Editorial

Stewardship and the daily miracles of charity

Christ is the bread of life. With him, our needs are abundantly met. (Pope Leo XIV)

During his Angelus message on August 2, Pope Leo XIV reflected on the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish (Mt 14:13-21).

This is a stewardship story because St. Matthew tells us that Jesus commanded his disciples to share their food with the hungry crowd. The disciples protested that all they had were five loaves and two fish—barely enough to feed themselves. Yet they discovered that God’s grace is a source of abundance, not scarcity, and that by sharing the little they had, they produced an excess of “twelve wicker baskets” (Mt 14:20) left over.

This story shows how small acts of charity can result in great miracles.

“When we listen to the Gospel, we frequently hear that Jesus performed signs, which are acts that reveal his special dedication to us and the salvation that he brings to the world,” said the pope. “The Lord is presented as the one who gives meaning to our lives, freeing us from evil and sin.”

To feed the hungry, even when we think that we lack the necessary resources to make a difference, is an act of Christian charity that can produce miracles.

Stewardship is a sign that we recognize that everything we possess has been freely given to us by a generous and loving God, whose only request is that we develop and share what he has given to us. The resulting miracle begins in us, in the change of heart we experience when we embrace the stewardship virtues of gratitude, responsibility, generosity and the willingness to give back to God with increase.

“Jesus gives food to those who are hungry. The account of the multiplication of the loaves shows us that the encounter with the Lord is a nourishing experience,” said Pope Leo. “In the desert, that is, when we are in need, Christ is the bread of life. With him, our needs are abundantly met: ‘All ate and were filled,’ [Mt 14:20] and there were ‘twelve baskets full’ [Mt 14:20] left over.”

Good stewards encounter Jesus in the act of generous sharing. St. John Paul II taught that it is not possible to fully appreciate the gifts that we receive from God unless we give them away, sharing them generously with others. As long as we cling to our possessions (time, talent and treasure), we can never experience their true meaning or significance in our lives.

That’s why the stewardship virtues of gratitude, responsibility and generosity are inseparably linked. Generous people thank God for what they have to share. That’s why St. Matthew tells us that Jesus performed a eucharistic action—a prayer of thanksgiving to God—before he fed the people: “Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds” (Mt 14:19).

Jesus was not indifferent to the needs of the people. He refused to let his disciples deny any personal responsibility for feeding the crowd of more than 5,000 men, women and children. He told them to do the impossible, saying: “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves” (Mt 14:16).

Pope Leo recognizes the relationship between stewardship, understood as generous sharing of all God’s gifts, and the miracles that can happen in our daily lives.

“In this miracle of charity, we recognize the characteristic actions of Jesus, which find their culmination in the Last Supper, for it was then that the Son of God gave us his very life as our brother in humanity,” he said. “As we savor the grace of the Eucharist, let us commit ourselves to bearing witness to its beauty in our daily actions, beginning with blessing meals at the table with family and friends.”

We pray: “Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts,” which we have received from God’s bounty and are commanded to share generously with others. “Faced with the deserts of war and arrogance,” the Holy Father says, “let us consider with what kindness the Lord looked up to heaven, and blessed, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples, so that they might distribute them to the crowd.” And let us never refuse to take responsibility for the needs of our sisters and brothers. Rather, may we always be thankful, responsible, and generous stewards of all God’s gifts.

—Daniel Conway