Kevin Gingras
October 18th, 2020 - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
When we adopted our daughter Faith from Wuhan China, yes, Wuhan, good things can come from Wuhan! Anyway, nothing really became official until we finished up our trip to Guangzhou and were sworn in as her parents. At the agency in Wuhan, they even told us it’s a trial run at first, kind of like test driving a used car! God already had told us that she was our daughter but things needed to be made official.
She became an official citizen of the United States the second our plane touched down in California. Later, in New Bedford, we filled out an American version of paperwork to officially adopt her in the United States. It wasn’t necessary but it would make life easier for her to have an American Birth certificate. These were very important dates for her citizenship but they don’t compare to February 21, 2010. That was the date of her baptism. This was the most important part of her adoption process, citizenship into the family of God. Something she would have never received in Communist China.
You see, we all have dual citizenship, by our birth we became a citizen of an earthly nation but by our baptism we became citizens of a heavenly Kingdom.
Earthly kingdoms will have an end. Our heavenly citizenship will last forever, eternity. My wife says being married to me for so long is like an eternity, she has no idea! Eternity is so much longer than that!
Dual citizenship is what struck me in today’s Gospel:
He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?" They replied, "Caesar's." At that he said to them, "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God."
Caesar's image is on the coin so pay the tax, give to Caesar what has his image on it, it belongs to him. We also should give to God what belongs to God. God’s image is on us. We belong to him, give to God what belongs to God!
As it is written in Genesis 1:27:
God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Our reading from Isaiah carries this even further:
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.
God created us and in doing so also placed His divine image within us. Our dual citizenship into the family of God was made official at our baptism.
CCC 1213 states:
Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission
We need to reflect on how we are doing in giving to God what belongs to him. God doesn’t just want your presence here in the pews or watching Mass online on Sundays. God wants your presence at church of course, but also at work, at home, at the game, in other words, all the time.
St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they are called out specifically by God and even strengthened yet still even though Christ had already left the earth as he writes:
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 and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.
This week we all should pray to the Holy Spirit to ask for that conviction to help us repay to God what belongs to God. It isn’t easy and that is why we need the Holy Spirit’s help to take God with us when we leave here today and bring him with us everywhere by our actions, what we say and do and also by what we DON’T say and DON’T do. Know that God is there with us, we just have to always remember His presence. Focus on our divine vocation while carrying out our earthly jobs and tasks to make our life on this planet so much more fulfilling.
Pope Saint John Paul the II says it well:
"Jesus has a specific task in life for each and every one of us. Each one of us is hand-picked, called by name by Jesus! There is no one among us who does not have a divine vocation!"
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