On January 18, we kicked off our annual process to renew our stewardship commitments! As part of this process, we invited Fr. Jarrod Lies, the Vicar of Evangelization, Stewardship, and Discipleship to join us for Mass. His homily was packed full of information, so he has generously shared it with us. You can find it here!

Do Whatever He Tells You 

When I was a child—maybe eight or nine years old—my mom and dad had us plug the yard with grass. We didn’t sod the whole thing. Instead, we took small pieces of sod and plugged them into the ground about six inches apart. It may sound odd, but it was more cost-effective. Of course, being the youngest and—how shall I say—the most emotionally mature of the family, I did it with joy and without complaint! No… not really. I did it because my mom told me exactly what Mary tells the servants in today’s Gospel: “Do whatever he (your dad) tells you.” 

At the time, it felt like endless work. My back hurt, and I remember thinking, “Why does this even matter?” And yet it did matter—because I remember it to this day. What began as work became a family memory. And as the weeks went by, I could watch those scattered plugs of grass grow closer and closer together. What looked disjointed slowly became whole. The shared work had its reward. That kind of obedience—offered before full understanding—is exactly the posture the psalm places on our lips today: “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.” 

That line—“Do whatever he tells you”—is Mary’s line at Cana, and it is one of the most powerful stewardship lines in all of Scripture. It is short, simple, and clear. Our faith in Jesus Christ is not merely something we think or feel; it is something we live. It is embodied as a gift of self and a way of caring for one another as a family. 

As many of you know, I serve as the Vicar for Evangelization, Discipleship, and Stewardship for the diocese. Evangelization and stewardship, you could say, are two sides of the same coin of discipleship. In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist shows us exactly what that looks like: he does not draw attention to himself; he receives what God has given him and then gives it away, pointing simply and clearly to Christ. 

At Cana, the wedding feast runs out of wine. That is no small thing. It is a real lack and a real embarrassment. Then Jesus tells the servants to fill six large stone jars with water. You can imagine their reaction: What good is water when the problem is wine? And it is right there that Mary steps in and says the line that changes everything: “Do whatever he tells you.” 

So they do. And what looks pointless (water) becomes purposeful (wine). What begins as lack ends in abundance. Their obedience becomes the space where the miracle happens. Water becomes wine—not barely enough, but abundantly; not mediocre, but the best. And people begin to believe in Jesus. Discipleship, stewardship, and evangelization are woven together in a single Gospel moment. 

That brings me to why I am here with you today, to ask one question: What motivates a parish to become a stewardship parish? Why would a community take on what can sometimes feel like back-breaking work in order to live what Fr. Matt is calling you to be: a parish family on mission? 

The first answer is this: stewardship is an answer to social poverty—not only financial poverty, though that is real, but social poverty in all its forms:  

• Spiritual poverty, hearts that do not yet know the love of God.  

• Relational poverty, people living in isolation without real community.  

• Opportunity poverty, especially for the young, when formation and support are lacking.  

• And family poverty, when homes are marked by division or instability. 

The Stewardship Way of Life responds to all of this because stewardship is faith expressed as compassion. It is noticing need and answering it with care. That alone answers spiritual poverty, because one of the deepest poverties of the human heart is the fear that God is disappointed in us or indifferent toward us. Today’s first reading answers that fear directly when the Lord says to His servant, “You are mine… through whom I show my glory,” reminding us that mission flows from being chosen and loved. 

And this is where Stewardship answers relational poverty. It turns the sense that “I don’t matter” into “I have gifts to offer, and you are worthy of my sacrifice.” When we share our gifts in love of God and neighbor: isolation is healed by communion, and invisibility by belonging. In a true stewardship culture, adults rediscover communion through worship, prayer, formation, and service. And those wounded by family breakdown find a parish family where they are cared for, where their gifts are needed, and where trust can be rebuilt. St. Paul names this reality when he addresses the Church as a people called together, graced together, and bound in one Lord. 

Stewardship also confronts opportunity poverty—especially among the young—by making formation available and accessible in PSR, CGS, youth ministry, sacramental preparation, and our Catholic school. Our diocesan tradition refuses to treat the formation of children as a private luxury; it embraces it as a shared mission. Every child is worthy of knowing Jesus and being formed as His disciple. As Isaiah reminds us, it is “too little” for God’s saving work to stop short; it is meant to reach outward and be shared. 

So stewardship answers social poverty by building something the world cannot manufacture: a community where grace becomes concrete, where burdens are shared, where gifts are recognized, where the lonely are seen, where the young are formed, and where people can once again say, “I belong here.” This is a tall hope. Yet, in the words of your pastor, this parish is not too small to dream big. 

Which leads to the second answer to the question: what motivates a parish to become a stewardship parish? To be clear, simply having stewards within a parish does not make a stewardship parish. Every parish has stewards. What is distinct about a stewardship parish is that it has intentional pathways of invitation, where gifts are discerned, awakened, and called forth for the good of all. Such a parish preserves a community from becoming one of “haves and have-nots,” one of “insiders and outsiders.” 

Stewardship fosters a parish culture that recognizes God’s gifts in its people and actively encourages those gifts to be named and shared in love of God and neighbor. So central is this to the Church’s life that St. John Chrysostom wrote in the fourth century:  

“The most basic task of a church leader is to discern the spiritual gifts of all those under his authority, and to encourage those gifts to be used to the full benefit of all. For what good is it if the treasure lies hidden? Nothing so strengthens the Church as when each member knows his own role and offers it willingly for the common good.” 

In the epistle St. Paul reminds us that each individual gifts of the Spirit is given for some benefit—not just to a few, but to each—and then he lists those gifts. In other words, God has placed real spiritual wealth in His people. Even when we feel poor, we are not empty. Even when we feel stretched thin, we are not useless. 

That is why stewardship renewal must be intentional: it calls forth giftedness. Without intentionality, parish life drifts. Cliques form. Participation narrows. Unity gives way to convenience. But a stewardship parish resists that drift. It says: we are one Body. We need each other. We carry one another’s burdens. We widen the circle of belonging. Participation is not an accident; it is an invitation. 

And here I want to honor your pastor, Fr. Matt Siegman, for his clarity and leadership. He has emphasized unity, the centrality of liturgy and prayer, the renewal of family life, and a stewardship culture that flows from love of Christ. That is exactly right. A stewardship renewal is not simply “fill out the card.” It is a deep discernment: What has the Lord given me? What is He asking of me now? Where is He inviting me to give from my substance, not merely my surplus? 

So as St. Joseph Parish enters this time of renewal, what are we doing? We are listening. We are discerning. And we are responding like disciples: “Lord, here I am. Here are my gifts. Tell me what to do, and I will do it.” Because when the servants at Cana did whatever He told them, the miracle happened. And the headwaiter said, “You have saved the best for last.” That is not just a line about wine. That is how God works. 

So let me end where I began. As a child, what felt awkward and back-breaking became relational and life-giving. What began as complaint ended in satisfaction. So too, if we live Mary’s stewardship line—“Do whatever he tells you”—the Stewardship Way of Life will do what it always does: it will answer social poverty with communion, heal isolation with belonging, replace “I have nothing” with “I have something to offer,” turn maintenance into mission, and help St. Joseph Parish not merely survive, but flourish.