Sunday, October 18, 2026 – Mt 22:15-21 – 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(“Give to God what belongs to God.”)
The Church tells us that the family is the first teachers of our faith. My grandmother was a woman of great faith. Her devotion to being a disciple following Jesus Christ greatly influenced my vocation to be a priest. She often talked to me about the awe and wonder of God and His miraculous creation of this world around us. I always enjoyed hearing her talk about how her faith shaped and influenced her life. She would often say she always knew God would take care of her. She always put God first and sought to have her faith dictate how she would live her life of 99 years.
One of my grandmother’s great accomplishments, as she would say, was that she read the Bible from front to back seven times. She also loved Bible study groups and whenever I asked her a question about the Bible, she knew instantly where to look. When she died and my dad asked me what of my grandmother’s things I wanted, I said I want her Bible that she had since elementary school and used throughout her life. Within this Bible she has hundreds of pieces of papers, pictures and cards from throughout her life; she has the record of all of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren’s names, births and marriages; and she has notes she wrote from reading the Scripture. She actually went through the Bible and counted how many times the world “love” is used. Love is mentioned 239 times in the Old Testament and 163 times in the New Testament. I know she did this because above all things, when she talked about God’s creation, she always talked about God’s love and His love that has been given to us. A love we are meant to live out and give to others.
Today, I would like to reflect on the amazing gift God has given to each one of us with His love. The gift of our life itself, the gift of what we are called to do with our lives, the gift of what we are capable of doing, and most especially, our call as Christians to give this gift of love to others. In other words, Give to God what belongs to God.
This is Jesus’ message in today’s Gospel. Jesus is being tested once again by the leaders of the time, the Pharisees and the Herodians. The Pharisees, who were religious leaders of the Jewish faith, and the Herodians, who were the loyal followers of the Jewish King Herod. King Herod was put on the throne by the Roman Emperor Caesar and King Herod would do whatever he needed to stay in favor with Caesar. The Pharisees and Herodians knew that if they could get Jesus to say, ‘do not pay taxes to Caesar,’ then Jesus could be charged with treason. But Jesus simply said Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. Jesus and the people knew the Pharisees and Herodians were not serving God as they should and Jesus calls them out as hypocrites. The Herodians begin by saying to Jesus, “We know you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God.” But they only do that to lure him in to try and trick him. The Pharisees and Herodians do not respect Jesus’ authority and his teachings. They do not take the time to see that the Son of God is right there in their midst. The Pharisees and Herodians are so tied to things of this world, protecting their status and protecting being in favor with Emperor Caesar, that they have lost sight of their priority to God that they claim they believe in. They have lost sight of being able to open themselves up to receive God’s message and insight into their lives. So, Jesus’ message to them gets to the heart of it. And his message is also a message to us: God must always be first in our life. If we are honest, we have all fallen into the trap of not putting God first at times. We may even admit that when we hear the Gospel accounts of the Pharisees and others that were not following Jesus, we might at moments see ourselves in them. Pope Francis said in a homily that ‘we all can fall into the trap of acting like the Pharisees. We need to ask ourselves hard questions throughout our journey of faith to make sure we are striving to put God first.’
Let us look at our lives and ask ourselves these questions: Are my priorities in order? Is God first in my life? Do I give to God what belongs to God? We must strive to be able to answer “yes” to these questions. We will fall short at times. But let us take to heart the reminder from Jesus today that we must strive to be able to say “yes” to these questions.
I began this homily talking about how my grandmother loved God so much and she shared that love with this world in how she lived. She would help any person that came to her asking for help. She would gladly give a few bucks to someone she saw on the street in need, often giving money that she truly needed to buy her own food or pay her rent. But she knew God’s love was meant to be given with whatever she has to give.
I found in her Bible on the back of a Christmas card some words she had written down from Oscar Hammerstein. These words truly capture her desire to share God’s love. These words capture what we are all meant to do with God’s love that resides in our hearts: “A bell is not a bell until you ring it. A song is not a song until you sing it. And love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay, for love isn’t love until you give it away.” Let us always strive to live this out in living the Great Commandment – loving God, and loving others. Amen.