Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

"Whose image is this and whose inscription?" - Matthew 22:20

Asked a trick question about paying taxes to Rome today, Jesus asks to see a coin, Sister, and points out whose face is stamped on it. Give Caesar what's Caesar's, he says, and God what's God's. Nobody walks away with the argument they came for.

You are being filled so that something can be set on the table.

Most of a woman's week genuinely belongs to Caesar: the job, the household, the ordinary demands that don't stop just because a soul needs tending too. That's not a problem to solve. The honest question is whether God's actual claim on your time is still getting anything real, or whether it's become whatever's left after everyone else has had their share.

Today's also World Mission Sunday. Paul's first reading praises the Thessalonians for turning faith and love into actual, visible work, not just private feeling. It's a fair standard to hold your own week against: not whether love and faith are present as sentiment, but whether they show up as something anyone could actually point to.

Missionaries leave behind exactly the kind of comfort that most weeks quietly claim as their due. You're unlikely to leave the country for your faith, but the same question applies at home: what would it look like this week to give your best hours to the claim that actually matters, instead of whatever's loudest.

Look honestly at your week ahead. Name one thing that currently belongs entirely to Caesar that could hold a small, deliberate piece of God's claim instead.

Lord, show me what wears your image in my week and what doesn't. Give me the honesty to give each its due. Amen.