Sunday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b; Philippians 2:15d, 16a; Matthew 22:15-21
One of my kids, about 7 at the time, came with me to the grocery store. While we were checking out, he found a penny on the floor. He picked it up and handed it to the cashier, who said, “That’s OK, you can keep it.” “No, you have it,” my son said. She smiled, took the coin, and said, “How sweet! Thank you!” In the car, I asked him why he didn’t keep it like she said. He replied, “Dad, the penny was tails. That’s bad luck. She can have it.”
Mr. Generosity.
My son looked at the image on a coin and saw luck. The Pharisees looked at the image on a coin and saw an opportunity to entrap Jesus.
But the real question today is, what image does God see when He looks at us?
We want Him to see His image and likeness, of course, for that’s how He created us.
But how do we know what God sees when He looks at us? While we can’t know for sure, God does give us clues. One comes from St. Paul, who saw the Thessalonians putting their faith into practice through their work, their love, and their perseverance in hope. Another clue comes from Christ. Throughout the Gospels, he isn’t nearly as interested in what people say about faith as he is in how they put faith into practice.
So then we have to ask ourselves, if God looks at how I practice my faith, how am I practicing it? Is faith something I pick up on Sunday morning and put down on Sunday afternoon, or is it with me every hour of every day?
I think most of us would like to say that our faith is with us all the time, but then the question becomes, how are we showing it? Does it show in our prayer life? In how we treat people? In how involved we are in doing things to make the lives of those around us better? Do we, as today’s Gospel Acclamation urges, shine like lights in the world?
I think we probably do, to some degree. But that only intensifies the question: What keeps us from shining more brightly?
Of course, we know the answer: Sin. If our souls were coins, sin would be the impurities that keep the metal from reflecting light as brightly as it could. Sin doesn’t erase God’s image in us, but it does obscure that image, making it harder for others to see Christ in the way we live.
In the ancient world, like today, bronze, silver, and gold had to be purified before it could be made or re-made into jewelry or coins. Picture a silversmith standing by the fire, watching as the silver melts in the cauldron. As impurities rise to the surface, he carefully skims them off. The purer the silver gets, the more it reflects like a mirror. Once the silversmith can clearly see his own reflection, the silver is ready.
That’s a good metaphor for the spiritual life.
God is at work in us, too. Through His grace, God helps us recognize the impurities in our lives: pride, selfishness, impatience, unwillingness to forgive. Through prayer, Scripture, and the ordinary circumstances of daily life, He invites us to let those things go. Ultimately, through the grace of the Sacraments, especially Confession, He forgives our sins, purifies our hearts, and strengthens us to resist temptation in the future.
Of course, that takes a great deal of humility and perseverance. We have to admit to God and ourselves that there are things in our lives that need to change. And we have to remember that it doesn’t happen overnight; conversion is the gradual work of a lifetime.
And although it may feel at times like we’re the silver in the cauldron, the result is far more than worth it. As we receive the grace God offers us, we become more and more conformed to the image of His Son.
So, perhaps the question to ask today is just this simple: When people look at the way I live, can they see something of Christ?
Can they see him in the way I treat the members of my family and my neighbors? In my patience with someone who frustrates me, my willingness to forgive someone who has hurt me, or my concern for someone who has nothing to offer me in return?
We don’t have to be perfect to reflect Christ. But we do have to be willing to let God work on us.
Remember the coin my son found at the store? He saw the image on it and thought about luck. The Pharisees saw the image on a coin and thought about how they could use it against Jesus.
Jesus asks us to look beyond the coin itself. Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give God what belongs to God.
What belongs to God? We do. We bear His image.
May we let His grace purify our hearts, so that when God looks at us, He sees the image of His Son — and when the world looks at us, it sees something of Christ, too.
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