Whose are you?
- Fr Raphael Ma, CR
- Matthew 22: 15 - 21
A Resurrectionist Vocation Minute for October 22, 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Whose are you?
Jesus’ response to the Pharisees in this Sunday’s Gospel contains a much deeper truth that has remained long after that one attempt to trap him.
In the NRSV translation we hear at Mass, it says: “Whose head is this, and whose title?”
But the original Greek manuscript says: “Whose image is this, and whose inscription?”
The Greek word for image is εἰκών, from where we get our English word “icon”. And although the denarius bore the icon or image of Caesar, Jesus is reminding us of another time this word was used, in the book of Genesis: “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).
We belong to the one whose image we bear. Sometimes we can fall into thinking that my vocation, what God is perhaps calling me to, is something other than who I am. But nothing could be further from the truth. We belong to God, and it is only by giving to God the things that are God’s, that we truly become who we are.
“[The vow of obedience] is also a response to Christ's invitation to share in his paschal mystery, because when we sacrifice our will to the Father we die to self and rise to a new life in which we accept him as Lord and Master. Our dedication through this vow serves as a prophetic sign of the resurrected life where the will of every person will be united to the will of God. It also challenges the individualism and abuses of freedom in our world.”