Everyday Stewardship / 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.

2 Corinthians 5:14-17

It would appear that many in the modern world think very little of human nature. If we are to believe print, television, and online media, apparently we are unable to control our lust for people, power, and money, and if given a choice, we will choose incorrectly most of the time. Worse than that assessment, because this is seen as truth, those choices actually are no longer that bad. How can something be bad if everyone is doing it? Come to think of it, this argument is not just from the media world; I hear it from my own children from time to time. Honestly, as my children get older and their arguments wiser, I find myself wondering if certain things really are not as I once saw them.

But then I remember who I am as a baptized person: a new creation in Jesus Christ. The reality is the world is right: I can’t control my lust for things, and yes, many times if given the chance I will choose incorrectly. But this is without Jesus. With Jesus, I have been transformed and given the power to resist temptation and follow a narrow, but better, way. To be a good steward, a mature disciple, and relevant Christian, we must have Jesus. My children and I sometimes fail to see that those who seek to reduce human actions to simple animalistic responses to a stimulus also reduce the dignity of the human person. We are so much more than that. Through His cross and resurrection, Jesus redeemed all of creation. And for those who seek to join His body here on earth, these words of Paul are us: “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.”