Render Unto Caesar_Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

18 October 2026

Is 45:1, 4-6

Mt 22:15-21

There is much truth in the old saying, "politics make strange bedfellows." Political scheming and plotting for power can bring together people who have little in common and who frequently detest each other. We see the real ugliness of politics reenacted every four years during the dreadful time leading up to presidential elections. Even worse, it seems today that politics is a 24 hours aday seven days a week 365 days a year preoccupation of many. This preoccupation is somewhere on the spectrum from overvalued idea, to obsession, to delusion. Too many are not shy about expressing their opinions any time, any where, or to any one. The same applies to Church politics which are every bit as ugly as democrat vs. republican. It is amazing how people will compromise themselves in the pursuit of power. The last presidential campaign was a real screamer, with each party being as ugly, angry, nasty, and hypocritical as the other.

Today's gospel shows that the same dynamic existed in the Ancient Near East.

The Pharisees and the Herodians were definitely not drinking buddies, unless one side was trying to slip poison into the other side’s drinks. The Pharisees wanted nothing to do with the Herodians who were supporters of non-Jew ruler Herod Antipas. And the Herodians held no truck with the Pharisees. The Herodians were mostly servants of the Roman Empire in contrast to the Pharisees who awaited the Messiah to free them from that same empire. Strange bedfellows indeed. However, in the case of today’s Gospel the two put aside their differences to team up against Jesus in order to entrap him with a difficult question.

In this particular scenario, the reason for the question is as important as the answer. It was the reason for the question that formed the kind of unholy alliance such as those we routinely see in the American political scene. The question illustrates the classic concepts of: A rock and a hard place. No win situation. Lose-lose.

The question was skillfully formed. Like most politicians going in for an attempted kill, Jesus' interlocutors opened with a fawning tribute to Him: "Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Tell us what is your opinion" They then asked the question, "Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?" Because of the opposite positions of the Pharisees and the Herodians Jesus was in what appeared to be a double-bind. Had Jesus agreed that it was lawful to pay the census tax he could have been discredited by the Pharisees for placing secular law above the Law of God. Had he said it was unlawful to pay the tax he could have been accused of treason by the Herodians.

Jesus recognized their malice. Rather than blurting out a yes or no answer or beginning a long rambling rationalization arguing both sides of the question, He asked for a coin. After asking whose image was on the coin Jesus famously replied, "Render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and unto God that which belongs to God."

Jesus' response has been analyzed under different lenses over the centuries. Some admire the rhetorical skill of his answer. Some use it to make philosophical statements about the separation of church and state. But Jesus was not intending a witty response to a hostile question, nor was he commenting on the various church-state issues that continue to rankle the U.S. today. Jesus’s reply was not meant to show off his rhetorical skills. nor was he making a philosophical statement about the separation of church and state. He was not suggesting that the church should be confined within certain parameters and never get involved with politics.

Jesus broadened the question and raised a challenge to his questioners If the coin belongs to Caesar because it bears Caesar’s image then what belongs to God is that which bears God’s image. And because God creates every human in His image and likeness every human being--including Caesar--bears God's image and ultimately belongs to Him.

We heard an echo of the Shema Yisrael, the central prayer in Judaism, in the first reading from Isaiah. The shema reminds the one who prays, "I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me. . . .

"I am the LORD, there is no other."

Unlike the coins of the world that bear the images of rulers, living and dead, all humanity bears the image of God. This includes the child in the womb and the old man dying of Alzheimer's. We bear that image from conception until natural death.

It is a mortal sin to destroy it.

 

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One of the greatest experiences of my adult life was tertianship in Australia. Eight months, four in Sydney (our base) and four in a variety of locations. Besides the prayer, reading, and various experiences directly related to be Jesuits, we had a reasonable amount of free time, musch of which I spent with the camera. A few days after we officially began on 20 January we went to Seven Mile Beach in Gerroa, NSW to get to know each other. Astonishingly beautiful beach. Twelve jaws collectively dropped when we arrived.

 

A man and his dog on the beach early Sunday morning

Australians love anything to do with the water. A kayaker on Sunday morning returning from an ocean session.

The Australian lifeguard boats compete in races. This was a women's team heading out early Sunday morning.

Sunset later on Sunday Evening. I walked that strip of beach every night for the ten nights we were there.

 

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD 

  

The Lord is My Shepherd: Homily for 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

  

Is 25:6-10a

Ps 23

Phil 4:12-14, 19-20

Mt 22:1-14

 

Psalm 23 is probably the most well-known, beloved, and most often prayed, of the entire psalter, the prayer book central to both Jewish and Catholic worship.  The psalter is a book of 150 poems and songs that plead with, praise, and thank God while reminding us what He has done for us and what He will do for us.

