HOMILY: 29TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A
Rev Fr. Stephen ‘Dayo Osinkoya
WORLD MISSION SUNDAY
Isaiah 45:1.4-6; Psalm96; 1Thess. 1:1-5; Matt. 22:15-2
Today we join fellow Catholics everywhere in the world to celebrate World Mission Day. We celebrate to remind ourselves of our commitment to building a better world for all of God’s people, a world where everyone has all they need to live a dignified and fulfilling life. This celebration also affords us the opportunity to reflect on the urgency to proclaim the Gospel in our times.
Missionary activity is a response to the love with which God loves us. God’s love is the spiritual energy that can make harmony; justice and communion grow among persons, races and peoples. It is God, who is Love, who leads the Church towards those farthest away and calls us to be renewed from the original source, Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God.
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In the first reading of today, we hear God introducing Himself to His anointed, Cyrus thus: “I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I clothe you, though you do not know me, that men may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:5-6) But in the second reading, unlike the first, St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians in a manner that shows his knowledge of God as Father. And in the gospel reading Jesus is put to test, not about his knowledge of God, but about his knowledge of state affairs, with regards to what is lawful. They asked “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not” And he answered them in a way would not have expected by saying “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”
The questions that one could ask from this event are “What is Caesar’s and what is God’s?” “Is there anything at all that doesn’t belong to God?” “Is there anything in human activity that does not come under God’s judgement?” As a Yoruba adage puts it. “Eni to l’Eru lo l’eru” (The one who owns the slave owns the slave’s properties as well).
Actually, we all have a dual citizenship – we are citizens of our country where we are born; we also have spiritual citizenship by virtue of our new spiritual birth. So we have to play a dual role as citizens of our earthly state and also as citizens of the heavenly kingdom. There is no dilemma between state and God. A good Christian is also to be a good citizen. Christian has to represent an exemplary citizen. But it is always to be kept in our mind that the Lord, our God should be the priority, who is the Almighty and is above all earthly rulers, even the gentiles, as it is said in the First Reading of today, from the Book of Prophet Isaiah – Cyrus the Great, a Persian king, is called ‘God’s anointed one’ though he did not know the God of Israel, and is made His instrument in freeing the people of Israel from their Babylonian captors and sending them back to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple and city.
In today’s gospel, rather than engage in a superficial dispute over separation of religion and state, Jesus reasserts the absolute claim of Jewish monotheism, namely, that all earthly powers are subject to God’s sovereignty and out of a little of political crossfire comes the reminder of just how much we owe and to whom. Caesar was owed that which bore his name and his image, a coin. God is owed that which bears His name and His image, our own very selves. Can we give ourselves to God, all that is ours without holding back anything? For us to know God is to know our own identity as well – our identity as God’s chosen. This knowledge also brings with it an awareness of our civil responsibilities to the state without violating God’s commandment.
Freedom of religion does not in any way mean freedom from religion. Are people of faith obliged not to express their beliefs and put them into practice in the public domain? We must remember that while rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s we must still render to God what is God’s. Our public policies are not to be exercised freed from God’s norms and apart from God’s will. As Christians we possess the right and duty to tender our suggestions, to criticize and even to contest the various options taken, but we cannot act in such a way as to damage the civil community.
The mission to proclaim the Good News to all men isn’t something added to the Christian faith. As a matter of fact, it lies at the heart of the faith. All Christians are missionaries of the Gospel and they participate actively in the mission of Christ. Pope Francis invites us “let us set out once more, illumined by our encounter with the risen Lord and prompted by his Spirit. Let us set out again with burning hearts, with our eyes open and our feet in motion. Let us set out to make other hearts burn with the word of God, to open the eyes of others to Jesus in the Eucharist, and to invite everyone to walk together on the path of peace and salvation that God, in Christ, has bestowed upon all humanity.” (Message for World Mission Day, 2023)
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