Give to the Lord the Glory Due His Name ~ by M. A. Allen

An important theme runs through our readings today. It is a call for us to put away selfishness and instead, to give of ourselves in implementing our Christian vocation of building the Kingdom.

We are to follow the example of our God who, in the Isaiah reading, calls Cyrus His anointed one and gives him kingship for the sake of the Israelites. In Psalm 96, we praise our God as we "...give to the Lord the glory due His name."

St. Paul has already incorporated this sense of gratitude into his First Letter to the Thessalonians through the greeting he gives to these early Christians. "...grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you." Paul has his priorities where they belong by acknowledging that it is God who has given this gift of Faith to the Thessalonians through the work of Paul and his disciples.

As we turn to the Gospel reading, we see that the Pharisees measure fidelity to God by how strictly Jewish laws are kept. They set out to trick Jesus into saying something that will pit him either against Roman authority or against giving God what belongs to Him.

However, Jesus immediately recognizes the treachery in their question about whether it would be lawful, according to Jewish Law, to pay the census tax to Caesar. He calls them hypocrites! His response to their question is disarmingly simple: (Give) "to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; and to God what belongs to God."

In other words, repaying to Caesar means we are to build a better world and society. To God, we give our heart, our soul and our entire being in gratefulness for His gifts to us. For if you give; you will receive.


~ Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~