Twenty ninth Sunday

Twenty Ninth Sunday Ordinary
October 16, 2005

"I am the Lord, there is no other." (Isaiah 45:1-6) "We give thanks to God always for all of you" (I Thessalonians 1:1-5) "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." (Matthew 22:15-21)

The prophet Isaiah succinctly expresses in this vision the essence of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faith in the one God, creator and Lord of heaven and earth. In spite of our many differences there is still this fundamental confidence which should keep us all on the same page. The miracle is that this Great One knows and cares about each one of us individually by name.

Jesus fends off hostile questioners who try to lure him into a political quagmire. Any answer to their question would have placed him too close either to the Roman backed authority "(Herodians") or to advocates of violent rebellion against them ("Zealots"). Jesus neatly avoids the trap by answering vaguely that legitimate civil authority has its place in the kingdom of God. He does not say what that place is. In fact, somewhere hidden in his answer is a paradox, certainly not lost on his enemies. Everything belongs to the Most High. All that the civil authority claims as its own ultimately belongs to the one God. There are no "separate but equal" dominions, earthly and heavenly. Nor does Jesus endorse a theocracy where the state enforces religious principles. We should not confuse any civil authority, no matter how apparently religious, with the reign of God. Political parties and governments lie somewhere within and outside of the kingdom of God. They are always subject to the universal principle of justice for the poorest and least powerful.

The passage from St. Paul brings to mind the central role of gratitude in the spiritual life. Gratitude is an acknowledgment of our dependence on God, one another and the earth I was recently included in a study of attitudes about assisted suicide because I have ruled it out as an option for myself. The overwhelming majority of those who choose this do so not to avoid intractable pain but because they associate physical dependence with loss of dignity, meaning and purpose. Independence (as recent natural disasters have demonstrated) is one of the great illusions of our time. The universal sacramental web of natural and personal connections sustains us every moment of our lives. We do not always attend to how dependent we are on these connections until we are threatened with losing them.

You for whom I'm grateful receive these little weekly offerings in partial repayment of my debt of gratitude to you. You may not be aware of the warmth and security which your generosity of spirit and time provides for Jane and I. You appear to me nightly by name in thought and prayer. Thank You!