29th Sunday of the Year A (16 Oct 2011)
Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.
Making Our Faith, Hope and Love More Concrete
Some things don’t change. Opponents become unlikely allies when circumstances suit them. Opponents
even staunchly support each other. An opponent, more accurately, a
conqueror of the Persian empire, where the Jews already had been in
exile, became their liberator and God’s agent: For the sake of...my servant, of Israel, my chosen one, I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not.
Greek was the language spoken in the ancient Mediterranean world. The Hebrew Scriptures had been translated into Greek so that God’s word could circulate far, and so more people could appreciate it. Lord in Greek is Kyrios—we recognize it in Kyrie eleison. Greek does not have a C, which means that Kyrus was their liberator’s name. That similarity deepened appreciation that the Lord worked through everyone—even a government leader, who didn’t acknowledge the only Lord.
Moving forward five centuries to Jesus’ time, the tension among Jews between being ruled by the Lord or by a man who considered him-self supreme—Caesar—had grown razor sharp. Members of two opposing groups allied themselves against Jesus. The Pharisees represented the Jewish people under Rome’s oppressive thumb. The Herodians,
the party of Herod, sided with Rome to enjoy power. Herod was a
heretic, who only wanted power. He had only the power Rome gave him, and
Rome made him puppet-king of the Jews.
Malice made these enemies allies, specifically their hatred for Jesus. Their insincere question was not about taxes but about power, authority and allegiance. Jesus shrewdly asked for the coin used to pay the Roman tax. If a Pharisee had offered the coin, he’d have been a heretic for holding it. If a Herodian had offered the coin, the Pharisees would have been guilty for associating with Herod’s own; their association with them meant the Pharisees distanced themselves from the Lord, what they preached no one ought to do.
October reminds us of two gifts from God: life and mission. This month deepens our awareness about life as given by God not by anyone else. October also calls each Catholic to participate in the church’s universal mission, namely, to make visible in more concrete ways our work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus.
No
Catholic has to go far to evangelize. We evangelize best by the lives
we lead, lives which draw others closer to Jesus. We do that by having a
close relationship with Jesus, each one of us. Our roles in the world and in the church differ; yet our relationship with Jesus is built on his faith,
that is, is enduring and responsive relationship with God, he called
his Father. That relationship allowed Jesus to be free to love and to
hope each day to proclaim the kingdom of heaven with each breath and
every action.
Give Jesus 15 minutes each day this week.
- Let the Trinity’s creative love of you give you new awareness of your partnership with them.
- Ask St. Paul to present you to Jesus.
- Speak to Jesus about your partnership with him; how you champion life and the church’s mission.
- Desire strongly to practice in more concrete ways your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus.
- Close by saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer. Those who say it regularly and with passion grow more united with our Creator and Redeemer, who empowers us with his Spirit to practice more concretely his faith, hope and love and to make them ours.
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Wiki-image of Cyrus the Great releasing the Hebrews; and Wiki-image of Jesus, Pharisees, Herodians and a coin are in the public domain.
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