Charity begins at home, ends nowhere

Here’s a riddle: What do the readings for the 29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, World Mission Sunday, and Marriage Preparation Dialogues have in common? Stay tuned.

The answer begins in 538 BC, when the Persian army defeated Babylon and permitted Babylon’s Jewish captives to return to their homeland. Cyrus, the king of Persia, may have considered himself just a good guy who didn’t want his new subjects to feel out of place, but the prophet Isaiah—and the prophet’s fellow Jews—styled Cyrus as a messiah. Whether the Persian potentate knew it or not, the true God chose him to liberate His chosen people from their captivity. In a sense, he was “anointed” for that special task, chosen from all eternity. On one hand, Cyrus’ mission was most important to the captives of that particular place and time; but the prophet saw a greater significance in the people’s hopes for a lasting liberator. Jesus would fulfill those hopes, but not for another five hundred-plus years, and not in a way that His fellow Jews had expected.

The true Messiah did not meet the expectations of the Jewish religious establishment. In particular, many Pharisees would hang around Jesus with mixed curiosity and contempt, trying to trick Him or at least get Him to say what they wanted to hear. In today’s example Our Lord doesn’t fall prey to “gotcha journalism.” When asked whether people should pay taxes, Jesus knew that a “yes” would make Him an enemy of His fellow Jews, and a “no” would anger the Roman rulers. His solution: because our coins have Caesar’s picture, they must belong to him, so give them to him. God, however, is not depicted on any coin; He is engraved in our hearts, so give God His due.

What does God deserve from His subjects? At least He deserves the benefit of the doubt that, because He created us, our existence is not in vain; like Cyrus, we have a purpose beyond ourselves for the good of others. While Cyrus went about his business unaware of that greater mission, we don’t have to. Because we have been entrusted with more, God deserves something more from us: our mindful, willing service to Him and others. Faced anew with the charge to “give to God what belongs to God,” we might shudder at the realization that everything belongs to God. That isn’t necessary; if everything seems too much, we can give Him today.

Consider the second reading, the introduction of St. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. He gave God every today he had: days filled with gratitude for the active faith and patient endurance of the Christian community. Paul’s gratitude stems from the fact that God loved and chose His people. The Holy Spirit revealed to them the depths of God with “power” and “conviction.” This very much reflects the spousal relationship: a man and woman choose to reveal the depths of themselves to each other with passion and trust. Gratitude keeps them together through all manner of hardship, even the hardship caused by their weaknesses and sins. Like the Gospel itself, their wedding vows are more than mere words; they are a way of life: spouses give to each other what belongs to each other: their very selves.

Once again: What do today’s readings, World Mission Sunday, and Marriage Preparation Dialogues have in common? There’s the common theme of our call to recognize realities outside of ourselves—whether in the spousal relationship or in the global proclamation of the Good News. Charity begins at home, we are told, but it doesn’t end there; unless we recognize that the world is our home.

Engaged and married couples stand in particular need of the Church’s care. We’re not just talking the Church as institution, but the Church as a family of families, a communion of persons. Married couples of all ages have a special duty to witness to the joys and sufferings, sacrifices and delights of married life; engaged couples, in turn, have a special need of that witness. In the next week or so many of our married couples will be getting a call, a request to serve on our parish Marriage Prep Dialogue Team. Some couples are needed to give talks that weave their experience into the Church’s vision of marriage; other couples are needed to sit with engaged couples and discuss the realities of married life, both temporal and spiritual. Married couples have a special and necessary mission in the Church, to build up the family of God.

Since her earliest days, the Church has been keenly aware of her mission to the nations. Just as Jesus was sent from the Father into the world, and the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit into the Church, the Trinity sends us to proclaim the Gospel by our words and actions. God sends us wherever we are: workplaces, schools, sports teams, and families. God chooses people to serve Him as priests, deacons, and religious who serve at home and abroad. Many laypeople choose to serve in organizations such as the Peace Corps or the Jesuit Volunteer Corps for a year or so, and find it very rewarding. Groups hold mission trips of varying lengths to various places. More than mere “voluntourism,” such trips can open people’s eyes to the needs of our troubled world. When they return to the US, they may have more to declare about God’s goodness than the stuff they brought back.

Sacrifice is a common thread in these matters: paying what belongs to God, to a spouse, or to one’s larger community. The Lord articulates the grand purpose for our sacrifices through the prophet Isaiah: “So that toward the rising and the setting of the sun people may know that there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.”