Sometimes it seems as if there is confusion about who is the creator of the world. We live in a time of increasing distrust for institutions and organizations. Some of that has to do with the behavior of the members who claim to be part of those institutions, and some of it has to do with the track record of those particular groups. Some of the distrust has to do with unfulfilled promises.
In the Scriptures readings for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we read: “I am the Lord, and there is no other,” (Isaiah 45:5) and “… give to God what belongs to God” (Matthew 22:21).
When we place our allegiance, the foundations of our life, with anything or anyone other than God, we risk becoming disillusioned and disaffected. Some institutions we thought were trustworthy or efficient in their business have proven not to be. We have learned that some people who represent God aren’t always good at living out their promises. As sinners, we have done the same thing. We must make our allegiance with God and base our lives on His promises.
We are tempted to give our allegiance to something or someone else in other ways. Maybe we have come to believe that having money in the bank or an influential job might be the source of lasting security. Perhaps we thought our intelligence would secure a position of power or belonging. Maybe we felt that we didn’t have to take responsibility for our personal lives and that we could blame someone else.
When mid-April comes, we are reminded that we must all pay taxes. We know that certain responsibilities come with the privilege of living in our country. We take the time to figure out our fair share of the taxes and pay them dutifully. That doesn’t mean we give our allegiance to a government; it certainly doesn’t mean we replace God with politics.
What does it mean to give to God what belongs to God? We can think very minimalistically and say that tithing is our way of giving to God what belongs to Him. That is living dangerously, because the truth is everything belongs to God. Unless we see that every gift that we have and everything we’ve earned belongs to God, we open ourselves to opportunities to confuse the true power in the world and the allegiance of our lives.
To whom does your life belong? Think for a moment about the people you truly admire in your life. They are not the highest-paid people you know or those who live in the biggest houses. They are certainly not the people who have escaped noticeable suffering or who always get their way. We are tempted from time to time to envy those sorts of people, but they are not the ones we genuinely admire. We admire those who cultivate compassion from their suffering and offer it to others as a gift. We admire those who find a way to share that with others, even if they have just a little. We admire those who find a way to remain faithful to God and others in the most difficult situations. We admire those who find a way to have faith in God, even when there is no noticeable evidence that the promise is fulfilled.
To whom does your life belong?
Father Donald Wester is pastor of All Saints Parish in St. Peters.