From Our Director of Religious Education
The Gospel of Matthew seems fitting for the time in which we are living. It’s a challenging time for Christians. Our faith and our values are being questioned left and right, but ultimately, we must remain firm in Jesus. When the Pharisees went off to plot against Jesus and then asked him about the taxes for Caesar, they did not expect him to turn the question back on them. Finally, he responds, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”
A couple of nights ago I was having a late-night conversation with my sister and we were talking about some of the controversial topics in the Church and society today. She cried and said she felt great pain and sorrow whenever she thought about how many people go on every day indifferent to Christ and his sacrifice for all sinners. This conversation went more in-depth, but I won’t go into all those details. Ultimately, the thought that came to my mind was something I heard Fr. George Perez, CJM, from St. James, say a couple of weeks ago during our staff day of recollection, “How small is your God?”
How many of you would describe God as small? I think none of us would. What Fr. George was asking was, is God bigger or greater than whatever is taking away your peace? Indeed, he is! God is awesome, great, and bigger than we can comprehend; the alpha and the omega, beginning and the end.
We live in this world. That’s our reality and because it is our reality we have to navigate through life to find our place but we must also find our voice, which should proclaim the good news to this world. We are in the world but we are not of the world. We should be a light in the darkness.
What are those worries that are tugging at your heart? Those issues that make you uncomfortable? Those unresolved matters that keep you up at night? Handle them as responsible followers of Christ should – pay your dues, and resolve your problems. Always consider the good of others, and trust that regardless of the outcome, God is still God, and nothing or anyone can overcome him.
This Sunday’s psalm says, “Give the Lord glory and honor, for great is the LORD and highly to be praised; awesome is he, beyond all gods. For all the gods of the nations are things of naught, but the LORD made the heavens.”
Give God what he deserves, your worries and fears, hopes and dreams, your praise and glory, your ALL, and then you will owe nothing to anyone at all.
—Sandra Dominguez
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