A Cycle – 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time 26
Mt. 22:15-21
There is no doubt our lives are busy people, and we are occupied with things of this world. Our jobs demand our time; we focus on our future and our children’s future. I do not think many of us are as materialistic as the man in today’s gospel. But we are guilty of compartmentalizing our faith. Which keeps us from understanding what God desires of us. We measure our relationship with God by what we do instead of striving to give to God what is God’s – our hearts.
The church has always exhorted us to discover God by reading and meditating on the scriptures. The scriptures are where God reveals Himself to us. It is in every word, action, story, and parable we have God revealing His nature. Unfortunately, we often do not listen in a manner that allows us to respond to the words we hear. Test yourselves and you will discover you cannot remember what the readings in today’s mass were. If you are lucky, you will have a powerful word proclaimed in the homily that challenges you to reflect on your relationship with God.
The sad truth is we have heard the passages in today’s mass many times. We know the purpose they were told and that is enough for us. The words in the scriptures were spoken thousands of years ago, and we dismiss them as not pertaining to us. We ignore the fact that God said to us, “.my word which goes forth from my mouth; It will not return to me empty, it will accomplish what I desire Isa.55:11). Every word, every action, every parable, or story by any person in the scriptures are revealing something to us about God. If you think about those words, you will discover God constantly is challenging us to measure ourselves by His standard not ours.
This is critical for us to understand because we have become comfortable and resist change. Yet, God desires to change us, transform us and completely reorient our desires. We are so familiar with today’s gospel we easily dismiss it because it does not apply to us. We are not so materialistic and so focused on enjoying life. The real issue is we do not trust God’s promises so we depend on our concept of what is acceptable. We need to learn how to be thankful for what we have and trust God for our future. But since our knowledge of God is intellectual instead of personal, we depend on ourselves and ignore the promise of God to change us. We know a lot about God, but our knowledge is rooted in lessons learned about God and how we are to conduct ourselves in the presence of God. We adhere to rituals and practices we have been taught as children. We conform to unspoken rules because we gather in the presence of God. But we do not allow the inspired Word of God and the grace of the sacrament to change our hearts and mind.
Did you ever consider God’s words are revealing something to you and it demands a response? We will never respond as God desires until we realize God is speaking to you and you alone. We need to have an encounter with Christ ad did the disciple Thomas. An encounter that has one and only one response; us acknowledging Christ as “My Lord and My God.” That encounter would be transformative, we would know and feel forgiveness wash over us. Our response before God would never be a controlled, restricted response conforming to what society demands. It would be an emotional response, filled with gratitude and freeing us to worship in spirit and truth. We would understand we were created for a meaning and a purpose.
Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah given to us in today’s first reading. God has Isaih speaking to the Israelites in captivity in Babylon. The temple has been destroyed and the people once again in captivity when God talks about Cyrus whom He grasps by the hand. Cyrus whom God opens doors before him and has kings as servant to him. Isiah proclaimed hundreds of years before Cyrus existed. Cyrus who was instrumental in freeing the Israelites from their captivity in Babylon. Cyrus who was instrumental in the rebuilding of the temple. Cyrus whom the prophet said, “he did not know God.’
That should not surprise us because Isiah prophesized the birth of Jesus centuries before Hi birth. But it should awaken from our slumber because like God tells us, “He knew us “before we were formed in our mother’s womb” (Ps. 139:13). The psalmist goes on and reminds us God ‘. knew our unformed substance” and our “. soul knows this very well” (vs.16). It is no wonder St. Gustine said, “our souls are restless until they rest in Christ.” God promised us “we would know Him” through the prophet Jeremiah. Intimate knowledge as Adam knew Eve and she conceived a son. Which brings us back to Cyrus and us.
We are created with meaning and purpose. Gifted by God to fulfill that destiny and it is up to us to not only acknowledge that but to live in it. I am not talking about predestination because God also gave us free will to choose or to reject God’s plan for our lives. But God can and will use all the circumstances in our life to put you into a place and position to “give to God what belongs to God’ and to Ceasar what belongs to Caesar. It is about choices we make and even the wrong choices are used by God to ultimately understand all we are seeking is found in God. The parable of the prodigal should have taught us that spiritual truth. Isiah tells us that in the final words of his prophesy about Cyrus which was “so that we will know there is no other beside Him. He is the Lord forever.”
