Stewardship workshop message: 'Fall in love with Jesus' and look through eyes of faith

Friday, Oct. 14, 2016

SANDY — Stewardship of the Church is natural if one is in love with Jesus, said Deacon Tom Tosti at a stewardship workshop on Oct. 4 at Saint Thomas More Catholic Church.

“You must have a ‘falling in love with God’ relationship first before you can have a relationship with other people and love your church and love your parish so that you will be a proper steward of all those things,” said Deacon Tosti, who gave the workshop in place of Father Darrin Gurr, who had to cancel. “You will support what you love. If you love it enough, you will die for it. That’s what, to me, what stewardship is.”

One difficulty stewards face is that it is easy to fall out of love. Therefore, Deacon Tosti asked those at the workshop to remember that being in love and staying in love not only can be hard work, but it also has an emotional component “that I think we miss oftentimes as Catholics.”

Unless there is an emotional and spiritual connection with God, “it’s extremely difficult to believe … and it’s difficult to stay in love and to fall in love,” he said.

When he himself struggles with staying in love with God, he recalls what drew him to the divine in the first place, he said; he reconnects with the fact that the people of God are his people, and he reads the Scriptures to see what God is telling him.

“You can’t love other people and not love God, and you can’t love God and not love other people,” he said. “Falling in love with other people again helps me fall in love with God.”

The steps to falling in love are attraction, revelation, understanding and trust, which lead to love, he said.

Serving in a parish can be difficult, but he urged those present to see their parish as being Jesus, and to focus on the people they are serving, which allows many irritations to be overlooked, he said. “We’re here because we’re people of gratitude. That’s where stewardship starts.”

True stewardship is “looking at our whole lives through the eyes of faith,” he added. “If you love Jesus, you’ve got to love his Church. If you love the Church, you will love Jesus – you can’t divorce the two, you can’t disconnect the two.”

A faithful, mature steward is one who understands what he or she believes, Deacon Tosti said, and he suggested that those present learn more about the Church.

They also should share their love for the Church, because that is what attracts other people, he said. “Find your story, but more importantly, tell your story; let somebody know what it this has done for your life – that’s true stewardship.”

The workshop was helpful, said Nora Zambreno of Saint Thomas Aquinas Parish in Logan, who was among those who attended. She learned “I’m on the right path. … The whole idea of falling in love with your parish, and looking to be a part of the solution,” she said. 

Although Zambreno never stopped believing in God, she did disengage from the Church for a time, but “the faith journey has been happening” in increments over the past six or seven years, she said. Having recently retired, she was wondering what she was going to do to make a difference, she said, and decided to answer a parish appeal to get involved with stewardship, and now she is involved not only on the parish but also the diocesan level.

“I would have never seen myself serving in this role, even last year at this time,” she said, adding that as she has rediscovered her faith, she has realized that “it’s so rich, and it’s so beautiful that I just want everyone at our parish to know; and this has brought me to have a love for the parish that I didn’t have before.”