In today’s Gospel we see the Pharisees wanted to trap Jesus in very simple way. Should we pay the tax to the Romans or not?

If Jesus would say; pay the tax, then the Pharisees would accuse Him of collaborating with Romans, the enemy. If Jesus would say do not pay the tax, then He would be seen as a rebel, who wants to start some kind of revolution. As a result of this the Pharisees could get Jesus into prison and get rid of Him, from their spiritual and political life.

Jesus answers them: Let them who deal with Caesar, pay Caesar his due. What is of God should be given to God. They are stunned by his wisdom, and they leave because they were worried that they can be exposed even more. And I am sure that we like what Jesus just did to the Pharisees, aren’t we? However let’s not condemn the Pharisees too quickly. Let’s look into our own lives.

Are we always with Jesus? Do we really give to God what we owe Him? Do we give Him our thanks for life, family, for every grace we are given? Do we praise Him with our prayers? Do we show our children how to pray? Do we teach them God’s values in our daily life?, Do we read the Scripture on regular basis so we can more understand our faith? As Citizens of the kingdom of God do we obey God’s commandments, or take them randomly, practicing them in a way which is comfortable to us but not to God?

If your answer is no, then there is another question: Are we really better than those Pharisees?

My brothers and sisters, let’s get serious about our faith. It is not a game of pick and choose. We must show to the whole world that being a true disciple of Jesus Christ is the right choice. In choosing God and God’s values we show our love and concern – our life which is built on true, loving relationships. It really does not matter what the world or Caesar promises us because those promises will not lead to fulfillment, to peace or love. In making choices we must guard against the values and choices we cannot cooperate with, always showing our choice for God as the right choice. Not doing so would put our salvation in jeopardy. Let us choose God above all, giving to God what is God’s.

Joe approached his pastor after Mass: – Father, you talked about inviting people to our services.

I had an experience in the army. Bill and I were buddies, both Catholics. But we never went to Mass. We were having a five-day mission on the base. I asked Bill to come along, but he had some kind of excuse. The second and third night more excuses. Finally, on the fourth night he came with me to the chapel. Something hit him, because from then on he went with me to Mass and Communion regularly. That was twenty years ago. I haven not seen him since, but he writes to me every year and thanks me for asking him to go to that mission.

Jesus just told us the kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a marriage feast for his son. The kingdom of heaven means the family of God here on this earth. The marriage feast is the table loaded with spiritual food.

My thought for today is that every one of us is a servant of the great King. Christ is His Son. The heavenly Father sends us out to invite everyone to share the spiritual feast offered by His Church.

Who are the people we can invite? Almost everyone practically.

Many people have never attended a mission, a retreat, or joined rosary, altar society or any organization in a parish. Fallen-away Christian often need a little encourage to start their way back to the family of God.

We are thinking especially of the many who attend no church and of our friends of other faiths who are looking for the spiritual nourishment we have.

Where do we meet these possible guests? They could be neighbors, schoolmates, fellow workers, even relatives. They could be chance acquaintances at a game, at the store, on the bus, in the doctor’s waiting room.

Don’t limit your invitation to so-called respectable people. Invite the underprivileged, the outcast, the sinner. As the king commanded in today’s Gospel: “Go out and invite all whom you can find, both bad and good.” Invite them to a regular Sunday Mass, or preferably to some special service.

Suppose they turn down your invitation.

Well, you have done your duty, a duty of faith, a duty of charity. You are showing that your faith means something to you. You are concerned, considerate and kind enough to want others to share the spiritual banquet we are enjoying this very hour.

God bless you.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters

God gave us free will. We are responsible for our life, our behavior, words, deeds and decisions. And because of that free will, one day each one of us will have stand in front of God and be judged for our good deeds or bad. The good news is that with the help of God’s grace we can change the direction of our lives for the better.

The Liturgy, the Eucharist points out that there must be a connection between what we say and what we do.

