October 18

Give To God
What Is God’s

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Today’s Gospel: Matthew 22:15-21
(Give to God What Is God's)

Then the Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap him in speech. They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

 

Reflection:

Isaiah tells us something astonishing: God called Cyrus, a king who didn’t even know Him, and used him to fulfill His plan. If God can use a king like that, He can certainly use you and me! Nobody is beyond His reach, and no heart is closed to Him. The Lord alone is God, and He is working behind the scenes in people’s lives more than we know.

Paul thanks God for the Thessalonians, remembering their work of faith, their labor of love, and their endurance of hope. And he says the Gospel came to them not in words only, but in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. That’s what we want: the Gospel in word and in power! Then in the Gospel, Jesus holds up a coin with Caesar’s face and says to give to God what belongs to God. And what bears God’s image? It is YOU! And every person you meet, we are all made in the Image of God.

Mary understood this better than anyone. Her whole life was one beautiful return of everything to God: here I am, the handmaid of the Lord. And today is also Saint Luke’s day on the calendar, the Evangelist whose Gospel gives us the Annunciation, the Visitation, and the Magnificat. We have Mary’s words because of him! It is Beneath the Standard of Mary that we learn to give ourselves back to God, so that the Gospel goes out in word and in power to all, to know it, to love it, and to embrace it.

What belongs to God that you are still holding in your own hands: your time, your talents, your treasures, or your fears? What would it look like to hand it over today, the way Mary did? Give yourself back to Him and see how far the Gospel goes.


Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.

Location: Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA

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