St. John the Almsgiver, an icon of Stewardship

"He had a grand signeur's liberality and self-assurance; he was also, if we may believe his biographer, a man of perfect humility.

"In all, St. John is said to have collected during his eight years in office 10,000 lbs of gold from donations in addition to the 8,000 he had found in the treasury of the Church. [...] At the same time the patriarch is said to have had 7,500 beggars in his care. He built hospices for them - elongated vaulted buildings provided with wooden benches, mats and blankets. He also build hostelries for visiting monks, and when Jerusalem fell to the Persians in 614, he sent vast sums of money to rebuild its churches and ransom prisoners."

- Cyril Mango's Byzantium

A 7th century working-class laborer would have made about 1/7 of a pound of gold per year. One pound of gold = 7 years for a normal person. In eight years, St. John stewarded about 10,000 times what a full-time worker made in the same time period.

St. John administrated a huge bureaucracy, but his generosity and success flowed from a prayerful other-worldliness:

"St John, a strict ascetic and man of prayer, was always mindful of his soul, and of death. He ordered a coffin for himself, but told the craftsmen not to finish it. Instead, he would have them come each feastday and ask if it was time to finish the work."

- OCA website

His dependency on God was literally hand-to-mouth, but he never wanted for anything:

"On another occasion, after he gave his habit to a poor man who passed by, a person he did not know appeared immediately afterwards and gave him a sack containing a hundred gold pieces. After that, when he gave an alms, he always said, 'I am going to see whether Jesus Christ will fulfill His promise of giving me a hundredfold.' The accomplished promise occurred so many times that he ceased to say these words, which were, in any case, for the benefit of those surrounding him.”

- Catholic website for Lives of Saints

The other-worldly focus of this saint-man's life make me consider what it means to steward my wealth. My wife and I have been given many, many resources: masters-level educations, small-but-reasonable incomes, a rented apartment in the Richmond district of SF, wonderful families with great examples of parents. The scales are SO in our favor, especially compared with the 90% of the world that live more simply than we do. So what shall we do? How shall we, like St. John, live on fire with the Holy Spirit, asking to be vessels of His love?

I'm open to suggestions, and I'm certainly not the only one thinking about these things. Roy Goble, founder of Pathlight International, is a man concerned with the poor of the world, especially those in Belize; he recently wrote on this subject in his blog. He called his post "Wealth, Work, and the World." Great thoughts, and a good read.

I'm also inspired by the list of activities in Dan Miller's book about finding your vocation, 48 Days to the Work You Love. He's talking about finding your calling in life, not feeding the poor per se, but to me his suggestions take abstract ideas to the realm of concrete action plans:

"Set aside time for vigorous physical exercise. Walk 3 miles 4 or 5 times a week - the feeling will help release tension and stimulate creativity. Seek out a godly mentor. Much of the success of Alcoholics Anonymous has been from attendees' having another person to call in the lowest times. Read inspirational material at least 2 hours daily. Volunteer for a worthy cause - helping someone else in need is a great way to ease the inward pain [of aimlessness]."

Through the prayers of St. John, may my search for effective, God-dependant ministry turn to action for the Kingdom.