Beyond the Coin:
The Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026
October 18, 2026
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Isaiah 45:1-6; Psalm 96; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5; Matthew 22:15-21
In prior weeks, we have heard Matthew’s parables on the Kingdom of God, and as those instructions conclude, the Pharisees plot against Jesus by trying to trip him up with his own words. Jesus responds by showing us that through all of life’s conflicts and stressed situations, we can think expansively and not be forced into one of two choices. He encourages discernment.
Jesus does not ask us to choose between belonging to God and participating in the world. He invites us to understand how these two commitments belong together. We are called to engage, to live fully, in civil society as people who belong to Go, allowing our faith to inform the way we participate. The Pharisees try to trap Jesus between a false choice between religious faithfulness and civic responsibility. The trap is designed to position him as one who either supports Roman occupation and Caesar’s authority or of opposing the Roman government. He does not accept the Pharisee’s terms. Navigating both options is still a choice. How do we live fully in the world without allowing the world’s forces to determine everything we value and believe?
Many Christians because of this reading divide their lives into separate compartments and stand over and against the world. They see the world as bad and contrary to God’s plan. Jesus is not saying that. In fact, he challenges that division. Our relationship with God is not meant to be an isolated part of our lives. It influences how we work, how we treat and speak to people, how we exercise authority, and how we contribute to the common good. A Christian does not check one’s faith at the door when entering the workplace, in dealing with political actions or elections, paying taxes, raising a family, or dealing with people whose fundamental beliefs differ for one’s own. These are the places where one’s discipleship becomes visible. Faith does not separate us from the world but asks us to inhabit the world differently.
Jesus acknowledges that Caesar has legitimate claims. Civil society requires people to share responsibilities, support necessary institutions, and contribute to the well-being of the community. Civil authority has a vital place in our lives. Government, institutions, and economic systems serve important purposes and assist the common good. It does not have ultimate authority over our consciences, human dignity, or our moral commitments. Civil society cannot take the place of God. Civic responsibility involves thoughtful participation, respect for legitimate authority, and a conscience formed by the Gospel. Civil governments often support fundamental human values. When laws, practices, or cultural customs conflict with moral responsibilities, we may need to speak, act, and sometimes, civilly refuse to cooperate.
Let’s turn back to the coin for a moment. The image of Caesar is stamped on the coin. Jesus invites us to see beyond the coin itself and ask, “What bears the image of God?” The human person does. We owe God our very selves. Our minds, hearts, talents and relationships are not to be separated from God. Our capacity to love is an extraordinary gift. Our responsibility to God is inseparable from the way we treat others, and we do this is civic society. We cannot claim to know and to honor God while disregarding the dignity of our neighbor. We cannot say we know God and remain indifferent to injustice, discrimination, inequity, or suffering. The way we treat others shows how well we know God. Our commitment to God is concrete when we honor God’s image in one another.
We do not only serve God through individual prayer and worship or practicing liturgy in a particular way. We serve God through the way we build society in which human dignity is respected, in which responsibilities are collegially shared, and in which people can flourish together. The two commitments of that coin are inseparable. We receive our fullness when we come together with shared lives. We are an above and beyond people who unite and integrate our worlds to the honor of God and neighbor.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Ephesians 2) You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you once lived following the age of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the disobedient.
Tuesday: (Ephesians 2) You were at that time without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.
Wednesday: (Ephesians 3) You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit, namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly earlier.
Thursday (Ephesians 3) I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Friday (Ephesians 4) I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.
Saturday (Ephesians 4) Grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, it says: He ascended on high and took prisoners captive; he gave gifts to men.
Gospel:
Monday: (Luke 12) Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Tuesday: (Luke 12) Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
Wednesday (Luke 12) Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour
when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
Thursday (Luke 12) I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
Friday (Luke 12) When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain–and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot–and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
Saturday (Luke 13) Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means!
Saints of the Week
October 18: Luke, evangelist (first century) was the author of his version of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He is described as a doctor and a friend of Paul. He was a well-educated Gentile who was familiar with the Jewish scriptures and he wrote to other Gentiles who were coming into a faith.
October 19: North American Jesuit martyrs: Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, priests, and companions (17th century) were killed between 1642 and 1649 in Canada and the United States. Though they knew of harsh conditions among the warring Huron and Mohawk tribes in the New World, these priests and laymen persisted in evangelizing until they were captured, brutally tortured, and barbarically killed.
October 20: Paul of the Cross, priest (1694-1775), founded the Passionists in 1747. He had a boyhood call that propelled him into a life of austerity and prayer. After receiving several visions, he began to preach missions throughout Italy that mostly focused upon the Passion of the Lord. After his death, a congregation for nuns was begun.
October 23: John of Capistrano, priest, had a vision of Francis of Assisi when he was imprisoned during an Italian civil war at which time he was the governor of Perugia. He entered the Franciscan Friars Minor in 1415 after ending his marriage. He preached missions throughout Europe including a mission to Hungary to preach a crusade against the Turks. After the Christian victory at the Battle of Belgrade in 1456, John died.
October 24: Anthony Claret, bishop (1807-1870) adopted his father's weaving career as a young man but continued to study Latin and printing. After entering seminary, he began preaching retreats and giving missions. He published and distributed religious literature and founded the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He was appointed archbishop of Cuba but was called back to Spain to be Queen Isabella II's confessor. He resumed publishing until the revolution of 1868 sent him into exile.
This Week in Jesuit History
- October 18, 1553: A theological course was opened in our college in Lisbon; 400 students were at once enrolled.
- October 19, 1588: At Munster, in Westphalia, the Society opens a college, in spite of an outcry raised locally by some of the Protestants.
- October 20, 1763: In a pastoral letter read in all his churches, the Archbishop of Paris expressed his bitter regret at the suppression of the Society in France. He described it as a veritable calamity for his country.
- October 21, 1568: Fr. Robert Parsons was elected Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He resigned his Fellowship in 1574.
- October 22, 1870: In France, Garibaldi and his men drove the Jesuits from the Colleges of Dole and Mont Roland.
- October 23, 1767: The Jesuits who had been kept prisoners in their college in Santiago, Chile, for almost two months were led forth to exile. In all 360 Jesuits of the Chile Province were shipped to Europe as exiles.
- October 24, 1759: 133 members of the Society, banished from Portugal and put ashore at Civita Vecchia, were most kindly received by Clement XIII and by the religious communities, especially the Dominicans.
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