Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time - World Mission Sunday
Dear friends in Christ
Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar—and to God what belongs to God. It is one of those Gospel sayings that we can hear so often that we risk missing how radical it really is. The Pharisees and Herodians come to Jesus with a question designed to trap Him. Is it lawful to pay the tax to Caesar or not? If Jesus says yes, He risks appearing to approve of Roman occupation. If He says no, He can be accused of rebellion. Either answer seems to put Him in difficulty. But Jesus does not allow Himself to be drawn into their trap. He asks them to look at the coin. Whose image is on it? Caesar’s. Then comes His remarkable answer: Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar—and to God what belongs to God.
The coin bears Caesar’s image. But we bear the image of God. That changes everything. We can give Caesar a coin. We can fulfil our civic responsibilities. We can be good citizens, contribute to the common good, and take seriously our responsibilities in the society in which we live. But there is something Caesar can never claim: our worship, our conscience, our ultimate allegiance. Those belong to God.
And perhaps this is the question the Gospel quietly places before each of us this Sunday: What have I given to God? It is perhaps easy to give God an hour on Sunday. It is much harder to give Him our whole heart. It is easy to say that we believe in God. It is more demanding to allow that belief to shape the way we speak, spend, forgive, work, vote, serve, and treat the person standing before us.
Everything we have ultimately comes to us as a gift. Our life, our abilities, our relationships, our time, our possessions—even the opportunities we sometimes take for granted. We are not the absolute owners of these things. We are stewards. And so Jesus' words are not simply about separating religion from politics. They are about putting everything in its proper place.
Perhaps this week we might pause and ask ourselves: Where in my life have I allowed something other than God to become too important? Is it money? Success? Politics? Reputation? Comfort? The opinions of others? Even our worries can sometimes occupy a place in our hearts that belongs to God alone. The good news is that He calls us back to Himself because He knows that we become most fully ourselves when we remember whose image we bear.
Last Saturday Our Holy Father Pope Leo appointed Bishop Timothy Menezes as the eighth Bishop of Brentwood. Bishop Menezes is Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham, and we welcome him as our new Shepherd. Our new Bishop has extensive pastoral experience, having been a Parish Priest, Bishop’s Secretary, Dean of the Cathedral, Vicar General and a Bishop for the last two years. We assure him of our prayers and best wishes as he comes to us and formally takes up his post on 3rd December. At the same time we pray with thanksgiving to God for the twelve years that Bishop Alan Williams has given in service to our Diocese, and that he will have a long and happy retirement. God bless all of us in this Diocese together our new Bishop. May God and His Blessed Mother watch over and protect Pope Leo as he recovers from his recent surgery.
Msgr Kevin Hale