Sunday Reflections: TWENTY NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

TWENTY NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

Is 45:1, 4-6; 1Thess 1:1-5b; Matt 22:15-21

Mission Sunday

“Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God,” (v. 21).

Image credit: Mangalore Diocese

Story

A certain man always teased a cross-eyed person. So, the cross-eyed person got angry. The cross-eyed held him in the neck and said: “Am I a cross-eyed or not?” The man was in dilemma. He said to himself: “What am I going to do?” At the end he had an idea. He said NO but the cross-eyed bit hit him and said: “You are a liar!” So he decided to say YES but the cross-eyed hit him again and said: “Huh! You are putting me down!”

Message

What Jesus meant here is that, he points out that we are citizens of two worlds – the world we see and the unseen world. As such, we have duties in both worlds, that is, to a person and to God. It is like, love your God and love your neighbour as you love yourself. Our duties to a person include not only what we owe to the government like paying taxes and allegiance, but also what we owe to others.

But the Christian is also a citizen of heaven. There are matters of religion and religious principles in which the responsibility of the Christian is to God. As Christians, we owe to God praise and thanksgiving, honour and glory. In other words, we owe to God worship because He is All Good and the source of all that we have and are.

I would like to give you an example who gave to God what belongs to God and to Caesar what belonged to him. Fr Stan Swamy. Being a Jesuit priest he served in the mission land Jharkhand for the cause of Adivasis. He stood for their rights. 

Act

Let us pray for all the missionaries working in different parts of the world. Pray for Fr Stan. So that justice may prevail. 

(Please add your reflections and comments below.)

Happy Mission Sunday