The Bigger Picture

Have you ever had an amazing personal encounter with heaven such as a powerful retreat weekend, or a moving experience during prayer, or an inspired heart to heart with a friend, or a transformation during mass, or a closest moment to Christ where you just know that God is real and you are loved? And have you ever, right after that experience, been brought down of your cloud by the realities and demands of everyday life? We’ve all been in love with Jesus in one minute and completely consumed by the things of this world in the next. 

Jesus reminds His followers for a second time, that He will be handed over, and killed, but also raised on the third day. It seems like He needs to repeat Himself, and He will do so at least one more time in the gospel, because the disciples don’t really seem to process the entire announcement and really how could they? You announce that you’re going to be killed, and well, that is where my focus and attention would remain as well. It says they were overwhelmed with grief. To me this speaks of their intimacy with Jesus, their affection for Him, their experience of heaven, their retreat high, and their true love for the Lord. So many times Jesus tries to reveal the bigger picture to me in prayer or through those above-mentioned encounters with heaven and I just leave out the promise of resurrection and only focus on the part that will cause me grief. As in the gospels, however, Jesus is persistent with His reminders about hope and the resurrection and He will continue to announce those in our lives if we have the courage to look past our suffering and pain. 

When Jesus and the apostles returned to their home base, Capernaum, real life greets them. The bills still needed to be paid and of course there was no escaping taxes! Jesus seized the moment to teach them and us that we are all just foreigners to this world as yet another signpost regarding resurrection. While we are here, we need to be good stewards, respectful citizens, and mindful guests by following the law and paying taxes, however, we need to know that our primal accountability and ultimate destination is eternity. The things of this world are temporary and low on the true priority scale, hence, the image of pulling a coin out of the belly of a fish. These particular fish are known as St. Peter’s Fish and are bottom dwellers. They have been known to have all kinds of things including coins in their bellies when butchered. The things of this world deserve that kind of honor, at the bottom. 

Today’s gospel reminds me that I need to hear Jesus better. He promises eternal life and I am stuck in this temporary life. He shows me the way to peace and I choose to remain in unnecessary battles. He gives me the proper order of things and I change that order all around to suit my own emotions. Today, I will keep my eyes on the bigger picture of eternity and let that direct my steps. It is well with my soul. 

Reading 1 DT 10:12-22

Moses said to the people:
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD, your God, ask of you
but to fear the LORD, your God, and follow his ways exactly,
to love and serve the LORD, your God,
with all your heart and all your soul,
to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD
which I enjoin on you today for your own good?
Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens,
belong to the LORD, your God,
as well as the earth and everything on it.
Yet in his love for your fathers the LORD was so attached to them
as to choose you, their descendants,
in preference to all other peoples, as indeed he has now done.
Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and be no longer stiff-necked.
For the LORD, your God, is the God of gods,
the LORD of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome,
who has no favorites, accepts no bribes;
who executes justice for the orphan and the widow,
and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him.
So you too must befriend the alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
The LORD, your God, shall you fear, and him shall you serve;
hold fast to him and swear by his name.
He is your glory, he, your God,
who has done for you those great and terrible things
which your own eyes have seen.
Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy strong,
and now the LORD, your God,
has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.”

Responsorial Psalm PS 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20

R. (12a) Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He has granted peace in your borders;
 with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

Alleluia SEE 2 THES 2:14

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
God has called you through the Gospel
to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MT 17:22-27

As Jesus and his disciples were gathering in Galilee,
Jesus said to them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men,
and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”
And they were overwhelmed with grief.

When they came to Capernaum,
the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said,
“Does not your teacher pay the temple tax?”
“Yes,” he said. 
When he came into the house, before he had time to speak,
Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon?
From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax?
From their subjects or from foreigners?”
When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him,
“Then the subjects are exempt.
But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook,
and take the first fish that comes up. 
Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax.
Give that to them for me and for you.”