A woman died and was met at the gates of heaven by Jesus. He greeted her and started to walk with her down the path of heaven to where she would be living. First, they passed luxurious estates, multi-room mansions with all the goodies. She new she hadn't been a saint in life, so she wasn't surprised when they didn't stop, but still she was a little disappointed. They passed large townhouses, and sprawling ranch styles; she thought either of these would be very comfortable. Then they passed more modest but still nice homes and she thought to herself, I could live very nicely there. But still they walked on and the houses kept getting smaller.

Finally at the end of the path they came to a very tiny shack, barely four walls and a roof. She was shocked and told Jesus there must be some mistake. Is this all she would get? Jesus explained to her, "In life, I blessed you with talents and resources so that you could do good for others and in doing so, build for yourself a house in my Father's Kingdom. With some effort, you could have built a house like any we have passed, but you saw only your own wants and desires. This shack is all that your life built in the Kingdom of Heaven."

The parable of the dishonest steward and the story I just told point out how resourceful and enterprising we can be when it comes to our material security and comfort, and how lax and lazy we can be about assuring our eternal happiness.

This life lasts for so many years, but eternity lasts a whole lot longer. Our eternal happiness isn't a given. We have to do the work of the kingdom in order to secure our place in the kingdom. This isn't about buying our way into heaven; you can't do that. It's about developing the attitudes and habits toward the resources we have in this world that will foster our growth into people who are ready to enter into heaven when our time comes. We are talking about eternal life and how to use the resources of this world to prepare for life in the world to come. The goal I would like to set for us is learning to use the things of this world in ways that will lead us into eternal life. With that as the goal, this could turn into the longest homily in history. Don't panic, Mass today isn't going to be much longer than usual. However, today we are beginning a teaching that will be going on for the next several weeks, and which can be repeated and deepened in the years to come. This teaching is about the meaning of Christian stewardship. Some of you may be saying to yourself, "uh-oh, Father just used the 's' word." I would have to agree that for many of us, the "s" word, "stewardship", means the yearly money talk and with it the yearly pledge of financial contributions. However, this is the shallowest meaning of Christian stewardship.

Four things characterize a more complete and biblically based understanding of Christian Stewardship.

Christian stewardship is about recognizing God's many gifts and accepting them with gratitude.

And it's about cultivating the talents and abilities God has given us so that we can use them for good and not squander them.

Christian stewardship is also about imitating Jesus by sharing our many blessings with others out of a sense of love or of justice rooted in love.

Lastly, Christian stewardship seeks to return to the Lord what he has entrusted to us and to return it with interest.

If we as a parish community can take these four principles to heart, not only will our parish's operational needs be provided for, but we as a community and as individuals will be closer to God and doing more to build his kingdom and our place in his kingdom.

To help us accomplish this, we have adopted a program called Grateful Believers: Sharing our blessings... building our future. Today you will be introduced to it as you receive the Parish Action Plan here at Mass. The Parish Action Plan will give you a more detailed description of Grateful Believers and the ideas behind it. It will also give a description of many of the ministries, commissions, committees and groups that make up our parish and what their needs are for the future.

Another major component of the Grateful Believers is the prayer journal which you will receive next weekend at Mass If we were to condense Christian stewardship into one prayer, it would be "Lord, what do You want to do through me to accomplish Your will for my parish?" The prayer journal offers this and other concepts so that over the course of four weeks a person or a family is lead to prayerfully reflect on the four principles of Christian stewardship.

A third major component will be a special weekend to celebrate what the Lord is doing in our parish through its various ministries, commissions, committees, and groups. On the third weekend in October we will have a special Mass schedule, and the Masses will be celebrated in our Activity Center surrounded by displays representing our ministries, commissions, committees, and groups.

Following each of those Masses, those attending each Mass will be encouraged to browse the displays and to prayerfully consider if the Lord is calling them to become involved in any of the ministries, commissions, committees, and groups.

The final major component of Grateful Believers is a commitment weekend which will take place on the fourth weekend in October.

This year you will not be asked to fill out a pledge card. Instead, we are asking you to take to heart all that you have heard and seen through the weeks of Grateful Believers and then to make a commitment to yourself, your parish and God. This agreement will be in the form of a covenant letter.

The covenant letter will ask you to make a commitment in four areas

1) To share certain talents and gifts through volunteering for certain projects or being involved in certain groups.

2) To set aside a certain amount of time to be given in service to God or to others.

3) To pray for the good of the parish on a regular basis.

4) And to commit a certain amount to the financial upkeep of the parish.

Of course, it is for you and God to decide what your commitment will be in each area. However, I am convinced that if we each listen prayerfully to God, that our parish will have ample resources and our ministries, commissions, committees, and groups will be vital and vibrant in doing the Lord's will.

Procedure:

1) Each of you will receive a Parish Action Plan Booklet.

2) We are asking that each household fill out one of small forms you will find in your pew. The purpose of this form is we know who has received an Action Plan here at Mass. We will be mailing the Action Plan to households that couldn't be here this weekend. If you would like to receive notifications and information from the parish via email, please include your preferred email address on that same form.

3) A Parish Action Plan Team member will be around to collect the forms and give you a Parish Action Plan Booklet.