29th
Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
First
Reading: Is
45:1, 4-6
Second
Reading: 1 Thes
1:1-5
Gospel
Reading: Mt
22:15-21
Some questions cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no,” like the classic “Have you stopped beating your wife?” Others do not deserve answers because they are not the right questions.
Notice how Jesus responded to the question in this Sunday’s liturgy: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” He replied, in effect, “The question is not whether you should pay the emperor, but what you should pay to him and what you should pay to God.”
I went out to dinner last week. As the waiter removed my empty plate, I thanked him and asked him to compliment the chef. Then I bowed my head and said grace. Whom should I thank for my dinner: the waiter and the chef (and the farmer, etc.), or God? Had God provided my dinner, or had it come along in the natural course of events?
I thought of similar questions. Did my friend recover his health through the doctors’ skill or by God’s grace? Was the homily that changed a girl’s mind about an abortion a coincidence or part of God’s plan? Am I Catholic by the grace of God or because I had Catholic parents?
In 538 BC, the pagan King Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon and freed the captive Jews. In this Sunday’s liturgy, he hears himself called God’s agent, even though he knows nothing of God or his plans. Who freed the Jews: Cyrus or God?
It looks as though in each case, the answer to my question is neither one nor the other, but both. In fact, I am asking the wrong question. The question is not “Did God do it or did it happen naturally?” but rather “Did God do it in his usual way or in some other way?”
God has created everything and he operates everything at every instant. He is responsible for everything that happens. However, his normal operation of the universe incorporates our co-operation. Therefore, we too are responsible.
Our co-operation does not exclude God’s operation. It is he who allows us to choose and empowers us to act. Nothing, not even our sin, falls outside his plan for his creation, which he sees in its entirety: past, present, and future.
From God’s viewpoint, therefore, there is no “coincidence.” Nothing takes him by surprise. Everything is part of his design; he is God, and there is no other. However, we humans see only tiny parts of that design; we are far too small to see the whole picture. In particular, we cannot see that part of the design we call the future; our vision is limited. We are quite right, therefore, to speak of “coincidence” and “chance.”
When God operates in his usual way (what we call the “natural” way), we often forget it is he who is in control. For example, we pigeonhole this morning’s sunrise with all the sunrises of the past and think that explains it. Sometimes, it takes a miracle to remind us of the truth: it is God who does everything, whether usual or unusual, “natural” or miraculous.
We must “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” thanking the waiter, the chef, the farmer, the doctors, our parents, etc. However, we must never forget to “render to God the things that are God’s,” thanking him for everything, whether or not we can see its goodness. Notice how St. Paul, in praising the Thessalonians, says it is God he thanks for their “work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope.”
We should constantly say “Thank you, God,” not just when we finish a meal, but all the time: when the photocopier finishes a long job without jamming, when we reach home after even a short trip in the car, when we see the mountains covered with snow on a sunny day, or when a friend hugs us.