This Easter, in churches all over the world, people will be fully initiated in the Catholic Church. Those who have come from another Christian denomination have already begun their journey with Jesus Christ. But for those who are baptized at the Easter Vigil, a new reality has come to pass. Each newly baptized man, woman, and child have become new creations in Jesus Christ. They have died and risen with the one who rose on the third day and whose empty tomb we celebrate every Easter. Easter Sunday morning, they awake after many months of RCIA and all have the same question before them: “Now what?”
When one finds themselves having journeyed through various thresholds of conversion and now they bear the name of Christian, the time comes to chart the course of life as a disciple. Stewardship is that course of life. How one lives out their life from now on is the life of stewardship. The less one understands true stewardship and the value of their gifts and talents to the Body of Christ, the harder the journey.
Those of us who were baptized many years ago can easily fall into a false sense of comfort. We forget that sense of excitement those coming into the Church experience at the Easter Vigil. However, the story of that empty tomb reminds us of the power behind our baptism. Today, we, too, are called to discipleship and a stewardship way of life. Jesus continues to provide the answer to our, “Now what?”
– Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS