Thank God for everything, always

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

“Give, therefore, to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” Jesus says in this Sunday’s Gospel Reading.

What do we owe the secular authorities in our own city, province, and country? What do we owe to God?

In the First Reading, God says, “I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no other god.” Later in this passage, He stresses, “It was I who made the earth and created humankind upon it.”

God made us. He owns us. We belong to him. Everything we call “ours” is his gift: life, time, abilities, jobs, possessions, parents, children, knowledge, and faith.

Consider time, for example. How irked we are when God takes from us an interval of time we had regarded as being at our own disposal!

We assume that we start each day in lawful possession of 24 hours as our own personal birthright. We regard the portion we have to give our employers as a grievous tax, the portion we set aside for our religious duties as a generous donation, the portion we have to spend helping others as an imposition.

In reality, our original assumption is absurd. We can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to us as God’s gift. We might just as well regard the sun and the moon as our belongings.

Similarly, we feel that we own our bodies, even though we find ourselves in them without our consent and can be ejected from them without notice.

Even when we say “my God,” we tend to mean “the God on whom I have a claim for my service.”

As C.S. Lewis’ imaginary devil Screwtape says, “The word ‘mine’ in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human about anything. In the long run, either Satan or God will say ‘mine’ of each thing that exists, and especially of each human. Humans will find out in the end, never fear, to whom their time, their souls, and their bodies really belong – certainly not to them, whatever happens.”

If we give God the things that are God’s, therefore, we give him everything. He wants not so much of our time, so much of our efforts, so much of our money; he wants ourselves.

In practice, that means accepting everything as a gift from him, using it as he designed it to be used as long as he allows us to enjoy it and offering it back to him willingly when he asks for it.

In light of this Sunday’s Gospel, what do we owe the government?

“Those subject to authority should regard those in authority as representatives of God, who has made them stewards of his gifts,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“It is the duty of citizens to contribute along with the civil authorities to the good of society … Submission to legitimate authorities and service of the common good require citizens to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community.”

“Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one’s country.”

“The more prosperous nations,” especially, “are obliged, to the extent they are able,” to welcome foreigners in search of the security and the means of livelihood that they cannot find in their countries of origin.

However, we are “obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, the fundamental rights of persons, or the teaching of the Gospel.”

Let us pray that the message of the Gospel Reading will come to us this week “not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction,” as St. Paul says in the Second Reading.