22 October, 2023 | 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Pharisees went off

and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.

They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,

"Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man

and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion,

for you do not regard a person's status.

Tell us, then, what is your opinion:

Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?"

Knowing their malice, Jesus said,

"Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?

Show me the coin that pays the census tax."

Then they handed him the Roman coin.

He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?"

They replied, "Caesar's."

At that he said to them,

"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar

and to God what belongs to God."

Mission Sunday

“Hearts on fire, feet on the move” is the theme chosen by Pope Francis for this Mission Sunday.

Those two disciples on the way to Emmaus were confused, but their encounter with Christ

sparked in them the enthusiastic desire to set out again towards Jerusalem and proclaim that the

Lord had truly risen. The urgency of the Church’s missionary activity naturally calls for an ever

closer missionary cooperation on the part of all her members. This is an essential goal of the

synodal journey that the Church has undertaken, guided by the key words: communion,

Participation, mission. This journey is a process of setting out on the way and, like the disciples

of Emmaus, listening to the risen Lord. Just as the two disciples of Emmaus told the others what

had taken place along the way (cf. Lk 24:35), so too our proclamation will be a joyful telling of

Christ the Lord, his life, his passion, his death and resurrection, and the wonders that his love has

accomplished in our lives. (from the message for Mission Sunday)

Illumined by our encounter with the risen Lord and prompted by his Spirit let us continue our mission