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The Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

In the Book of Isaiah, only one person is directly referred to as the Messiah, and ironically, it’s a foreign king: King Cyrus of Persia. In today’s first reading, we hear, “Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus…” Messiah means “anointed.” When kings were installed, they would be anointed with sacred chrism (oil), and this is why Jesus would be called the Messiah: he would be the anointed king over all Israel.

Cyrus, though not Israelite (and thus a pagan), was given his authority as king over Persia by God: “I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not” (Isaiah 45:4).

King Cyrus was given this authority in order to allow exiled Israel to return from captivity to the Holy Land to begin to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple. Mysteriously, God directs the events of history according to his own providential plan.

St. Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Romans:

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment … For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due” (13:1-7).

But what about when the authorities decree unjust laws – laws that are against the eternal law of God such as condoning of the grave crime of abortion? Scripture provides us with the answer in Acts 5:29 when Peter, our first pope, declared: “We must obey God rather than men.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church sheds additional light on the matter:

Authority is exercised legitimately only when it seeks the common good of the group concerned and if it employs morally licit means to attain it. If rulers were to enact unjust laws or take measures contrary to the moral order, such arrangements would not be binding in conscience. In such a case, authority breaks down completely and results in shameful abuse. (#1903)

In today’s Gospel (Mt 22:15-21), Jesus says that just as we are to return to Caesar the coin that bears his image (by paying the census tax), so we are to give to God what belongs to God, bearing the divine image.

“You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:19-20). Do we daily recognize the source and goal of our lives and pay God the homage, glory, and honor he is due? By worshiping the Trinity with our whole being and living in relationship with him, through Christ, we discover the everlasting source of true joy. So let us bow before King Jesus and give him our everything, our all.