29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, Jesus does not allow himself to be forced into a corner with an answer to the Pharisees’ question.  He knows what they are trying to do and he outwits them.  First, he shows them to be hypocrites by even having a Roman coin on them.  Then he simply asks whose image is on the coin and in response to their answer, he tells them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” 

Knowing Scripture, upon hearing Jesus ask whose image is on the coin, the Jewish people would have immediately thought of Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Rather than being drawn into a controversial discussion of taxes and the Romans, Jesus reminds them of something more important and more pressing, namely, giving one’s total self to God. 

Everything we have we owe to God, who has blessed us with life and every good gift.  The almighty God gave the gift of God’s very self to humanity by taking on our nature and becoming one of us in the person of Jesus, the Son of God.  And then after dying for us, saving us from our sins, and rising from the dead so that we might share in divinity and eternal life, Jesus and the Father continued to share God’s very self with us by sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and then pouring the Holy Spirit into each of our hearts at our baptism.  God has given us everything in amazing and beautiful ways.

Having received all those gifts from God, we then ask what we ought to give in return, and the answer obviously is everything!  We need to give God everything we have and are.  We give God our thanks and praise, our service and our lives, even our faults and our failings.  God wants it all.  Everything!  And, of course, the more we give to our good God, the more God gives us in return.  Our relationship with God, who is love, is one of mutual generous giving that will never end in this life and will come to fulfillment when we share in God’s life in the life to come.

Giving, especially to God, is not a one-time thing.  We need to do it in order to be spiritually alive and growing.  It is as essential and necessary as breathing is.  God wants everything from us.  We should not hold anything back, and in return God will give us all we need; all we need do is ask.

We offer all that that we have and are with generosity and gratitude.  As we do that, the Lord responds by giving us love and grace, causing God’s image to shine even more brightly within us. 

May we always be aware of God’s goodness to us and in return respond by with joyful generosity.   When we give what we have been given, we will be giving God the best, gifts that only we can give, and that’s exactly what God wants.