 

Even those who profess no belief or who are militantly atheist are familiar with the 23rd psalm.  They may not like it but they are familiar with it, if for no other reason than its frequent use in television and movie funerals.  No burial in the old black and white John Wayne or Gary Cooper westerns was official until the preacher, dressed in a black frock coat intoned "The Lord is my shepherd . . . "as the makeshift cross got pounded into the soil and John or Gary caressed the handle of his pistol.

 

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want . . . "

 

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil"

 

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies"

 

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life"

 

The images of fulfilled yearning comfort the one praying the psalm.  The prophecy of a splendid banquet with rich food and fine wine, the description of a time in which God will wipe away our tears and destroy death, are the same images evoked in the first reading from Isaiah. That prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus.

 

The images in Isaiah and the table spread before us in the psalm are a startling contrast to the Gospel.

 

The parable of the wedding banquet is not consoling.  The invited guests failed to heed the invitation.  Those who were chosen rudely rejected the invitation.  Others mistreated and killed those who delivered the invitation to the banquet.  Thus, the king punished the ingrates and recruited stray guests from the crossroads. These recruited guests were outsiders and social outcasts: tax collectors and prostitutes, highwaymen and vagrants, and others who lived at the margins. 

 

As one commentator noted, the parable of the wedding banquet explains the difference between the Old covenant and the New.  Whereas the covenant between God and Israel, was from the top down Jesus' invitation to the wedding banquet the new covenant is freely given from the ground up and one can choose.  The Israelites did not have a choice. They were a people and a nation chosen by God. They were a people with whom He forged his covenant. They were chosen and led through the wilderness into the promised land where they forgot that covenant and allowed all that God had done for them to fade from memory.

 

The guests summoned to the wedding banquet, on the other hand, had the choice to accept or reject that invitation.  Like the ancient Israelites, many rejected the covenant, sometimes with great violence.  Millennia later, we continue to reject the covenant as individuals.  We reject it as a nation when we elect those who would exact violence on the unborn, the ill-elderly, and destroy confused children,  while at the same time rejoicing in the perverse and immoral.  Like the people in the parable it is our choice to accept or reject the invitation to the wedding banquet.

 

One has to wonder about the poor guy  who showed up without being properly attired. 

 

A superficial reading would ask why anyone who was recruited to a banquet from the streets would be expected to show up appropriately dressed?  It would be like dragging people from Boston Common and the Public Garden into a celebration at The Four Seasons on Boylston St. It is unlikely that they would be wearing Perry Ellis to say nothing of a tuxedo.

 

But this is a parable. The logical and the illogical coexist with equal weight and authority. 

 

The parable of the wedding banquet is an outline of salvation history from a Christian perspective.  It explains the inclusion of marginal people in God’s Kingdom.  It also includes a warning.  Just as the Israelites were punished for repeatedly violating the covenant, an invitation to the wedding banquet is insufficient.  We can accept the invitation.  But mere acceptance is not enough. An appropriate response to the invitation is demanded, as symbolized by the wedding garment.

 

That response is one of conversion of life, a response of faith, prayer, and participation in the sacraments. Only then can we be assured that

 

"We shall live in the house of the Lord,

all the days of our lives."

 

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The photos are from Piran, Slovenia, a place I spent a total of 18 hours in, 12 of them shooting photos.  I saw a post on Facebook that cracked me up by its very truth.  It said "Rain makes normal people run indoors and photographers start looking for neon . . . and reflections." This could be turned into a sampler and hung on the wall. Thus the attached photos I never bothered eating or drinking throughout the day. It is a warm memory despite being soaked to the skin several times.   

 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

In the Vineyard of the Lord: Homily for 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

  

Is 5:1-7

Ps 80

Phil 4:6-9

Mt 21:33-43

 

Today’s gospel begins where last Sunday’s ended and continues the vineyard theme. Taken together the first reading and the Gospel illustrate the dependence of the New Testament upon the Old Testament reminding the reader that one cannot understand the New Testament without first knowing the Old.  The images of the vineyard, the wine press, and the tower that Jesus used in the parable, came directly from Isaiah. They make the same painful point about fidelity, or lack thereof, to God’s law.  But Jesus moved beyond Isaiah. 