Jesus criticized some of the people in leadership of his days because they did not live up to what they promised. Their promises were empty, they said yes to God and did nothing to fulfill that yes; and because of that they were not pleasing God. Jesus tells them that their observance of the law was an outward show and that there has to be more honesty and a greater readiness to accept the call for repentance.

Jesus told us a beautiful story. And this story is for all ages. Each of us has points of inconsistency between what we promised and what we did or do. The lesson the gospel offers us is that we may be saying “yes” to God on Sunday and turning our back on what we profess during the rest of the week. Many of us who say “yes” to the Body of Christ during Holy Mass completely forget what we promise to Jesus during the week. Very often we behave like the second son from today’s Gospel.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters

I know who we would like to be in today’s Gospel. Of course we would like be the one who would say NO but actually go and fulfill God’s request.

The choice is ours. We can do even better than the son who eventually did the work. We can say YES and do the work of God. So as God’s children, let put all differences behind us and let’s start to say yes our God every day of our life.

After the homily we are going to profess our faith. I would encourage everybody to think what we profess, and live that profession this week, and all the weeks of our life.

We just heard great teaching of Jesus. The principle lesson of this parable is that God is generous, that the kingdom of heaven is not run like the kingdom of earth, that God’s ways are not people’s way.

Yes, God is generous. The question is: are we generous?

Many times we hear statements: “I grew up with the Church, I went to a Catholic school, I go to Church every Sunday, I pray every day, I go systematically to the sacrament of Reconciliation to reconcile myself with God, I go to communion all the time. So I work in ‘God’s field’ all my life, therefore I have to get better rewards than others.

And who are the others? Some of them are the people who converted and joined the faith later; some of them join our faith on their death bed. And maybe they did not work as hard in God’s field, as hard as we did. Maybe they worked as hard as or even harder than we did, but for short period of time.

Are we generous to recognize their work, without pointing that we did more, or the same — but for a longer period of time? Didn’t we agree to our reward?

If we look closer into our behavior, we really think and behave as that first group from Jesus’ parable.

Yes, as Christians, we who are working in God’s field by spreading the good news throughout our families, our neighborhoods, we can expect a reward, and we should expect a reward. But we cannot expect more than we agreed to.

Through baptism, first communion, confirmation, didn’t we agree to do what God requires from us for our reward. So, we really cannot expect more than we deserve, more than we agreed to. And at the same time we cannot put anybody down.

We have to accept God’s generosity. And that generosity is not only toward those who joined us later. The love of God and His generosity is toward all of us. Without His mercy none of us probably could reach the final reward, which is Heaven.

Why?

Because none of us is perfect. Therefore, let’s work toward perfection in our own lives as hard as we can, so at the end we will receive the the agreed to reward. Amen.

On the second Sunday of September each year we celebrate a special feast day, the Solemnity of Brotherly Love.

This Solemnity was set aside by the Synod of our Church in Chicago in 1914. The General Synod established this day for the faithful of the Church in order to remember the great commandment of God that is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

During the Holy Sacrifice of Mass on This solemnity, we read the Gospel except from Luke 10:25-37, the parable of the Good Samaritan. That parable begins when a lawyer stood up and began to test Jesus by asking Him – what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

And Jesus said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

And the lawyer then wanted to justify himself by asking,” Who is my neighbor?”

And we all know the rest of the story about the Samaritan man who had pity and assisted the man who was robbed and beaten and left by the roadside. The Samaritan was truly the neighbor of the victim who was robbed.

It is not everyday that we have the opportunity to help someone who encountered such a situation as the man who was robbed. But, each and every one of us has numerous opportunities every day to show compassion and love toward others.

My Brothers and d Sisters, what are we to do?

We can help people who are in need by praying for them and also by giving some material help.

Lots of people around us, members of our families, friends, and people who lost everything need our material and spiritual help. We have to remember them. We can not leave them alone.

The Solemnity of Brotherly Love gives as hints and direction what we have to do and what is our Christian responsibility for each other.

We must remember what Jesus said in today’s Gospel – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”