothy 6:10. Love of money is a form of idolatry. And since our heart must cling only to God as a wife clings to her husband, so love of wealth is also a form of adultery because the command is love God above all as husband and wife love each other. Jesus says, No slave can serve two masters for a slave will either hate one and love the other and be devoted to one and despise the other. You can not serve God and money. It is a choice between the creator and the creature. Jesus again says, None of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all his possessions. I think we read something like that yesterday from St .Mark. This time, it is found in St. Luke 14:33. The best renunciation is to use these for the good of others, all of it for the good of others. Well, they all belong to God. Understanding our needs, our

humanity, God in the Old Testament made a rule. He said, (How generous the Lord is!) give me at least 10 per cent. But since I have no need of that 10 per cent give it to charity. That is the rule the Lord made. It has come to be called tithe or tithing. And it has become a law for Israel, a law which says in Leviticus 27:30 all tithes of the land, whether in grain from the field or in the fruit from the trees, they belong to the Lord and all these tithes are sacred to Him. I remember in my hometown in Lucban when I was a child, after the harvest season, they just pour their tithes of palay in front of the image of San Isidro. They just pile in front of San Isidro. Of course we do not see that now. But they tried to live it literally during the harvest season. Part of the harvest is given to God, given to the priests. While giving 10 per cent is the law, the greater principle or value is generosity, not the 10 per cent. As Sirach 35:9 would say, Give to the Most High as He has given to you, generously according to your means. Of course, in our Christian

tradition, we know that religious sisters, religious priests live that literally because when they enter religious life and before their solemn profession they would give up their inheritance. Using it well is actually honoring God. We honor God by using our treasures well. The spiritual principle of stewardship links our priority upon the primacy of God as our Creator. Remember the title of God over us. He has a title as Creator, Spirituality of Stewardship by Abp Angel Lagdameo, February 23, 2008 Page 5 of 9

Redeemer and Sanctifier. Only God has the right to possess us. Sad to say, people not only possess treasures; their treasures instead possess them. As we examine our stewardship of our time, talent, and treasure, we reach the core of the Christian message. The spirituality of stewardship is deeply rooted in the values of our These are the foundations of the demand of and truthfulness in stewardship.

identity, trust, gratitude and love. fairness, justice, honesty,

accountability

Stewardship of time and treasure is founded in our Christian identity as created in the image and likeness of God. We are created by God and for God. We are not our own. We belong to God. St Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God and that you are not your own, for you had been purchased at a price. You sacrifice things for people, not vice versa. You dont sacrifice unborn babies for the sake of development. You dont sacrifice the poor for the sake of development. Another basis of the spirituality of stewardship is trust. Through the wise use of our time, talent, and treasure we prove that we are trustworthy servants and stewards. In the end, we will be required to give an accounting of all God has entrusted to us and this and our ending in life can be fearful if we realize in the end that we did not live trustworthily. The value of trust allows us to let go of our control in order to let God do it His way. All we do is trust and become trustworthy stewards of Gods manifold gifts. God will not only give us everything that we need. He will bring about good even from evil. From the evil that you and I suffer, He will bring about good. Try to think about that. Do you believe that? Another core value in the spirituality of stewardship, I think that was mentioned in servanthood, is gratitude. To be grateful, we must make an attitudinal shift from looking at what we do not have which others have to looking at what we have which others probably do not have. Very often we have the attitude of only seeing what we do not have and we fail to see what we already have. Thats the reason why the attitude becomes give me, give me, give me; because we do not see what we already have. To be grateful, we must appreciate our time, our talent, our treasure and what they are. They are Gods gifts, Gods graces, Gods blessings most of

which or all of which we do not deserve. God gives them because we need them. Spirituality of Stewardship by Abp Angel Lagdameo, February 23, 2008 Page 6 of 9

Just the idea of my own vocation. The story of my own vocation Ill say it very, very briefly. In 1952 I entered the San Jose Seminary first year high school.

