Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A

Celebrant: Let us ask our God to hear our prayers and petitions on behalf of those who are in need.

Deacon/Lector:

For the pope, bishops and priests, may they inspire in all people the desire for a true relationship with Christ, we pray to the Lord… 

For a renewed commitment of the world’s leaders to peace and justice for all God’s children, we pray to the Lord… 

That God's people may be active in carrying out their civic responsibilities, and may choose leaders who will build a society that respects all human life, we pray to the Lord...  

For the protection and safety of those who protect and defend our nation, we pray to the Lord… 

For those in our community who aspire to live lives worthy of the call we received at baptism, we pray to the Lord…

Celebrant:

Father, hear the prayers of your people,
and bring comfort to all who are in need.
We ask this through Christ our Lord 

Our participation at Mass is meant to spur us on to create a better world, in which all life, including the unborn, is protected. In his encyclical letter on the Eucharist, Pope John Paul II wrote the following: “Certainly the Christian vision leads to the expectation of “new heavens” and “a new earth” (Rev 21:1), but this increases, rather than lessens, our sense of responsibility for the world today. I wish to reaffirm this forcefully at the beginning of the new millennium, so that Christians will feel more obliged than ever not to neglect their duties as citizens in this world. Theirs is the task of contributing with the light of the Gospel to the building of a more human world, a world fully in harmony with God's plan” (n.20).

Is 45:1, 4-6
1 Thes 1:1-5b
Mt 22:15-21

Watch a video with homily hints

The first reading emphasizes the fact that the Lord alone is God; there is no other. In a culture of death, that is precisely the truth that is denied. The battle between pro-life and pro-choice is really about the dominion of God. Is He Lord over human life or not? Abortion advocates more and more openly admit that abortion kills a child, but claim to have that right anyway. That is why John Paul II could write, “Life, especially human life, belongs only to God: for this reason whoever attacks human life, in some way attacks God himself” (Evangelium Vitae, 9). Dr. James McMahon was an abortionist in Southern California and performed partial-birth abortions. When asked by the American Medical Association news how he justified doing it, he admitted that the baby was a child, but then said there was a more important question, “Who owns the child? It’s got to be the mother,” he explained.  

In the Gospel’s familiar account of Jesus’ answer about taxes, Jesus says that the coin belongs to Caesar because it bears his image. What, then, belongs to God? That which bears his image, namely, human life itself, including that of Caesar! Jesus teaches here the hierarchy of Divine and human authority. Christians must be good citizens; but citizens and their governing authorities alike must obey God, acknowledging his dominion over human life, and protecting it.