Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time October 18, 2020 “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Matthew 22:15-21 

 

Dear Parishioners: As we continue to follow and witness Jesus’ activities in Jerusalem, today we do not have a parable (as we had several weeks in a row). Instead, today we hear about a verbal fighting match between Jesus and the Herodians and Pharisees, enemies themselves. But a common threat, Jesus, has united these two competitors. The Herodians and the Pharisees scheme together to trap Jesus with a clever riddle. 

 

If the Pharisees and Herodians were upset by Jesus before, by the opening of today’s gospel, they are incensed. Jesus has just finished telling three very pointed parables all aimed at them. At the end of the parable of the two sons, he told the religious leaders, “Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.” After the parable of the tenants he warned, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” And then, finally, in the parable of the wedding feast, it seems the chief priests and Pharisees are associated with the invited guests who refuse to attend. After the king in the parable becomes enraged, not only are these guests killed, their city is also burnt. We might wonder, didn’t Jesus know he was poking a hornets’ nest? Jesus’ message is too important to water down to avoid offending others. He “speaks truth to power” and though his life will soon be forfeited, his voice is not silenced.

 

 In the modern, rather individualistic world in which we live, there is a temptation to believe that what we have, we have earned. My possessions are mine, a result of my own hard work or that of others, such as family. But today’s gospel is a good reminder that all we have is from God. As such, we should not and cannot be hoarders of God’s good gifts. 

 

Jesus calls us to an entirely new way of thinking. We return to be fed at the table of His Word and at the table of His Eucharist so often in part because we need to be reminded of this way of thinking when we are so immersed in the world with its ways. 

 

Any resources we have are truly not our own. Even what we acquired through our own labor and efforts cannot be taken with us when we pass on from this life. As I often say, “caskets don’t have pockets.” Let us die to the notion of possessions – what is mine versus yours – and let us instead engage in a lifestyle of discipleship, which shares what we have with the least among us. In that way we will be living the paschal mystery. 

 

In the Good Shepherd,

Rev. Robert B. Adamo