Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please please subscribe and share with your friends. This program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we are celebrating the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Opening Prayer Almighty ever living God, grant that we may always conform our wills to yours and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
A reading from the Old Testament the book of Isaiah, 45th chapter, first verse and the fourth through the sixth verse. Thus says the Lord to his anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I grasped, subduing nations before him, making kings run in his service, opening doors for him and leaving the gates unbarred. For the sake of Jacob, my servant of Israel, my chosen One, I have called you by your name, giving you a title though you knew me not. I am the Lord and there is no other. There is no God besides me. It is I who arm you, though you know me not, so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun people may know that there is none besides me.
I am the Lord, there is no other. The Word of the Lord. Responsorial Psalm Give the Lord glory and honor Sing to the Lord a new song Sing to the Lord all you lands Tell his glory among his nations, among all peoples the wondrous deeds Give the Lord glory and honor for great is the Lord and highly to be praised. Awesome is he beyond all gods for all gods of the nations are things of naught but the LORD made the heavens. Give the Lord glory and honor Give to the Lord, you families of nations. Give to the Lord glory and praise.
Give to the Lord the glory due his name Bring gifts and enter his courts. Give the Lord glory and honor. Worship the Lord in holy attire. Tremble before him all the earth say among the nations the Lord is king, he governs the people with equity. Give the Lord glory and honor. A reading from first Thessalonians, first chapter, first through the fifth verse Paul, Silvanus and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians In God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, our unceasingly calling to mind your Work of faith in labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father. Knowing, brothers and sisters, loved by God, how you were chosen for our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction. The Word of the Lord. Alleluia verse Shine like lights in the world as you hold on to the word of life. Hallelujah.
The Gospel is taken from St Matthew 22:15, 21. The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech. They sent their disciples to him with the Herodians, saying, teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinions, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not knowing their malice, Jesus said, why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
Show me the coin that pays the census tax. Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, whose image is this? And whose inscription? They replied, caesar’s. At that he said to them, and repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.
The Gospel of the Lord. Take a few moments as we listen to the music to ponder the wisdom and the truth found in these readings. Jesus was a major problem for the Pharisees, where he spoke truth. And they were caught in a way of being, a way of thinking, a way of teaching that was so foreign from what they should have been. And it’s interesting that God uses this situation so often in our life. We see something that’s really way off, way destructive.
And when it should be instructive and helpful and to point out the problem when you see it is a way of saying, look, you don’t want to become like that. So bad times are often the richest times to change and to grow. And it was a bad time for the temple. The temple was anything that it should have been. It had lost its heart, its soul, its essence. It became no different than the Roman Empire, in a sense, because we see in this story the Pharisees trying to trip Jesus up by asking him to choose two extremes or take sides on these issues of tax, whether it’s fair to do it or not, whether it’s right to do it or not.
So he just says, look, this is not the issue. You give to Caesar what Caesar’s. You do what you have to do in terms of civil law. And then you give to God what is God’s. And the Pharisees were amazed at his response. But the thing is interesting that he did avoid joining one extreme or the other.
But the other thing is, they didn’t fully understand what he said. You know what the problem with you guys is? You’re not doing what God wants. You’re not giving to God what he’s asking you for. And the tragedy is what he was asking for, what God was asking of those people that ran the temple, that they would simply allow God to be a part of it. They would let divinity and its wisdom enter into them.
So they would be guided to do the right thing. So let’s look at the other two readings because they seem to stress this beautifully. First of all, in the reading with Isaiah, Cyrus is not an Israelite. The Lord had always a problem looking for kings that would do what he asked. And when we look at the way God works with people, there are two things that we need to understand. That when God exercises his authority with us, it is in two forms, Being chosen and being anointed.
The civil authority which the temple had become was simply an authority that had the power to demand blind obedience. Blind obedience. So let’s look at the way in which Isaiah describes to the people that the reason Cyrus was chosen even though he wasn’t an Israelite, was because God used him by empowering him to do what needed to be done. Because he couldn’t find an Israelite who would do that. And he gave Cyrus all the power that he needed to accomplish it. He opened all the doors for him, left gates unbarred, enabled him to do exactly what God asked him to do.
And then Isaiah makes it clear that that’s exactly the way God works. He chooses us because, in fact, I love the image in Scripture where it says, God says, I chose you before you chose me. And to be chosen means you’re called into a relationship with him, where you work together with him. Not you for him, but you in him, him in you. So he’s saying very clearly that there is no one like me, no one like God, no authority like God has ever existed. Because his authority is radically different than that of the world.
One power over people, another to empower them. So we see in the second reading, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, they’re sending a letter to the Thessalonians saying, you know, you’ve got it, you figured it out. You have been empowered by God to do something wonderful. And so we pray with you. We pray for you, we are with you because you understand the authority of God. The authority of God is to give you a task, to empower you to do it and to let you know that this is not something that you are asked to do for God.
But he’s saying, would you allow me to come into you and work with you, guide you, and be the source of the things you need? I mean, you know, power is intoxicating to the human being. I mean, the ego, the will, they love, love, power. Power over people is something that is addictive. And like all addictions, it takes over and runs your life. The power that we have as ministers of the Gospel is not that kind of power.
No, it’s the power to awaken in people who God really is, how powerful he is. He can accomplish anything. If he asks you to do something, and he does ask all of us to do something, we have a destiny. He. He empowers us to do it by being a part of that. So that we have this thing, this wonderful thing that Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are acknowledging in the Thessalonians, a conviction of the power of the Holy Spirit working through them.
What a difference it is to live under that kind of power. There’s actually no. Well, it is under, I guess, under the authority of God, but it’s not something that demand blind obedience. You know, where this comes so much into my attention is when I look at the way in which sometimes the Church gives us demands and demands that we do certain things in a certain way, and yet they may not really fit the situation. And so what I love teaching and being a part of is proclaiming the beauty of this law of God that he swears will be written on our hearts. And.
And when it comes to making moral decisions, we have this power, this spirit within us that informs us. And when we have an inspired understanding, an inspired conscience, we make the decision that we believe that we make in God is going to be the best possible thing. And no law can cover that kind of situation. So it’s more than taxes we’re talking about here. It’s a different kind of legal system. And the interesting thing is Jesus is pointing out to the scribes and Pharisees that, you know, you have created more like you created the Church, more like the Roman Empire, you know, power over people, telling them what to do.
It’s never intended to be that. And there’s always a danger that anyone in a position of power in the Church, it’s no different. They have to be careful not to make it something that it’s not intended to be. It’s not power over, it’s empowering. It’s love. Let us pray.
Father, I pray for all of those who are called to minister this beautiful message of God, the Gospel, the Good News. Free us all from any kind of excessive power over people. Help us always to be attentive to how you long for us to awaken in them the true authority that dwells in their hearts. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you.
You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a NonProfit in Dallas, Texas dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios. Copyright 2023 SAM.
