There once was a woman who had been gifted throughout her life with lovely jewelry. Some pieces were family heirlooms. Some of the jewelry came as gifts to mark special occasions. Other pieces she had purchased for herself on her travels. She owned pearls from Japan and glass beads from Venice, silver from Spain and emeralds from Colombia. She had necklaces and brooches, bracelets and earrings and rings.

But as she aged, the woman wore less jewelry. She kept her jewels locked in a safe-deposit box. One day, while at the bank to stash a document in her lockbox, the woman opened the velvet pouches and examined her jewelry.

In her, something shifted. The woman realized that in the dark metal box at the bank, the precious stones did not catch the light and send it winking into the world. Nobody delighted in looking upon those hidden gems — bits of God’s wondrous creation. In the pitch dark of the vault, the precious metals did not gleam in the sunlight or catch the moonlight rays.

The woman removed the jewelry from the lockbox and took it home with her. When her granddaughter graduated from high school, she gave the young woman her emerald earrings. When a niece was married, she gifted the bride with something blue: her sapphire bracelet. Little pleased the woman more than seeing her grandmother’s gold locket adorning her daughter’s neck. And the pearls that the lady hadn’t worn in years — the same necklace locked in the dark vault for years — was worn daily with enormous joy by a dear friend who had never had a trove of her own.

The Catholic steward does not hoard his or her treasures. The steward understands that when we hide our precious gifts, we prevent them from taking their rightful place in the Kingdom.

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