Passionate Steward - 10th Anniversary Edition

Recovering Christian Stewardship from Secular Fundraising 37
Through our membership in the Communion of Saints, and
our participation in a living tradition, we all share in the
responsibility for the suffering such sin has caused in the past.
Likewise, we are members of a Church where sin exists now, and
we therefore live in need of continual repentance and reconciliation.
The sad truth is that many of these events, past and present, have
sometimes discouraged even the most devoted of Christians from
generosity to the Church, and provided yet others convenient and
ample excuse for withholding their time, talent and treasure. While
at times such protest proceeds from a genuine sense of hurt and
anguish, the refusal to continue as good stewards, withholding gifts
of appreciation for God’s bounty, frequently stems from another,
ulterior, motive—namely, the desire for political or social gain.
How shall we get past our disappointment, and even
disillusionment, with the Church? Clearly, such events have had a
deleterious impact on how we fulfill our vocation as Christian
stewards. Paradoxical though it may seem, however, it is no
contradiction to assert that the Church can be holy while its sons and
daughters are sinful. Indeed, this very reality is a mystery at the core
of our faith, which challenges us to come to terms with, and realize,
the highest ideals and truths of Christ’s message of love and salvation.
We are a Church of mercy and reconciliation: we exist
because sin exists, and because God in his mercy chose to make
sinful humanity the theatre of redemption. No matter how frequent
or how horrible our sins may be, we are called as followers of Christ
not only to forgive, but even to seek out those who have sinned
against us in order to reconcile ourselves to them, and therefore
mutually to God: “There can be no aspiration to divine sonship in
Jesus unless there is love for one’s neighbor” (cf. Mk 12:29–31; Mt
22:37–38; Lk 10:27–28). 21 If this is true of our personal
relationships, it is especially true of our relationship with the
21 International Theological Commission, Memory and Reconciliation, 2.2.