29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran
We generally hate to pay taxes, dues, and tithes. The rich and the poor both complain about taxes. We pay taxes to the government because the government maintains the infrastructure we enjoy and provides security for us. We are expected to contribute for other purposes, such as education and social services. However, we might forget that it is in the world of God that we live, move, and have our being: God is the universal King whose Kingdom does not have boundaries.
While we give respect to our president, we give honor, glory, and worship to God because He is the source of all power. The image of Caesar or the image of great men and women is found in our money, but the image of God is found in the souls of each one of us. The president, the prime minister, and every leader of the state belong to God.
The first reading teaches us about the relationship between God and Cyrus. He was the Persian king who conquered the Babylonians, who had taken the Israelites into captivity. Even though Cyrus did not know God, God worked through him. Talking to Cyrus through the prophet Isaiah, God says, “It is I who arm you, though you know me not, so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun men may know that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, there is no other.” (Isa 45:5-6) When the time came, King Cyrus allowed the Israelites to return home and he helped them to rebuild their temple. A very powerful king falls under the providence of God. God is working through him.
In the second reading, St. Paul, who was of course a great missionary, along with his friends Silvanus and Timothy, gives thanks to God for the Christians in Thessalonica. He tells the Thessalonians, the role of the Holy Spirit in their missionary work. “For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and much conviction.” (1st Thess 1:5)
We know that Jesus the Son of God came into this world with a mission. Part of that mission was to teach us the truth about our relationship with God. In today’s Gospel, we see that Jesus was aware that the Pharisees and the Herodians were trying to trip him. Jesus gave the perfect answer to their difficult question. Jesus makes it clear that both political and religious obligations can be legitimately met. Paying taxes does not compromise one’s duties to God. Nor does serving God exempt one from civil responsibilities.
As Christians living in the world, we must respect our civil authority because in this way we cooperate with God’s plan. We give to Caesar by honest payment of taxes, voting in elections, serving in the military, obeying the law, and participating in public life. At the same time, we belong to God. We are celebrating World Mission Sunday today; it is our duty to preach the Good News to his people. This, too, is part of God’s plan.
The greatest way that we give back to God is to offer ourselves totally and completely for the service of God and our neighbor. There is nothing as great as offering ourselves to him who gave himself for us. God is generous to us, He gives us everything—even His own Son, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.” How generous are we to God?
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