Armed by God to Serve God and God Alone!

Today's Scriptures are filled with awesome messages and come to us "in power and in the Holy Spirit" (1 Thes 1:5b).  In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah reminds us that we "are called...by...name, [given] a title, though [we] knew [God] not."  Through Isaiah, God says to us: "I am the Lord and there is no other, there is no God besides me. It is I who arm you, though you know me not, so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun people may know that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, there is no other."

"I...arm you,"  to resist Satan, to fight against him!  "I...arm you" against temptation to sin against Me, your God. "I...arm you" against the coronavirus though others around you have contracted the disease! "I...arm you"  against the temptation to abandon your faith and trust in Me, your Creator, Redeemer and Savior God.  "I...arm you" against giving up on yourself and your ability to stand strong in your service to others day in and day out, especially your service to those who are cognitively impaired, mentally ill, intellectually challenged, physically handicapped and/or terminally ill!  "I...arm you"  to stand with the truth, to discern untruths, half truths and downright lies.  "I am the Lord, there is no other."

In the responsorial psalm of today's liturgy, Psalm 96, we pray:  ...[G]reat is the Lord and highly to be praised; awesome is he, beyond all gods. For all the gods of the nations (power, wealth, material things, pleasure, sex, control over others, self-idolatry)  are things of nought, but the Lord, made the heavens. Give to the Lord, you families of nations, give to the Lord glory and praise, give to the Lord the glory due his name! Brings gifts, and enter his courts. Worship the Lord, in holy attire (in grace--faith, hope and love; in repentance, purity and humility); tremble before him, all the earth; say among the nations: The Lord is king (there is no other), he  (and no one else) governs the people with equity."

In the Gospel, Jesus challenges us to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. Let's not cheat God of what belongs to God--our love, our faith, our trust, our repentance, our service to others, especially to the poor and needy!