October 22, 2023; World Mission Sunday/ 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

 

World Mission Sunday: October 22, 2023

1.     Today is World Mission Sunday. Mission Sunday was instituted by Pope Pius X1 in 1926. The Pope invited the Church to participate in the work of the mission to bring Christ to the ends of the earth. According to Pope Francis, “Celebrating this month will help us first to rediscover the missionary dimension of our faith in Jesus Christ, a faith graciously bestowed on us in Baptism. Our filial relationship with God is not something simply private, but always in relation to the Church.” The theme for this year’s celebration, as set by Pope Francis, is “Hearts on fire, feet on the move,” based on the story of the disciples who encounter Jesus on their way to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-35). He invites all of us to “set out once more, illumined by our encounter with the risen Lord and prompted by his Spirit. Let us set out again with burning hearts, with our eyes open and our feet in motion. Let us set out to make other hearts burn with the word of God, to open the eyes of others to Jesus in the Eucharist, and to invite everyone to walk together on the path of peace and salvation that God, in Christ, has bestowed upon all humanity.” In a world where so much divides us, World Mission Sunday rejoices in our unity as missionaries through our Baptism, as it offers each one of us an opportunity to support the life-giving presence of the Church among the poor and marginalized in more than 1,111 mission dioceses.

2.     The first worldwide Mission Sunday collection was taken in October 1927. Since then, the Mission Sunday collection is always taken on the next to the last Sunday in October. That day is celebrated in all the local Churches as the feast of Catholicity and universal Solidarity, so Christians the world over will recognize their common responsibility concerning the evangelization of the world.

3.     I am a member of the Missionary Society of St. Paul of Nigeria. My Society was founded by the late Dominic Cardinal Ekandem in consultation with the Episcopal Conference of Nigeria in 1977 for missions (46 years ago). This was in answer to the call of the Second Vatican Council and Pope Paul V1 in Uganda in 1969 to Africans to participate in the mission mandate of the Universal Church. Jesus Christ calls on us to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to all creatures.” (Mk. 16:15). Since the Nigerian Church was a beneficiary of the faith brought by European missionaries, it is only fitting that we, too, should share in this mandate, to bring the Gospel of Christ to the Americas, Europe and indeed to the ends of the world. Today, Missionaries of St. Paul have answered the call to bring the Gospel of Christ to God’s people in America, Canada, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Germany, England, Grenada, Bahamas, South Africa, South Sudan, Botswana, Central African Republic, Chad, Malawi, Cameroon, the Gambia, Kenya, Liberia and Nigeria.

4.     On November 30, 1919, Pope Benedict XV, in his Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud, stressed the need for all Catholics to be interested in missionary work. Pope Francis said this of the Apostolic letter of his predecessor 104 years ago, “Its farsighted and prophetic vision of the apostolate has made me realize once again the importance of renewing the Church’s missionary commitment and giving fresh evangelical impulse to her work of preaching and bringing to the world the salvation of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again.”

5.     We must all see ourselves as missionaries. We only exist as a Church because we are a missionary Church, sent on a mission by God in Jesus, who commands us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19-20). Some of us must necessarily go on mission as missionaries, but others must also go on mission by giving to support the mission. In his apostolic letter, Maximum Illud, Pope Benedict XV said, “There are three general ways in which a Catholic can assist the missionary effort, and missionaries themselves constantly remind us of them. This is within everyone’s capacity.”

·        Pray that God may grant the missions His merciful aid. “This kind of prayer cannot fail, especially in this cause, for no cause is dearer or more pleasing to God than this one. While the Israelites fought their battle with Amalek, Moses took his stand on a great hill and, lifting his hands, implored God’s aid for his people. The teachers of the Gospel are manfully at work in the Lord’s vineyard, and it is the duty of all the faithful to follow the example of Moses and grant them the support of their prayers.”

·        Fostering vocations. Everyone must pray for an increase of vocation in the Church. Jesus reminds us: “The harvest is large, but there are few workers to gather it in. Pray to the owner of the harvest that he will send out workers to gather in his harvest” (Matt. 9:37-38).

·        Economic Help. Every Catholic must give to support the mission.

I want to express my gratitude to all who have supported the work of the mission. May God bless and reward you abundantly.

Rev. Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP

29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time; Year (A) October 22, 2023

Readings: Isaiah 45:1, 4-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5; Matthew 22:15-21 

Everything belongs to God.