 

Cultivating a vineyard is complicated, difficult, and demanding work.  Running a vineyard is not so much a job as it is a vocation and way of life. I completed tertianship in 2011 during eight months in Australia.  Yes, it was a dream come true, particularly for a photographer.  We did the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius during the thirty-day retreat at the Sevenhill Jesuit Retreat House located on the grounds of the Jesuit winery near the town of Clare, South Australia.  The Clare Valley, with 35 wineries,  is an important part of the Australian wine industry.

 

Begun by Bavarian Jesuits in 1851 Sevenhill was one of the first wineries in the Clare Valley.  The setting on 1000 acres of rolling hills is beyond beautiful.  BUT . . . the beauty obscures an important fact.  Caring for a vineyard is backbreaking work that demands both physical stamina and familiarity with organic chemistry.  Sometimes, despite precautions, hard work, the commitment of the wine master and the dedication of the workers, the harvest is not good and the wines are less than wonderful.  Unfortunately, 2011 was catastrophic. It was unusually cold and cloudy. There was way too much rain during the harvest.  Only sixty percent of the grapes were even harvested.  The others died on the vine.  But, the winemakers at Sevenhill and the rest of the Valley were not giving up.  Once the scope of the problem was defined, the staff at Sevenhill rolled up their sleeves and began to prepare for 2012.

 

So it is with God who loves us and forgives our sins rather than giving up on us.

 

We heard of the vineyard owner’s dismay In the first reading when, despite constructing the vineyard, putting in a watchtower to prevent sabotage, and carefully cultivating the grapes, he harvested useless sour grapes.  Isaiah was, like Jesus in the gospel, using the image of the vineyard for the people of Israel, people who, despite God’s care worshipped false idols, ignored the law, and became like sour wild grapes unfit for wine or anything else.  

 

The vineyard is a symbol for the people in the psalm as well.

 

The psalmist asks the Lord to restore the vineyard and care for it despite the poor harvest, despite the people violating and forgetting the covenant yet again. In the psalm we ask the Lord to restore us despite our drive to commit the same sins over and over while periodically throwing in a few new ones.

 

The psalm is a combination of confession, faith, and bargaining.  But  the  psalmist,

who captured the essence of human behavior in the psalm, knows that God is forgiving and will relent.  Jesus takes the vineyard image further than Isaiah when he predicts His own death.  But he also tells of  the mission to the Gentile, who were not part of the old covenant.

 

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”  Truer words have rarely been uttered.

 

There are three more verses at the end of this parable.  The last two are critical to put the parable and of all of Jesus’ teaching into context. We read, “When the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them.  And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds for they regarded him as a prophet.” The truth hurts.  Sometimes the truth hurts the one who reveals it, particularly in the cancellation culture of the U.S.  Killing the bearer of the truth may be much easier than making fundamental changes in our lives, actions, and attitudes as a result of hearing that truth.

 

 

Five more chapters of parables and discourse follow chapter 21 before Matthew recounts Jesus’ passion and death.  All of the parables and discourses are familiar.  All of them challenge us, just as they challenged Jesus’ hearers.  At times they are painful

because we see ourselves reflected in them.  The reflection is not pretty.  We can clean up that picture easily enough. The instructions are found in the second reading.  Do “what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.  Then the God of peace will be with you.”

 

That peace will surpass all understanding.  That peace will trump anything we can imagine.   

 

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The photos are from the Charterhouse in Pleterje, Slovenia which I had occasion to visit several times while in the country.  It was a situation that grew out of my relationship with the Charterhouse in the U.S., a relationship established a year earlier.   

 

 

Part of my lunch.  The rose was nicely chilled.  This is one of my favorite still lifes. 

The monastic church from the gallery.

One of the cloister walks.  The corpus at the end of the hall was made by one of the monks. 

The town of Šmarje, a shortened version of St. Mary's.  This was taken from the car that would transport me from the train station in Krško to the house. 

 

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD 

Hypocrites Anonymous: Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

  

Mt 21:28-32

 

Today's gospel appears late in Matthew, just after Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem.  In the days between that entry paved with palm branches and hosannas and the arduous journey when he carried the cross of our salvation, Jesus engaged in a number of debates and discussions with the chief priests and elders. These debates helped to seal His death warrant.  He was cutting too close to the bone, for the authorities to bear, proving  the saying, “the truth hurts.”Through the use of parables, Jesus pointed out the contradictions between what the priests and elders preached and how they lived.  Jesus pointed out how

the priests and elders heard John’s call to repentance, but failed to heed it.

 

The second son in the parable, the one who said he would go to work in the vineyard but did not go,  represents those who proclaimed the law but failed to follow through on its principles and demands. They are the hypocrites.  They are the actors who play a role in which they do not believe. They could be judges, mayors or government officials anywhere today.

