The Example of Jesus
Jesus is the supreme teacher of Christian stewardship, as he is of every other aspect of Christian life; and in Jesus’ teaching and life self-emptying is fundamental. Now, it might seem that self-emptying has little to do with stewardship, but in Jesus’ case that is not so. His self-emptying is not sterile self-denial for its own sake; rather, in setting aside self, he is filled with the Father’s will, and he is fulfilled in just this way: “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work” (Jn 4:34).

Jesus’ mission is to restore to good order the created household of God which sin has disrupted. He not only perfectly accomplishes this task, but also, in calling disciples, empowers them to collaborate with him in the work of redemption for themselves and on behalf of others.

In describing the resulting way of life, Jesus does not waste time proposing lofty but unrealistic ideals; he tells his followers how they are expected to live. The Beatitudes and the rest of the Sermon on the Mount prescribe the life-style of a Christian disciple (cf. Mt 5:3-7:27). Although it does not suit worldly tastes, “the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God” (1 Cor 3:19). One does well to live in this way. “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock.… Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand” (Mt 7:24, 26).

The Image of the Steward
Jesus sometimes describes a disciple’s life in terms of stewardship (cf. Mt 25:14-30; Lk 12:42-48), not because being a steward is the whole of it but because this role sheds a certain light on it. An oikollomos or steward is one to whom the owner of a household turns over responsibility for caring for the property, managing affairs, making resources yield as much as possible, and sharing the resources with others. The position involves trust and accountability.

A parable near the end of Matthew’s gospel (cf. Mt 25:14-30) gives insight into Jesus’ thinking about stewards and stewardship. It is the story of “a man who was going on a journey,” and who left his wealth in silver pieces to be tended by three servants.

Two of them respond wisely by investing the money and making a handsome profit. Upon returning, the master commends them warmly and rewards them richly. But the third behaves foolishly, with anxious pettiness, squirreling away the master’s wealth and earning nothing; he is rebuked and punished.

The silver pieces of this story stand for a great deal besides money. All temporal and spiritual goods are created by and come from God. That is true of everything human beings have: spiritual gifts like faith, hope, and love; talents of body and brain; cherished relationships with family and friends; material goods: the achievements of human genius and skill; the world itself. One day God will require an accounting of the use each person has made of the particular portion of these goods entrusted to him or her.

Each will be measured by the standard of his or her individual vocation. Each has received a different “sum”—a unique mix of talents, opportunities, challenges, weaknesses and strengths, potential modes of service and response—on which the Master expects a return. He will judge individuals according to what they have done with what they were given.

St. Ignatius of Loyola begins his Spiritual Exercises with a classic statement of the “first principle and foundation” permeating this I way of life. “Human beings,” he writes, “were created to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save their souls. The other things on the face of the earth are created for them to help them in attaining the end for which they are created. Hence they are to make use of these things in as far as they help them in the attainment of their end, and they must rid themselves of them in as far as they provide a hindrance to them…. Our one desire and choice should be what is more conducive to the end for which we are created.” St. Ignatius, fervently committed to the apostolate as he was, understood that the right use of things includes and requires that they be used to serve others.

What does all this say to busy people immersed in practical affairs? Is it advice only for those whose vocations lead them to withdraw from the world? Not as Jesus sees it: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides” (Mt 6:33).

The Steward’s Reward
People trying to live as stewards reasonably wonder what reward they will receive. This is not selfishness but an expression of Christian hope. Peter raises the question when he says to Jesus, “We have given up everything and followed you” (Mk 10:28).

Christ’s response is more than Peter or any other disciple could reasonably hope or bargain for: “There is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come” (Mk 10:29-30).

That is to say: Giving up means receiving more, including more responsibility as a steward; among the consequences of living this way will be persecution; and even though discipleship and stewardship set the necessary terms of Christian life in this world, they have their ultimate reward in another life.

Start, though, with the here and now. To be a Christian disciple is a rewarding way of life, a practice of stewardship as a part of it is itself a source of deep joy. Those who live this way are happy people who have found the meaning and purpose of living.

For a long time religious believers—to say nothing of those who do not believe—have struggled with the question of what value to assign human activity. One solution is to consider it a means to an end: do good here and now for the sake of a reward in heaven. Another solution passes over the question of an afterlife: do good here and now for the sake of making this a better world.

Vatican Council II points to a third solution. It recognizes that human activity is valuable both for what it accomplishes here and now and also for its relationship to the hereafter. But, more important, it stresses not only the discontinuity between here and now and hereafter, but also the astonishing fact of continuity.

God’s kingdom already is present in history, imperfect but real (cf. Mt 10:7; Lumen Gentium. 48; Gaudium et Spes, 39). To be sure, it will come to fulfillment by God’s power, on his terms, in his own good time. And yet, by their worthy deeds in this life, people also make a limited but real human contribution to building up the kingdom. They do so with an eye to present happiness and also to the perfect fulfillment which the kingdom—and themselves as part of it will enjoy in the life to come. The Council, therefore, teaches that the purpose of the human vocation to “earthly service” of one’s fellow human beings is precisely to “make ready the material of the celestial realm” (Galldillm et Spes, 38).

In Christ, God has entered fully into human life and history. For one who is Christ’s disciple there is no dichotomy, and surely no contradiction, between building the kingdom and serving human purposes as a steward does. These are aspects of one and the same reality—the reality called the Christian life.

God’s kingdom is not an earthly kingdom, subject to decline and decay; it is the everlasting kingdom of the life to come. But that “life to come” is in continuity with this present life through the human goods worthy human purposes, which people foster now. And after people have done their best, God will perfect human goods and bring about the final fulfillment of human persons. “The throne of God and of the Lamb, be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will look upon his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Night will no more, nor will they need light from lamp sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever” (Rv 22:3-5).