Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
Gospel Matthew 22:15-21 (English Standard Version Anglicised)
Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his
words. And they sent their disciples to him, along
with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and
teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's
opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.
Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to
pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And
they brought him a denarius. And
Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription
is this?” They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God
the things that are God's.”
Readings for Ireland for World Mission Sunday. John 17:11, 17-23 replaces the Gospel above. The other readings are the same.
The reflection below is based on Matthew 22:15-21;
World Mission Sunday
Mission is a free and
conscious response to God’s call. Yet we discern this call only when we have a
personal relationship of love with Jesus present in his Church.
In the time of Jesus a denarius was a day's wage for an ordinary working man.
A politician of the last century who may be beatified one day is the Servant of God Robert Schuman, one of the founders of what is now the European Union. His politics of reconciliation in post-World War II Europe flowed from his deep Catholic Christian faith. Yet he was never an 'agent' of the Catholic Church. He was an embodiment of the vision of Gaudium et Spes, promulgated by Pope Paul VI in December 1965.
Incidentally, Robert Schuman, when Foreign Minister of France - he had been Prime Minister in 1947-48 despite having been born a German citizen in Luxembourg - said at a congress in 1950 to mark the 1,400th anniversary of the birth of Ireland's greatest missionary saint: St Columban, this illustrious Irishman who left his own country for voluntary exile, willed and achieved a spiritual union between the principal European countries of his time. He is the patron saint of all those who now seek to build a United Europe.
Robert Schuman's deepest identity was as a Christian. It was as such that he became a patriotic Frenchman and a visionary European. St Thomas More was one of the greatest Englishmen in the history of his country. However, he was His Majesty's good servant - but God's first. In 2000 St John Paul II proclaimed him patron saint of politicians and statesmen.
Jesus doesn't give us any detailed way of being involved in the political life of whatever country we belong to. But he gives us the values to live by. We cannot leave those values at the entrance to the polling booth or at the entrance to the legislative chamber if we happen to be elected to public office. Nor can we leave them at the door of the church after Mass on Sunday.
As voters and politicians Catholic Christians may have very different views on most matters of policy. But there are certain issues on which we must all take a Gospel stand. We may never advocate abortion or 'assisted suicide' or support the very new idea of 'marriage' between two persons of the same sex. As I prepare this it is reported that the Netherlands is about to legalise euthanasia for children under 12.
In 2013 a member of the Irish parliament who voted in favour of legalising abortion in certain circumstances was aggrieved when his parish priest told him that he could no longer be an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. It is far more important to try to live as Gaudium et Spes teaches - All Christians must be aware of their own specific vocation within the political community - than to be an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion or a lector, important though these roles may sometimes be. But they are simply roles. No one has a 'vocation' to be either of these or to take on similar roles. But the Council tells us that each of us has a specific vocation within the political community.
Robert Schuman lived that vocation to the full. St
Thomas More was martyred because he lived that vocation to the full.
Last week I quoted Fr Emil Kapaun, an American army chaplain who died in a prisoner of war camp in 1951 during the Korean war. I will end with that same paragraph as I think he was thinking of what today's Gospel is about.
In a broadcast in Japan on 21 April 1950 Fr Kapaun said: We can be sure to expect that in our own lives there will come a time when we must make a choice between being loyal to the true faith or of giving allegiance to something else which is either opposed to or not in alliance with our faith.
Extraordinary Form of the Mass
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
This Sunday, 18 October, is the Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost in the calendar that uses the TLM. The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-18-2020, if necessary).
Epistle: Ephesians 5:15-21; Gospel: John 4:46-53.
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The Month of the Rosary
Last May I updated a series of posts on The Rosary with the Great Artists. Here are The Sorrowful Mysteries.
Authentic Beauty
Authentic beauty,
however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know,
to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.
Pope Benedict
XVI meeting with artists in
the Sistine Chapel, 21 November 2009.
The
composition describes the course of the Vltava, starting from the two small
springs, the Cold and Warm Vltava, to the unification of both streams into a single
current, the course of the Vltava through woods and meadows, through landscapes
where a farmer's wedding is celebrated, the round dance of the mermaids in the
night's moonshine: on the nearby rocks loom proud castles, palaces and ruins
aloft. The Vltava swirls into the St John's Rapids; then it widens and flows
toward Prague, past the Vyšehrad, and then majestically vanishes into the
distance, ending at the Labe (or Elbe, in German).