 

The first son, who initially refused to work in the vineyard but then fulfilled the father’s request, represents the social and religious outcasts of the time, the sinners, who, despite not following the law in the beginning,  heard the call to repentance and eventually heeded it.  They are like us who, after many attempts, finally quit smoking, get sober, return to the Church after a long “vacation,” or in general simply get it, eventually hearing the call to repentance  and acting on it.

 

While the second brother mouthed an obedient response to the father’s request,he did not follow through. The first brother though initially unwilling did what he was commanded. While not perfect obedience the seriousness of any sin was mitigated by his later action.  How often have we acted, like the hypocritical second brother?  How often have we made a commitment and then not honored it?  How often have we acted like the first brother, initially refusing a request but then, as the result of a guilty conscience, quietly going and doing what we were originally asked? 

 

We can all accuse ourselves of mouthing principles that we fail to practice; the “do as I say not as I do” syndrome?   Sometimes it requires the pain of having the hypocrisy of one's actions pointed out to drive a conversion.

 

I quit smoking back in 1977--thirteen years after starting--when, after harshly lecturing an ICU patient about the dangers of her continuing to smoke, I leaned over to listen to her heart.  A pack of Marlboros, the red and white crush-proof box, fell out of my white coat pocket and onto the sheet.  The patient reacted with unmistakable anger.

 

All I remember of her diatribe was the accusation that I was a hypocrite, a liar, and fundamentally dishonest.  She continued for a bit but I remember nothing more as I was wondering if I could break the glass and jump out of the eighth floor window. That experience was excruciating. I quit smoking that moment.  Embarrassment is one of the most painful motivators of change anyone can know.  And I remain grateful to that patient for saying what had to be said.

 

We heard in the psalms, “The sins of my youth and my frailties, remember not; in your kindness remember me, because of your goodness.”  Even when we have acted like the second son when we have been hypocritical or disobedient, it is not too late. We heard the promise in the first reading that If anyone turns from wickedness and does what is right and just, his life shall be preserved, he shall live and not die.

 

Truly, good and upright is the Lord. 

 

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October 1 is fast-approaching and with it the 13th anniversary of making final vows at Campion Center in Weston MA

 

 

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

That Ain’t Fair! Homily for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Tim

   

Mt 20:1-16

 

Today’s gospel from Matthew was just proclaimed a few weeks ago on August 19^th,

the 20^th Wednesday of Ordinary time.   A rerun of the gospel within a few weeks  complicates life when Father is preaching to the same congregation. 

 

It would be easy enough to pull out the homily from a few weeks ago and rerun it,

hoping that no one would notice.  Changing the order of ideas or sentences might work

but would veer perilously close to sloth, one of the seven deadly sins defined as:

habitual disinclination to exercise or laziness, or in this case spiritual sloth, a disinclination to think about and pray with the gospel. 

 

On a weekday a reasonable option would be not to give a homily as a homily is not required on weekdays.  But, a homily is required on Sundays. 

 

The final option is to reread and reconsider the narrative asking what else there is in the reading.  What else could form the nucleus of a homily?  Besides the question of fair and unfair,  today’s gospel has in the backgroundthe sins of envy and perhaps jealousy.

Many consider envy and jealousy as interchangeable or synonyms.  They are not.  Envy and jealousy are related but they are not identical concepts.  One may lead to the other, generally from envy to jealousy, and the two can coexist. No matter, they are not the same thing. 

 

I was unaware of the distinction until a conference during psychiatry residency.  The attending asked the difference between envy and jealousy. A few brave souls suggested that they were the same thing.  The attending said they were not. He explained: “Envy is wanting what another has.  Jealousy is fear that another is going to take what you have.”  Envy may be beneficial if it encourages us to work harder to get what we envy.  If a student envies a friend’s grades that envy may push him or her to put down the computer games and study harder so as to get the same grades.  But, envy may be destructive if it drives the individual to sabotage the efforts of a friend or neighbor.  Or if it leads one into debt while trying to keep up with the Jones’s.  Jealousy, the fear that another will take what I have, results in conflict, anger, and harm.  Shakespeare described jealousy as ‘the green eyed monster” in Othello,

 

Jealousy leads to rage and murder. It triggers war.  Jealousy includes elements of

suspicion, fear, anxiety, and hostility. As opposed to mere sabotage, which has the goal of hindering the success of the one we envy, jealousy drives revenge with the goal of grievously harming the other. At times it leads to murder.