1.     Today is World Mission Sunday. The Holy Father, Pope Francis, calls on us all to participate in the Church’s mission. Please read my reflection on the mission in the bulletin under ‘From the Pastor’s desk.’ In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the Pharisees to give to God what belongs to God and to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Christ was reacting to the trap set for him concerning the payment of taxes. Jesus had been confronting the religious leaders of his day, indicting them with his parables. In the parable of the two sons (Matthew 21:28-32), he portrayed the Jewish leaders as unsatisfactory sons who did not do his father’s will. In the parable of the wicked servants (Matthew 21:33-46), Jesus demonstrated that they were the corrupt servants who ill-treated those sent to receive the produce of the vineyard and even killed the son of the vineyard owner, intending to take over the vineyard for themselves. In the parable of the wedding feast of the king’s son (Matthew 22:1-14), Christ showed them as the condemned guests, one of whom did not even wear a wedding garment. In today’s gospel, the Jewish leaders are on the offensive with their counterattack on Jesus. They are going for a kill, aiming at Jesus’ jocular. They confronted Jesus publicly with a question regarding the payment of taxes. Their aim was to discredit Jesus with his own words. Palestine was an occupied country, and the Jews were subject to the Roman Empire; the question was: “Is it lawful to pay tribute to Rome or not.” There were three regular taxes the Roman government exacted on the Jews. The ground tax – a tenth of the grain and one-fifth of the oil and wine; income tax – one percent of a man’s income; then a poll tax – paid by every male from the age of 14-65, and female from the age of 12-65. It was equivalent to one denarius. It was the poll tax that prompted the confrontation.

2.     If Christ had answered that it was unlawful to pay tax, they would have reported him to the Roman authority for sedition, and Christ would have been arrested immediately. If his answer, on the other hand, was that it was lawful to pay tax, he would have been discredited in the eyes of the people. The Jews resented paying taxes for religious reasons. To them, God was the only king; therefore, to pay tax to an earthly king was to admit the validity of his kingship and thereby insult God as their ultimate king. Therefore, any tax paid to a foreign king was necessarily wrong. Whichever way Christ would have answered the question would put him in the wrong. Christ outsmarts them by asking for the coin used to pay tax. And then told them to give the coin to the owner – Caesar, since his head was on it.

3.     Jesus lays down an important principle for every Christian with this simple but intelligent answer. We belong both to the country in which we live and to God. We are citizens of the world and citizens of heaven; we owe our allegiance to both. Our government must protect and provide us with social amenities like good roads, a healthcare system, social infrastructures, sewage, and water systems, means of public transportation, public schools, and all other services. Hence, we have an obligation to our governments. St. Peter tells us, “Give honor to all, love the community, fear God, honor the king.” (1 Peter 2:17), and Paul tells Christians, “Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except God, and those that exist have been established by God. Pay to all their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.” (Rom. 13:1, 7). By paying taxes and being law-abiding, we assist the government in caring for our needs. William Barclay reflects, “Because the Christian is a man of honor, he must be a responsible citizen; failure in good citizenship is also a failure in Christian duty. Untold trouble can descend upon a country or an industry when Christians refuse to take their part in the administration and leave it to selfish, self-seeking, partisan, and unchristian men. The Christian has a duty to Caesar in return for the privileges which the rule of Caesar brings to him.” 

4.     We also belong to God, not just us but all creation. “The earth is the Lord’s and all it holds, the world and those who live there.” (Ps. 24:1). Even Caesar belongs to God. In the first reading, God directed a pagan king to be an instrument of deliverance to his chosen people. He called Cyrus ‘his anointed’, a title given only to someone in Israel. God was the one who directed the operations of Cyrus. He arms him, “though you know me not.” Because “I am the Lord, and there is no other, there is no God besides me.” Whatever happens, at any time, at any place, happens under God’s control. The answer that Christ gave reaffirmed the supremacy of God over humanity. We must give God our loyalty, adoration, obedience, and all. When we are convinced that it is God’s will that something should be done, we must do it, or if we are convinced that something is against the will of God, we must resist it and take no part in it. Where the boundaries between the two duties lie, Jesus does not say. That is for our own conscience to test. But a real Christian – and this is the permanent truth which Jesus here lays down – is at one and the same time a good citizen of his country and a good citizen of the kingdom of heaven. He will fail in his duty neither to God nor to man. May God help us to be true to our dual citizenship. Amen.

 

Rev. Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP