St. Matthew Catholic Church

Weekly Message     

Belonging: to God and the World

Dear brothers and sisters,   

     Most of us know that feeling intimately of being caught between two worlds. We wake up, check the news, worry about taxes, traffic, civic duties, and the demands of our jobs. We feel the heavy weight of belonging to a society that constantly asks something of us. Yet, at the same time, we bow our heads in prayer, feeling a deeper, more enduring call from a reality that transcends this world entirely. How do we navigate this tension? Jesus has the answer!

     "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and that to God what belongs to God." Jesus is not creating a split personality for the believer. He is acknowledging a fundamental reality: we live in this world. As citizens, workers, and family, we have earthly responsibilities. We pay taxes and we care for our communities. God does not call us to retreat into the clouds or ignore our civic duties.

     Drawing from biblical concepts of being in the world but not of it (such as a foreign ambassador living in a host country). An ambassador resides fully within the local culture, speaks the language, and engages the people, yet derives their core allegiance, authority, and identity from their native homeland.

     God used King Cyrus, a pagan ruler to liberate Israel. He gave to God what belongs to God - the people of Israel. Give to the world what is necessary for order and the common good. But hold nothing back from God. When we give to God what is God's, we are handing back the very thing He created: our whole lives, our deepest loyalties, and our unyielding trust.

     Never forget about whose image you bear and to whom you belong! Let’s give Him our hearts, our loyalty, and our life, because we were made in His image, and to Him we belong forever.

Blessings!

  Msgr. Xavier Pappu                     

                     Insert:  Giving to God/Dar a Dios.pdf
                              Please pray for vocations to the priesthood 
                          for the Priests of our Diocese; & for our Bishop

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