Until the early 20th century, the Catholic Church in the United States was “still young, growing and vulnerable,” and “the recipient of help from the church in other lands,” recalls Anthony Andreassi, C.O., in his homily for World Mission Sunday. “Now it is our turn to reach out to support others so that this important work of evangelization can continue as we continue to make our pilgrim way here on earth.”
Father Andreassi’s training as a historian and expertise in American Catholicism offers him valuable insight beyond his mission of garnering support from U.S. churchgoers for the church’s missionary work in the global south. As a preacher, he is called to illuminate perplexing phrases in the Gospel, as given in Matthew’s Gospel on this 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A: “Then, repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Even still, he cautions against turning the homily into a history lesson. “I’m someone who loves history, but I know others do not. So, I think I spent three or four sentences discussing what coins mean in first-century Palestine. My feeling is that a little history goes a long way.”
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While Anthony is a resident priest of the Brooklyn Oratory and serves its two parishes, he has spent most of his professional life in Jesuit company. From his master’s and doctoral studies in history, specializing in American Catholicism, at Georgetown University, through his 25-year tenure in teaching, pastoral, and administrative roles at Jesuit high schools—his last four years, until the summer of 2022, as the principal of Regis High School in New York City. Now, he works for the Pontifical Mission Societies and The Society for the Propagation of the Faith in its mission to raise consciousness of the emerging church, especially in the countries of the global south.
Listen to Anthony’s homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, on this week’s episode of “Preach,” which also coincides with the appeal for World Mission Sunday observed in parishes worldwide. After delivering his homily, Anthony discusses with host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., how the Church’s evangelization reaches beyond missionary lands. It is also an invitation for all the faithful to walk together as pilgrims on a common course, echoing the ongoing invitation of the Synod on Synodality.
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Until the early 20th century, the Catholic Church in the United States was ‘still young, growing and vulnerable,’ and ‘the recipient of help from the church in other lands.’
Scripture Readings for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
First Reading: Is 45:1, 4-6
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10
Second Reading: 1 Thes 1:1-5b
Gospel: Mt 22:15-21
You can find the full text of the readings here.
Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, by Brett Williams
This morning, the church presents us with two major themes upon which to reflect. First, today we celebrate World Mission Sunday, which, as you may know, comes each year as a way for Catholics everywhere to recommit ourselves to pray for and support the spread of the Gospel to every corner of the world. Secondly, of course, like at every mass, we have the scripture readings. Let me begin with the latter theme. And let me say that I’m very glad that we’re getting these readings in October of this year, and not October of 2024.
Now why? Well, the reading from Isaiah as well as the texts from St. Mark’s Gospel both touch on the relationship between the state and people of faith. And this time next year we’ll be just a couple of weeks away from election day. So at least I and many other priests and deacons here in the U.S. will not have to navigate this very thorny topic from the pulpit just on the eve of national elections. But then again, maybe that’s too bad. Or maybe it’s a missed opportunity.
As followers of Jesus central to our baptismal call is to bring Christ to all over the world, especially to lands who have yet to hear the gospel. And our baptism also calls us to bring our faith rooted in these gospel values to engage, even to challenge not only our lives, but also every part of our culture and society. This surely is not easy to do in our own day, and it was not easy in the time of Jesus.
In fact, today’s Gospel passage gives us a very strong example, a good example, of how challenging this was even for Jesus when he was questioned as to how Jews were supposed to relate to the Roman state. So why not begin here? What’s all this about Caesar, a census tax, and a Roman coin?
Well, the coin the Herodion showed Jesus displayed not only an image of the Emperor, but it also said that he was divine. The very sight of such a coin would have upset most every pious and observant Jew. And Jesus’s response certainly would not have satisfied most, if any of them. In some ways, his response seems to take the side of those who just want to, you might say, ‘Go along to get along;’ when he says that you need to just satisfy the government with what it asks for, pay some taxes, but then also be faithful to the commandments of the Lord.
Like can life really be separated in that way? And that what we do in our day-to-day lives in the secular world is really separate from our lives as Christians. I think we all would agree that the answer to that is a hard, ‘No!’. Well, then does that mean that Jesus’s response is telling us that to avoid anything that goes against our faith, that we should have nothing to do with the secular world and just retreat into our own private universe? Well, I think both the long tradition of the church as well as our own good sense tells us that that doesn’t make sense either.
Well, then, well, what’s the answer? How are we as Christians supposed to live out our faith in the secular world which, honestly at times and across time and space, can sometimes be hostile to the values of the gospel? Clearly, this is very complicated, complex stuff. And surely and maybe sadly, the Lord did not give us a detailed plan as to how we and all those who have gone before us should handle every complex political question that faces us as believers.
But fear not, I think I might have an answer. And it might be found in a phrase that we sometimes hear at mass. In the third eucharistic prayer, right after the consecration of the bread and wine, the priest celebrant prays, “Be pleased to confirm in faith and charity your pilgrim Church on earth.” And the key word here is pilgrim.
Now, of course, the real meaning of a pilgrim is a person on a journey towards some sort of destination, maybe a sacred or holy place. And if you’re always on your way and you don’t have any fixed home, in other words, you can call no place, no ideology, no political party, completely your own. Because ultimately, you belong to someone else. Or better said, we might say, we belong to someone else, namely Christ.
It is in this relationship and the demands that this relationship with the Lord places upon us that should have absolute authority over us. And I would venture to say that if while over the ages, one political party or another has seemingly reflected the values of the gospel better than another, both in our own country and every other country that’s ever existed, none has ever done this perfectly, and none ever will. Each will miss the mark in one way or another.
As Catholics, we should always find ourselves a bit uneasy whenever we make our home our temporary home with this political party or that one. We should never settle in too comfortably because we are always really moving on our way to someplace else, or really to someone else.
And I think this image of the pilgrim works well too, as we celebrate World Mission Sunday. Just like a pilgrim, a missionary as a person on the move, as she or he works to spread the kingdom of God by inviting other people to come to know Jesus.
For more than two centuries, and again this year, the work of The Propagation of the Faith invites us, invites the whole church to support the over 1000 mission dioceses in Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, and parts of Latin America and Europe, where priests, religious, and lay leaders serving the world’s most vulnerable communities.
It is important to remember that until the early 20th century, the church here in the United States was the recipient of help from the church in other lands. Since back then we were still young, growing and vulnerable. But now it is our turn to reach out to support others so that this important work of evangelization can continue. As we continue to make our pilgrim way here on earth, let us also remember to invite others to make this journey to meet Christ, as we also do our best to help one another along the way.