 

Like all of Jesus’ parables there is no definite conclusion in today’s narrative.  The parables never end with the equivalent of “and they lived happily ever after.”

Jesus parables always end on a question mark.  This makes us ask “and then what?

 

What happened after the workers had been paid?  We know the first hired resented that the Johnny-come-latelies were paid the same as they were. Some of the late-starters only worked for one hour.  That ain’t fair.

 

Was there some pushing and shoving during the walk home?  Were cross words exchanged?  Maybe a few swear words?  What did the first hired have to say about the land owner?   What were the last ones hired saying about him?  Did someone contact the union rep?

 

The first reading describes God as generous and forgiving.  The landowner asked the disgruntled workers if they were envious because he was generous. The answer was obvious. 

 

Some time today, ask yourself  “How would I respond to the same situation?”

 

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Photos below were taken several years ago in the autumn while visiting Horseneck Beach which is located in MA very near the border with RI.   Autumn is my favorite time at the beach.  I try to avoid beaches in the summer when there are people around and the smell of sun block is heavy in the air.  

 

 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

 

 

 

On Forgiveness: Homily for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

  

Sir 27:30-28:7

Mt 18:21-35

 

Peter asked, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how many times must I forgive him?  As many as seven times?”  Forgiving someone seven times seems reasonable.  Indeed forgiving someone seven times seems positively magnanimous, even saint-like if you will.  Jesus’ reply must have startled Peter.  Not seven times but seven times seventy-seven times. 

 

Jesus was not giving Peter a specific number or setting limits on forgiveness.  Rather, by using hyperbole he was indicating that forgiveness must be infinite. Jesus' reply is analogous to something most of us heard when we were kids andswore we would never say upon becoming parents or uncles. But we do. “If I told you once I told you a thousand times.”  Sometimes a thousand underestimated the real number but mostly it was hyperbole for effect. The gospel parable is chilling on two levels:  The first is the servant’s callous behavior toward a fellow servant where he showed himself as a man who couldn't or wouldn't forgiveas he was forgiven. The second chilling element is the punishment meted out to him when the master learned of his actions.  One could ask why the master was not forgiving toward the wicked servant.  It is a good question. 

 

Perhaps there are actions that are unforgivable. 

 

The message Jesus gave to Peter is to forgive as God forgives. Perfectly and without limit.  That is an ideal humans can’t attain save for exceptional circumstances.  An instance of those exceptional circumstances went on international display twenty years ago.

 

Charles Roberts, IV entered the Amish one-room school house in Nickel Mines, PA on October 2, 2006. After sending all of the boys out Roberts murdered five girls between the ages of nine and thirteen.  He critically injured five others, one of whom was severely brain-damaged. He killed himself when the police arrived. 

 

His actions horrified the world.  The actions of the Amish community horrified much of the world even more.  Roberts horrified the world by the brutality of his act.  The Amish horrified the world by their forgiveness. 

 

On the day of the shooting the grandfather of one of the murdered girls told young relatives, "We must not think evil of this man.”  Another Amish man noted, "He had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he's standing before a just God."  Still another Amish man held the shooter’s sobbing father in his arms for an hour in an attempt comfort him. Thirty members of the Amish community attended Roberts' funeral. 

 

The Amish may or may not know the Book of Sirach. Sirach is considered canonical by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches but apocryphal in the Protestant churches.  It does not appear in the Jewish Bible.  We just heard, "The vengeful will suffer the LORD’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven."  This explains the behavior that most of the world found incomprehensible. 

 

Most of us are willing to forgive.  Sometimes.  Under certain circumstances.  For a limited number of times.  For some things.  Jesus instructs us that seven times is not enough.  Through the use of hyperbole Jesus is telling us we must always forgive. 

 

It is not an easy instruction to understand. 

It is not an easy instruction to accept. 

It is definitely not an easy instruction to follow.

 

And yet, that is what God gives us.  God offers us forgiveness even more heroic

than the forgiveness the Amish extended to the man  who killed their daughters

and traumatized the entire community.

 

The psalm assured us.

"The Lord is kind and merciful,

slow to anger, and rich in compassion.

 

He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion."

 

God offers us forgiveness every time we receive the sacrament of confession.  We need only begin, “I confess that I have sinned.”

 

And ask for pardon and forgiveness.  

 _____________________________________

 

My two alma maters met on the football field today.  Penn State and Temple.  No, there were no divided loyalties.  The medical school was many blocks away from the main campus north on Broad Street.  One friend observed about my feelings about Penn State, "You didn't go to college, you joined a cult."  So true.

 Fr. Jack SJ, MD