AS WE OUGHT!
29th Sunday Ordinary Time Year A
October 19, 2014
AS WE OUGHT
Good, old Jose Feliciano crooned that “love comes from the
most unexpected places.” Well, you and I know that very well. Amorous feelings
come our way without us planning for them, wanting them, and developing them.
Feelings come and go, of course, and, when the dust has settled, sort of, when
feelings are gone, real love and commitment remain, whether feelings are there
or not.
God’s graces and gifts, too, come through the intermediary
of the most unexpected people … yes, including Cyrus who was idolized by the
Jews for giving them back their liberty and self-esteem. The famous Edict of
Cyrus gave the possibility for the Jewish exiles to go back to their promised
land and rebuild their homes, their temple in Jerusalem, and reboot their lives
once more (1st reading).
They say God writes straight with crooked lines. This time,
according to the report of Isaiah, God simply writes straight. Period. No
matter what the ulterior motives of Cyrus were … and have other motives, Cyrus
most likely did! (a strategic tactical move? … an attempt at ingratiating
himself to the Israelites and their neighbors? Your guess is as good as mine.)
I really have no axes to grind against the Cyruses of this
world who might have other plans up their sleeves. But I do have a word or two
to say about a God who can make use even of scheming potentates like Cyrus was,
to do good to people that God loves.
I don’t know whether Cyrus really loved the Israelites, but
I do know one thing … God surely loved His people and cared for them. And He
made use of people like Cyrus to show and effect that love.
I don’t know how bad and cruel Saul was prior to his
encountering the Lord and getting converted, but I do know one thing … God has
done marvelous works through Paul and He was behind his dramatic turnaround for
the better. God does write straight for the benefit of His people. Today, we
have a brilliant example of it. Paul thanks God profusely for the Thessalonians
who, despite their attachment to God, had to go on with their “work of faith
and labor of love and endurance in hope.” (2nd reading).
Even today, we have reason to thank God for the grace of
martyrdom for many Christians who suffer ignominious and cruel deaths for their
faith – unreported, unheralded – even unmourned by the rest of the indifferent
world, under the hands of people who hate everybody else who does not belong to
their group. Even today, we can thank God, for despite having to be loyal to
the many unpredictable and unworthy Caesars in this world here and now, we
still find it in our hearts to “give what is due to God, and to give what is
due to Caesar.”
My task today is not to give in to rants and complaints
about the worthiness or otherwise of the Caesars that populate our world where
we are. But my task, as preacher, is to highlight what everyone of us is called
to, by God, who can write straight through crooked people like the many Caesars
and Caesar-wannabes that dot the political landscape.
And my point is simple and clear – as clear as the point of
Isaiah and Paul and no less than the Lord Himself who, today counsels us: “Repay
to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”
Yes, dear Juan and Juana de la Cruz (or dear John Doe &
Virginia, as the case may be) … there is life beyond politics. There is life
beyond the narrow confines of limiting and constricting earthly ideologies. There
is more to life than merely shouting and hollering slogans and self-serving
clamors. There is more to life than just living here and now, in this valley of
tears. There is a thing called “work of faith, labor of love, and endurance in
hope” … all at the service of what “God has prepared for us” … eternal life, no
less … and what He has in store for us, is both literally and figuratively “out
of this world!”
Onward Christian soldiers! “Shine like lights in the world
as you hold on to the word of life. Alleluia. Alleluia!” (Gospel acclamation). As we ought!
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