22nd Sunday after Pentecost 20.10.13 Giving to God
Almighty God has authority over the whole world - every nation, every tribe, every person.
However we organize ourselves, whatever system of government we have, He is still Lord of all.
We must give him what is His (Gospel). And what is His? Everything! But this is not so difficult as it might sound.
We give God everything insofar as we recognize that He has dominion over every part of our lives. We can still keep our houses, cars, clothes, money etc for our own use, but we see it all as being available for His purposes.
He wants us to trust Him, to understand that He will co-ordinate all the factors and events in our lives according to His will; but not in a way that He will forget us. He will make everything fall into place – what He does with us; what He allows to happen to us; how it all finishes up.
There is nothing that is ‘mine’ as in somehow separate from God. Everything we do must be either to please Him, or at least not displease Him.
There are many things we do that are not explicitly ‘religious’ but we should do nothing that is ‘irreligious’, offensive to God.
There is a constant temptation to push God to the sidelines; to relegate Him to background status.
It is ironic in the light of today’s Gospel passage that part of the ‘evidence’ used in Our Lord’s trial was that He was accused of trying to displace Caesar. Here is the God of the whole world, eternal and infinite, being considered less important than one tyrant, in one place and time.
You can kill Him (this once at least) but you cannot remove Him. You can rage against Him but you cannot de-throne Him from His place at the head of the world.
Nations make new laws, based on new ways of defining life and human nature, but their laws have no validity.
Man cannot redefine himself. The most he can do is defy the one true God - but he must come to account before that same God.
Many regard God as a thing of the past. We have outgrown Him; we have evolved to a higher level, they say. There is talk of a post-Christian society.
He is no more ‘out of the way’ than He was at the Crucifixion. He can make Himself known at any moment; but even if He keeps Himself hidden He is never any less relevant. The whole world is His, even what we give to Caesar, even Caesar himself.
Any attempt to live our lives as though there is no God, or that He does not matter – is a failure to give to God what is His.
Instead of pushing Him to the sides we bring Him back to the centre. We consciously and deliberately seek His will. We entrust everything to Him and to His providence.
All our fears for the future; all our hopes and ambitions; we hand all this over – it is all His!
This is the wisest and happiest way to live.
But it is not from force that He wants our allegiance; He wants it from love. He does not want us to see Him as a remote figure, to be appeased by our offerings; an impersonal presence, like the Taxation department.
We reach a point where we want to give Him things. We do not quibble about whether we have to give something or not. We are glad to give Him whatever we can. (eg going to weekday Masses which are not compulsory, or spending time in adoration). This is love taking over; which is what He wants.
Nobody pays taxation to Caesar through love (!), but giving to God becomes a joy, a joy which we are still discovering.
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