February 9, 2014 - The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Does Stewardship Undermine Faith?

There is a striking account of King David finding disfavor in the eyes of the Lord. In the second Book of Samuel, King David made the decision to command Joab to tour the tribes of Israel and “register the people, that I may know their number” (2 Samuel 24). Joab reported back to King David that there were 1.3 million men ready to serve in battle. This accounting was incredibly displeasing to the Lord. The Lord disciplined David by requiring a choice between three alternative grievous punishments.

At this point, the reader might be thinking, “God severely punished David for the decision to count the number of men ready to be activated for battle?” It would seem that counting the number of soldiers in one’s army would be the prudent decision of a commander.

So what was it about the counting that made for such a grievous sin? David’s counting of the soldiers was a violation of faith and trust in God. In the counting of the soldiers, David moved from faith in God’s support and strength to his own self-sufficiency. He took the work into his own hands and trusted in his own resources rather than God’s providential care. Accordingly, his pride reflected the violation of faith committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

In light of the circumstances of David’s rise and fall, does the Stewardship Way of Life undermine the faith God demands of a disciple? Stewardship is about recognizing and receiving God’s gifts and part of “recognizing” is to take an account of the talents and skills that we possess. If recognizing our talents results in an attitude of self-sufficiency as it did in King David then we have truly compromised faith and we are living a pseudo type of stewardship. In such a case, we will find ourselves as those who grew up with Jesus in his native place. Jesus “was amazed at their lack of faith” and he “was not able to perform any might deed there “ (Mark 6:6).

As long as recognizing one’s talents results in receiving them with gratitude from God as a gift, Stewardship will be a way of life that brings about great victory because God will be with us in the battle of life.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam,
Fr. John F. Jirak