Healed in our Identity and Sent out On Mission 29th Sunday Year A
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6; Psalm 96; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b; Matthew 22:15-21
In today’s Gospel passage, Pharisees try to trap Jesus. They do so by asking Jesus if it is “lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar”. The Pharisees hoped this question would box Jesus in, forcing him to answer either yes, it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or no, it is not lawful. If Jesus says it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, then the Pharisees can accuse Jesus of being a traitor to the Jewish people whom Caesar and his fellow Romans oppressed. If Jesus says it is not lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, then the Pharisees can report Jesus to the Romans for having encouraged dissent from Roman rule.
Jesus surprises the Pharisees by not answering either with a yes or no, but rather by asking a question of his own to the Pharisees, after he asks them to show him a Roman coin they had in their pockets. When a coin is presented, Jesus asks, “Whose image is on the coin?” and they respond Caesar’s.
Those gathered saw a Pharisee take a Roman coin from his pocket, indicating that, instead of opposing Roman rule, the Pharisee was collaborating with it by using Roman coins.
In addition, by telling the Pharisee to give to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s, Jesus is simply telling the Pharisees to return the coin to its owner, whose face is on the coin, and to return our bodies and souls, which bear God’s image, back to God, who is our rightful owner.
We have heard many times that we bear God’s image; as Genesis reveals, man and woman are created in God’s image and likeness. (Genesis 1:26) Some of us may believe this truth intellectually but not fully with our heart, the integrating center of who we are, which includes our will and emotions.
In this Mass, may we allow the Lord Jesus to integrate the truths that we hold in our intellects with our hearts. In so doing, according to a popular Christian acronym, we encounter HIM, which stands for healing, identity, and mission.
As our hearts accept more of the truth in our intellect that we are created in the image and likeness of God and that we have been baptized as children into the life of Jesus, we will experience deep healing. This healing occurs as our identity as beloved children of a loving Heavenly Father is strengthened.
Then, with the conviction that we are loved by God, we can effectively transmit God’s healing, sanctifying love, which is our mission in the world. If, though, we do not receive God’s love, then we will not be able to give God’s love, for no one can give what he does not have.
As Brya Hanan says, “Our imago dei, [that is being created in the image and likeness of God] motivates, inspires, and fills us with hope. … When we are in our Imago Dei, we feel safe and secure to be who God created us to be and reflect back God’s image and likeness.”[1]
Heavenly Father, today, grant us the grace to more fully accept the truth in our intellects and hearts that we are created in your image and likeness and that we have been baptized into the life of Jesus. Strengthen us so that, secure in your love, we can be better missionaries of your healing love and truth.
May God Bless You All – Father Peter
[1] Brya Hanan, “Restoring the Good: An Experiential Introduction to the Spirit-led Inner Child Work Model,” virtual.jphealingcenter.org.