We were 26. In 1964 when I graduated priesthood, I was the only one. All along in that 12 years, my classmates were dropping out. After first year immediately 9

dropped out so that Fr. Guarisans called us in second year, Oh my little 17 idiots but worse than that Fr. Sam Wily would call us, Hey, you shrimps because the only thing we were not doing jumping all over the place was jump out of the window. I enjoy, you see. I will look at that, just a gift of vocation. How grateful I am for it. Of course we were 8 who were ordained into the priesthood. Unfortunately in the first 5 or 8 years, 5 dropped out. All of them, I gathered, are all either professionals or college already that was why I was the only one in first year high school. So only 3 remained. Monsignor Jim Silverio of Bacolod died already, I think that was last year. And during his sickness, he would send me a call, Monsignor Angel, could you visit me, I think I am about to die already. So I cross and go to Bacolod to visit him. Then he would send me again a notice in Jaro, would you visit me again, I am about to die. So I visit him again. I think I visited him three times before he died. The third time he called me, Ay naku, Jim, hindi ka naman namamatay, e. .And that was the time that he died. The second one, poor Fr. Fidel Ramos, he fell on the stairs and broke his spinal column. Now he is in the States really bed ridden. The only thing he can move is his neck. Me, I can move my neck but it is stiff. Now I am alone to make atonement for my sins. Vocation. The more reason I have to treasure it because of the peculiar history in that development. Never mind if we are idiots. Never mind if we are shrimps. Basta pari ako. . Gratitude. You may also have a very peculiar incident to be grateful for. Recall it now. You must look at everything from the perspective of gratitude and we can bless the Lord. The last core value in stewardship is love. Everything is a manifestation of His love and His purpose for us. How we make use of them, how we share and

participate them with our brothers and sisters, to our neighbors, is our way of expressing our own love, our unity, our communion with God. In our stewardship of creation we can speak of a double unity of communion, a vertical unity of communion Spirituality of Stewardship by Abp Angel Lagdameo, February 23, 2008 Page 7 of 9

which links us with God and a horizontal unity of communion which links us with one another. So every time you line up for Holy Communion, even at the Eucharist, there is a horizontal communion, there is a vertical communion, the link with God and link with one another. That is what it is. Love God with all your heart, self and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus perfected this love when He said, love one another as I have loved you. It is a love that involves a generous sacrifice even of ones self. Adonai, adonai, el rahum wehalum erik afayem werab hessid ye emi. I do not know what I said. Yeba rekika acce leccium kalleme hai yetta. I am not scolding you. If we do not belong to ourselves because we are primarily Gods people then the things we have are not even ours. Love is a command. Charity is not optional. Charity is a requirement. We give because we live to give. God in His loving

condescension and compassion says, Ok, keep 90 per cent for yourself. Use it even though it is not yours but give me 10 per cent, give me a tithe but His must not be the left over, must not be the surplus. It must be the best portion, the first portion as they used to do in the harvest season in Lucban. The first harvest goes to the Church. In the end we come up with a challenging question. What more really does God

deserve from our love? Challenge yourself to answer that question. Let me end with a story that is really not true. When I was young, I thought that the worlds toughest problem could be solved by the worlds smartest people, And I wanted to be one of them. A story goes that an airplane was about to crash. There were four people inside the airplane the pilot, the priest, the smartest boy and a teenager or let us re-arrange it - the pilot, the priest, the teenager and the smartest boy. Anyway whichever arrangement the story will go on. I just want you to remember the four. The pilot said, I am sorry we are about to crash against the mountain. Unfortunately inside this plane we have only three parachutes so one of us will have to crash with the airplane. The pilot said, well you know I have a wife and six children. My family needs me very much. I hope you will forgive me if I take one of the parachutes and fly. I love my family. The priest said, ok, Mr. Pilot, I bless you. So the pilot with his parachute jumped to save his life. Then the smartest boy said, you know, I just received the title of being the smartest boy in our community. Who knows that I have the solution to the worlds toughest problem? Could you give Spirituality of Stewardship by Abp Angel Lagdameo, February 23, 2008 Page 8 of 9

me a chance to save myself? Without any thought of the other two he would leave behind, he just grabbed one parachute and jumped leaving the priest and the teenager. The priest said, my boy, you are still young and I am already 75 years old, already retired. I think I am already prepared to meet my God, to submit myself to God. My dear boy, take the last parachute and jump. And the teenager said, dont

worry, Father. The smartest boy just jumped with his knapsack. There are still two parachutes here, one for you and one for me. Thank you very much.

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