Twenty-ninth SUNDAY of ORDINARY TIME -- Year A

First: Is 45:1.4-6; Second: 1 Th 1:1-5 Gospel: Mt 22:15-21

THEME of the READINGS

God is the Lord of the empires and of history. Cyrus reigns over the immense Persian empire (First Reading), but God reigns over Cyrus and providentially makes him his mediator in his plans regarding history. Give to God what belongs to God, the Gospel teaches us, and to the kings and emperors what belongs to them. To God, the plan and purpose of history; to them, the action and onward evolution of history. There is no doubt about the fact that it is the power of God and of his Spirit that is mysteriously present in the vicissitudes that make up the fabric of history (Second Reading).

DOCTrinal MESSAGE

There are no two histories, one profane and the other one sacred, but there is only one history: the history of God. He has started it, he has continued it over time and he will end it whenever he has decided. Humans are words, but only God writes history with such words. In daily events, in the vicissitudes between peoples and nations, in political or social changes, there are essential human agents, but there is especially a greater, divine plan, though we are not capable of perceiving it. To actually see it, we need to know about God, we need the wisdom that probes the depths of God himself. To see it, it is also necessary to have an attitude of prayer and hope, in order for people to cooperate and joyfully lend themselves to fulfilling the divine plan. Sometimes it may seem that history escapes his control, but it is not so. God allows this to happen in his inscrutable plan, to show us that we are heading down the wrong path, to show us the way to build history according to God. In actual fact, God is not at our mercy, nor are we like puppets in God's hands. This is a great mystery!

Histories and history. The general concept of history encompasses many objects: political, religious, economic, social, national, continental, universal history... Each and every one of them are pieces with which God, helped by us, builds the only history: the history of salvation, which is intertwined with the other histories and seeks to breathe spiritual life into them, without identifying with any of them. Yes, because God wants all to be saved. This is why the power of God and the presence of the Spirit in us and in our actions and plans, transform the small histories into the history above any other form of history: the history that leads to eternity, above and beyond history. We make history, God accomplishes it. We live history, God gives history its meaning, a meaning hidden in a sealed book... "Pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and God what belongs to God."

PASTORal SUGGESTIONS

Divine providence. Human history does not evolve haphazardly, without direction or aim. The end of history and its destiny are in the hands of God. "Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?" (Mt 6:26). We must be convinced of this providential action of God's in the great history of humanity and in the small history of each human being; surely, the individual is not a puppet, but he is not the lord of history; he is simply its manager, and must behave accordingly. We must also have a sense of providence in everything. Like Job, we must say, "Yahweh gave, Yahweh has taken back. Blessed be the name of Yahweh! In all this misfortune Job committed no sin, and he did not reproach God" (Job 1,21-22). Let us never forget that everything that happens is for the good, for God can find what is good even in the things that are bad, and for those that love God all things contribute to their good.

Sense of responsibility before the history of salvation. No one is neutral in God's plan, no-one is exempt from playing a role in history. One either builds or destroys. It is impossible not to take a position before the great watershed of history. Let us recall that, at the final hour, we will be accountable for the work we have carried out, both in our personal history and in the history of the community in which we have lived.

The objection, "Since God guides everything towards what is good, the evil that I do will have no consequence," is a petty objection. Evil will never cease to be evil before ourselves and before God, as much as God, in his goodness and might, is able to get the good out of the bad. God guides history, but he does not make up for our wretchedness or human smallness. The sense of providence does not diminish, but rather enhances our responsibility before God. As far as this issue is concerned, it is necessary to form the conscience of Christians to uprightness and fidelity. An upright conscience to know well the will of God; a faithful conscience to act according to his will.

Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOA.html by P. ANTONIO IZQUIERDO L.C. (1948-2013)

[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].