Episode 6: Redemptive Suffering: More Valuable Than A Gift of Money

As humans, we are blessed by God. But we also experience suffering. Can anything virtuous come from our suffering? In this episode, Father Andrew explores how offering the suffering that we experience as a gift to God can be a more valuable form of stewardship that offering tangible gifts to God's community. Christians see challenges and difficulties as an opportunity to bring good out of evil. When we are dealing with adversity, we have a heightened opportunity to expand our stewardship by committing our suffering to our own redemption as well as the redemption of others. And it keeps us more deeply connected to the suffering that Christ endured for us. We can be victims of suffering and let it conquer us, or we can accept it and present that acceptance back to God as a gift for what God has done for us.

 Father Andrew Kemberling is a parochial vicar of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Northglenn, Colorado. For 14 years he was pastor at St. Thomas More Parish in Centennial, CO. With Mila Glodava, Director of Communications and Stewardship, he wrote the book "Making Stewardship a Way of Life: A Complete Guide for Catholic Parishes" (published by Our Sunday Visitor, 2009). The parish received many awards for its pioneering embrace of stewardship as a touchstone of parish life.  Fr. Andrew was born in Tucson, Arizona and joined the Benedictine order in 1985. He was ordained a priest in 1988.