Identification

August 11: Monday of Week 19 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

Ezekiel 1:2-5, 24-28; Psalm 148:1-2, 11-12, 13, 14; Matthew 17:22-27

Thoughts to help us surrender to Jesus expressing himself through us in ministry.

“Give it to them for you and me.” Matthew 17:27

Peter, afraid to stand up against the collectors, said that of course Jesus paid the temple tax. Jesus challenged him: “Do kings take payment from their children or from others?” When Peter said, “From others,” Jesus said, “Then the children are free.”

Then he told Peter to give them double: “for me and for you.” He was making two points:

First, Jesus didn’t need to pay the temple tax; it was his Father’s house.

Second, Peter (and every Christian) is identified with Jesus, with all the rights and privileges that belong to “sons and daughters of the Father.”

And all the obligations.

For example, Christians do not engage in ministry as employees or “volunteers.” As family members, we are just as obliged as Jesus was to be “about our Father’s business” (Luke 2:49). By Baptism we “became Christ.” We “presented our bodies as a living sacrifice to God” (Romans 12:1) to become Christ’s body, so that he might act with us, in us and through us in everything we do. Through anointing with chrism we are consecrated and committed to let Jesus continue his “messianic mission” in us as Prophet, Priest and King.

This means we minister in union with Jesus. Ministry is surrender to Jesus wanting to express himself through our words and actions. It is a mystical experience—of union with Jesus in action.

PRAY: “Lord, do this in me.”

PRACTICE: All day, be conscious of surrendering.