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On Est Tourjours Responsable
OK, please pull out your
French/English dictionaries (I just did!) and meet (or revisit) Le
Petit Prince (The Little Prince). In the course of this classic
Antoine de Saint Exupery children’s story, a Little Prince visits Earth
from another planet and makes many wondrous discoveries. His encounters
with a Fox provide some of the most-quoted passages from the book, quotes
which also happen to encapsulate my feelings about stewardship.
When they meet, the
Little Prince is unfamiliar with the word “tame”. The Fox explains that
“It is an act too often neglected … It means to establish ties.” The
Little Prince explains that he has some experience with “taming” as he is
devoted to a flower that grows on his planet, a rose that he cares for and
protects. The Fox explains that “It is the time you have … (devoted to)
your rose that makes your rose so important.”
The Fox asks the Little
Prince to tame him, going on to say that “If you tame me, then we shall
need each other.” The taming proceeds apace but comes the day when the
Little Prince must leave. At parting, the Fox shares with the Little
Prince his “very simple secret”: “It is only with the heart that one can
see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
The Fox’s final
revelation is a truth which “Men have forgotten … But you must not forget
it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”
On est toujours
responsable qu’on a apprivoiser.
You and I must not
forget. We have each established ties with Calvary Episcopal Church. It is
the time that we devote to our church that makes it important in our lives
and in the lives of our fellow parishioners. We have consciously made
this connection, we have not neglected our need to connect … to God and to
each other.
And we do all need each
other. The church needs our monetary support (of course) but also our
time, our devotion, our care and protection. We also need the church, our
spiritual home and a source of joy through worship, fellowship,
friendships and shared labor. The ties that we establish with our fellow
Calvary family members are that essential connectivity that is invisible
to the eye.
We have “tamed” Calvary
and we are toujours responsable. The good news is … God has “tamed” us and
is toujours responsable for us, in this world and the next. It seems only
right that we, in turn, care for and protect His church and His people.
I thank the Stewardship
Committee of the Vestry for their hours and hours of work and for giving
me this forum to recall a treasured memory in a way that helps me focus on
the present.
Kay Lark
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