Ordinary Time 29 - What Belongs to God

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 29

October 18, 2026

We Belong To God

 

            We have often held up great saints who lived lives of poverty like St. Francis of Assisi, but we also have saints who had great wealth – and who used it for God. One great example is Bl. Sebastian of Aparicio. During the late 1500s, the Spanish government tried to encourage people to colonize the New World, so they offered free land in Mexico to anyone who could farm it. Sebastian took them up on it and his farm was wildly successful. He would go into the forest and capture wild cattle and then add them to his farm and domesticate them. Since his farm was so prosperous, he built roads throughout the surrounding villages so that he could deliver free grain and meat to the poor in the region. Everyone knew him as the most generous man in the whole country – he would give loans without interest and forgive them if the debtor couldn’t pay. Despite his wealth, he lived a simple and penitential life, freely teaching the poor how to farm better. God didn’t call him to poverty – He called him to use his wealth for others.

             Everything we own, everything we are belongs to God. Sometimes we like to think that we built our own lives by our hard work and effort – “I deserve this nice house, this retirement nest-egg, this healthy body, because of what I’ve done.” But who gave us the gift of being born in America, of having a good education? Who gave us our gifts and talents? Who gave us the breath in our lungs, the blood coursing in our veins? Without His permission, we would not be able to live another second. As St. Therese of Lisieux said, “Everything is grace” – everything in our lives is a free gift from God, on loan to us.

            So let’s look at what aspects of our lives actually belong to God, and what that means.

            First, our money belongs to God. St. John Chrysostom tells us that “[Our money is] not for you to waste on drink, fancy food, expensive clothes, and all the other kinds of indulgence, but for you to distribute to those in need.” Yes, we should increase our income, but only so that we might become more generous. In the Scriptures, God is actually clear about what part of our income should go to the poor or the Church’s work of spreading the Gospel – in the Scriptures there is something called tithing which is giving ten percent of our income to God. I would encourage all of us to incorporate this Biblical practice into our life.

            Second, our time belongs to God. St. Gerard Majella once said, “Consider the shortness of time, the length of eternity and reflect how everything here below comes to an end and passes by.” During the Communist takeover of Vietnam, the government arrested a Catholic priest, Fr. Francis Van Thuan, and imprisoned him for nine years in solitary confinement for the “crime” of being a Catholic priest. In such a brutal situation, Fr. Francis decided to make the most of his time – in part so that he didn’t go crazy from loneliness! He asked his family to send him wine smuggled in bottles marked “medicine” and they smuggled in bread hidden in flashlights, so every day he celebrated a secret Mass, from memory, under the covers of his bed. He resolved not to waste time, so he filled his days with praying the Rosary, exercising, and writing spiritual messages on the few scraps of paper he could obtain. He would then throw those messages out the window to a Christian schoolboy who would be walking home from school, and the boy collected them and brought them to the secret Catholic community to read (they were eventually published into a book). He would know the routines of the guards and would try to befriend them so he could speak to them about Christ. Fr. Van Thuan did not waste a moment of his imprisonment – he used every scrap of time, every suffering, everything for his sanctification and to further the Gospel, so that when he was released after nine years, he was far holier than before. He is now Venerable Van Thuan, on the path to being named a saint. He never wasted a minute – could the same be said about us?

            In addition, our family belongs to God. The purpose of our marriage and our kids is to help them become saints. We often doubt that our family can be holy, but consider the example of St. Basil and St. Emmelia – they had ten children, six of whom became canonized saints, including three bishops, a hermit, and two nuns! We hear this and say, “Oh not my family!” But why not? The family of St. Basil and St. Emmelia were flesh-and-blood like ours – but they had a faith that was the cornerstone of their lives. They lived during the final persecution of Christians in the early church, and to protect their family, the parents moved to the forest where they subsisted on hunting and foraging for a couple years until it was safe to move back into town – but the message was received by their kids: Christ is worth living and suffering for. There’s the key – a family will be made holy when parents are willing to follow Christ even to sacrifice – getting to Mass even while on vacation, being sacrificially generous with their family size and with their possessions, not pressuring their kids to achieve the “American dream” but encouraging them to pursue God’s will for their lives. Your family belongs to God!

            All of our gifts and talents belong to God. They’re not given to us for our ego, but for service to the Lord and to others. The man who crafted our beautiful crucifix and these fine hymn board signs is one such man who uses his incredible gift of craftsmanship for the Lord. He finds joy in doing it, accepts no money for it, and glorifies God with it. What gifts and talents do you have that are meant to glorify Him?

            Our health and strength belong to God. When people used to encourage St. John Vianney to rest, he would respond, “I will rest in Heaven!” Of course, we ought to balance recreation with work, but we do have a mission in this world: to do as much good for as many souls as we can. If He’s given you good health and strength, then use it to serve. As Mother Teresa said, “There should be less talk. Just grab a broom and sweep someone’s house. That speaks loud enough.” If God did not give you good health, then your mission is to suffer well for Him, in patience and self-offering.

            Even our senses and our thoughts belong to God. In the early Church, it was a custom when someone would receive the Precious Blood from the chalice at Mass, they would dip their fingers in the Precious Blood and anoint their eyes and ears and forehead, that Christ may reign in their five senses and their thoughts. St. Paul tells us to “take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.” Even our interior life belongs to Him.

            When Jesus says in today’s Gospel to “give unto God what belongs to God,” that includes everything about us. Every last aspect of our life; our past, present, and future, belong to God. Do not hesitate to give Him what is His already, so that He may give us the gift of life everlasting with Him!