Homily by Fr Mathew October 19, 2014 29th Sunday A

All Belong to God

Is 45:1, 4-6;  I Thes 1:1-5b; Mt 22: 15-21 

A little boy, who wanted $100.00 very badly, prayed for two weeks but nothing happened. Then he decided to write GOD a letter requesting $100.00. When the postal authorities received the letter to GOD, U.S.A., they decided to send it to the President. The President was so impressed, touched, and amused that he instructed his secretary to send the boy $50.00. Mr. President thought that this would appear to be a lot of money to the little boy. The little boy was delighted with the $50.00 and immediately sat down to write a thank you note to GOD that read:  "Dear God, Thank you very much for sending me the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you had to send it through Washington, D.C., and, as usual, those guys took half of it.

Someone has said, "Death and taxes may always be with us, but at least death doesn't get any worse."

Arthur Godfrey once said, "I feel honored to pay taxes in America. The thing is I could probably feel just as honored for about half the price."

Thus we are obliged to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s”

Rendering unto God, on the other hand, is entirely voluntary. Of course, that puts the church at a little disadvantage.

“Render unto God the things that are God’s.  This sentence may sound very simple. Render unto God the things that are God’s.  What belongs to God? Or let me ask you this way. What do we have that does not belong to God?: The world around us?- Our family? -Our children, our grandchildren, our relationships, our health, our talents, our future? It is all God’s.

If we don’t believe in God, then we can say everything is mine. But we Christians go to Church Sunday after Sunday and profess our faith in God and proclaim that Jesus died for us and as a  disciple we profess that we walk in his footsteps. If that is true everything should belong to God.

Every now and then I go to Atlanta and Houston. When I go there I would go to church on Sundays with my family  and  sit with them in the pews. At the offertory time, usually the collection baskets would be passed to give your gifts. Both places it happened. As they were passing the baskets, it came to my turn and I put my sacrificial offering and passed the basket to the next one. As I was sitting there, there comes another basket; so I gave a few more bucks.. Within a few moments, comes a third basket. I wondered, “My God, what is happening here? I saw people putting money in the collection baskets three times during the offertory.

This reminded me of a story about a local fitness center which was offering $ 1000 to anyone who could demonstrate that they were stronger than the owner of the fitness center. The owner of the fitness center was a muscular man. He would squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran into a glass. Then he would hand the lemon to the next challenger. If he could squeeze   just one more drop of juice out, he would win the money.

Many people tried; weight lifters, athletes, construction workers: all tried. Nobody could release another drop of juice from the lemon after squeezing it. Finally, a short and thin man came forward and decided to give a try. The crowd laughed.  The owner after squeezing every drop of Juice from the lemon handed the lemon to this short skinny man. The skinny man took the lemon in his hands and clenched his fist around the lemon and squeezed six drops of juice into the glass. The crowd cheered. And the man won $ 1000. The owner was surprised. He asked him, “What do you do for a living? He said, “I am the Pastor of St. John Bosco Parish.”

Again, we laugh to keep from crying.  Many pastors have to squeeze people many times to get enough money to keep their ministry and parish running. Today's gospel teaches us an important concept of stewardship which we Christians have to practice to be true followers of Christ. 

Stewardship is not just about money. It is a way of life.  It means that we are mere custodians of all what we have. Today we celebrate world Mission Sunday. Every dollar we contribute to this cause will be used to have clean water and sanitary facilities and health dispensaries for those peoplewho are less fortunate than us.

It is in this sense we take up the offertory during the Mass. At the offertory the bread and wine along with our financial contributions are brought up to the altar. The offertory is you and me; It represents our toil, our sweat and our very life which  turns  into Jesus during the Mass and offered up to the Father. By our offertory and financial contributions we are trying to emulate Jesus in a sacrificial way who gave up his life for us on the cross.

When we don’t pollute our world we become God’s worthy stewards. When we share our talents and time with the church and community in a sacrificial way we  become God’s worthy stewards. When we  share our resources for  the welfare of other people and to continue Jesus mission in this world, we become worthy stewards of God.

Render unto God the things that are God’s. All things belong to God. We are just custodians, not owners. When we use those resources in a responsible way and share our time, talents and money for the welfare and wellbeing of humanity, we become worthy stewards of God.