Newsletter 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) 18th October, 2026
Gospel Reflection: The Pharisees join with the Herodians to test Jesus in order to have him fall out of favour with the people by asking whether it is permissible to pay taxes to Caesar, a huge burden and symbol of Roman oppression that sparked the AD 6 revolt led by Judas the Galilean, creating a trap where affirming the tax makes Him an enemy of the Jews and denying it makes Him an enemy of the Romans. Jesus replies, “You hypocrites! Why do you try to test Me?”, comparing their trap to Satan's three desert temptations, and then asks to see the tax coin, which is a denarius—a labourer's daily wage—stamped with the image of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the “divine” Augustus, and the reverse inscription “High Priest” (Pontifex Maximus), making the imperial claim of divinity a blasphemy to the Jews. Jesus answers, “Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God,” implying it is not wrong to pay taxes to the state to support the common good, a duty echoed in the Fourth Commandment, Romans 13:7 (“Pay what you owe those in authority, pay them your personal and property taxes”), 1 Peter 2:17 (“Have reverence for God and respect for the emperor”), and Catechism of the Catholic Church n. 2238 and n. 2240, which state that those subject to authority should regard leaders as representatives of God and that submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make paying taxes, voting, and defending one's country morally obligatory. Our Lord adds that all peoples, including Caesar, must give God what is His due, fulfilling the greatest commandment to love the Lord with all one's heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30) Just as the denarius bears Caesar's image, humans bear the image of God created in Genesis 1:27, meaning Caesar is rightly due a coin while God is rightly due the whole life of every person. Because human love is limited and finite while God deserves everything, our ideal and challenge is to give God everything at every moment, reflecting the love of Our Blessed Mother who revealed to Luisa Piccarreta that her sacrifice to live always in the Will of God was greater than all other historical sacrifices combined, and echoing Blessed Dina Belanger who died in Canada in 1929 and described herself as completely united with Jesus so that He alone lives, thinks, acts, prays, and speaks through her faculties while she remains buried in His Heart contemplating Him and repeating incessantly, “Jesus, I love Thee.” Our daily challenge is to make Jesus our first love, best friend, all and everything, and constant companion.
by Fr Doug Harris 2026
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