Breaking the Word: Through the Haze

Sunday, October 18, 2026

Through the Haze

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

(World Mission Sunday)

Readings: Isaiah 45: 1, 4-6; Psalm 95 (96): 1, 3-5, 7-10; 1 Thessalonians 1: 1-5; Matthew 22: 15-21
Picture: By Lizgrin F on Unsplash

What can we do about this haze? Realistically, there probably isn’t much we can do to stop it. But does this mean we should do nothing? Simply carry on as usual? Perhaps even add to the pollution, by going out into the haze, and puffing defiantly on a cigarette? Isn’t it true that not being able to stop something, doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t take steps to reduce its bad effects on us? Steps like learning how to read the signs. To know, for example, the difference between the 24-hour PSI and the 1-hour PM2.5 readings. Where to check them, and what to do or refrain from doing, when they reach certain levels. Reading the signs may also help us realise an important truth. Namely, that we’re not completely helpless. Nor are we alone. And that there are useful resources on which we can rely. Our own, as well as those provided by others. Windows we can close, masks we can wear, purifiers we can use, public spaces we can share… All of which may help us respond more appropriately. Instead of just doing nothing… Reading the signs, realising the truth, relying on resources, so as to respond better. Don’t we find something similar in our scriptures today?

More than just a speech addressed by God to a foreign king, what we find in the first reading is a people who have been languishing for decades in the hazardous haze of exile, in faraway Babylon. Painfully aware that their exile is not just political, but also spiritual. For they have come to see that they are reaping the fruits of their own idolatry. But then, one day, their captors are conquered by the Persians. And the new king, Cyrus, decides to allow them to return and rebuild their home. Even providing them with what they need to do so. And the people learn to read this development as a sign. Allowing them to realise a consoling truth. That despite being a pagan, Cyrus has been called and anointed by God. He is the chosen instrument through whom God is protecting and providing for them. Which implies that even in the hazy darkness of exile, they are not alone. Their God is with them, forgiving them, caring for them. What they need to do is rely on the resources being made available to them, so as to respond appropriately. Not just by returning and rebuilding their home, but by repenting from their sin. By turning away from idolatry, so as to worship and praise the One True God. To give the Lord glory and power…

In the gospel too, we find a people living under the hazardous haze of foreign rule. A haze that’s the result not just of their own military weakness, but also of their spiritual fragility. Their idolatry and infidelity. And again, God refuses to forsake them. God sends a Messiah, a Christ, an Anointed One, on a mission of mercy. A mission to save them, by proclaiming the coming of God’s kingdom, and calling them to repent. But, as we heard in the gospel read three Sundays ago, although the tax collectors and prostitutes –– the public sinners –– were quick to heed God’s call, the religious leaders were not. So for the last three Sundays, Jesus has been telling them parables designed to soften and enlighten their hearts. Stories that are also signs pointing them to the path of repentance. But they fail to read the signs. They refuse to realise who Jesus is. They reject the Anointed Resource provided by God for sinners to rely on. Rather than responding positively to God’s call, in today’s reading, they seek to trap him with a dangerous question.

All of which should help us appreciate the significance of what Jesus says to them in reply: give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God. Rather than drawing a hard line strictly separating the realm of politics from that of religion, Jesus is implicitly highlighting a central truth of our faith. The same truth found at the end of the first reading. Where God tells the great Persian conqueror, I am the Lord, unrivalled; there is no other God besides me…. apart from me all is nothing. Which may lead us to recall the opening words of the Creed we will shortly stand to profess together: I believe in one God… Not two or three or none, but one God. Apart from whom, all is nothing. All, including me. Could it be that it’s only when I learn to accept and to live according to this great truth, that I can then see clearly enough to consider other questions? Not just whether or not to pay taxes to Caesar, but also what career to choose for myself… Whether to marry… How many children to have… How much tuition to provide them… How to spend my retirement… What to do with my wealth… How to face the inevitability of my own diminishment and death…

The ability to accept and to live out the practical implications of our belief in one God, who loves and cares for us. Isn’t this also what St Paul is describing in the second reading? Where he highlights what for him is the sure sign that the Thessalonians have been chosen by God. Namely, that the Good News has come to them not only as words, but as power and as the Holy Spirit and as utter conviction. The power to see through the confusing haze of everyday life, in order to recognise the face of Christ –– the Anointed One sent by the One True God –– and to follow him. What is Christian mission, if not to experience and live out of this same power, and to help others do the same?

Sisters and brothers, how is the Lord calling us to respond to the different kinds of haze we may encounter today?

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Breaking News: Ordinary Time

Besides the times of year that have their own distinctive character, there remain in the yearly cycle thirty-three or thirty-four weeks in which no particular aspect of the mystery of Christ is celebrated, but rather the mystery of Christ itself is honored in its fullness, especially on Sundays. This period is known as Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time begins on the Monday which follows the Sunday occurring after 6 January and extends up to and including the Tuesday before the beginning of Lent; it begins again on the Monday after Pentecost Sunday and ends before First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of the First Sunday of Advent. During these times of the year there is used the series of formularies given for the Sundays and weekdays of this time both in the Missal and in the Liturgy of the Hours ~ General Norms for the Liturgical Year & Calendar, nn 43-44

From 36th Jesuit General Congregation

It is our union with one another in Christ that testifies to the Good News more powerfully than our competences and abilities.... In our individualistic and competitive age, we should remember that the community plays a very special role since it is a privileged place of apostolic discernment.... The Jesuit community is a concrete space in which we live as friends in the Lord. This life together is always at the service of mission, but because these fraternal bonds proclaim the Gospel, it is itself a mission. –Companions in a Mission of Reconciliation and Justice (CMRJ), nn. 7-9.

With the poor, we can learn what hope and courage mean.... In our communities and apostolates, we hear the call to rediscover hospitality to strangers, to the young, to the poor, and to those who are persecuted. Christ himself teaches us this hospitality. –CMRJ, nn. 15-16.

At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is the transforming encounter with the mercy of God in Christ that moves us to a generous personal response. The experience of the merciful gaze of God on our weakness and sinfulness humbles us and fills us with gratitude, helping us to become compassionate ministers to all.... For us Jesuits, compassion is action, an action discerned together. Yet we know that there is no authentic familiarity with God if we do not allow ourselves to be moved to compassion and action by an encounter with the Christ who is revealed in the suffering, vulnerable faces of people, indeed in the suffering of creation. –CMRJ, nn. 19-20.

(T)he Society must respond more decisively to the Church’s call for a new evangelization, giving special emphasis to ministry to and with the young and with families.... A special gift Jesuits and the Ignatian family have to offer to the Church and her mission of evangelization is Ignatian spirituality, which facilitates the experience of God and can therefore greatly help the process of personal and communal conversion. –CMRJ, nn. 22-23.

In many societies, there is an increased level of conflict and polarization, which often gives rise to violence that is all the more appalling because it is motivated and justified by distorted religious convictions. In such situations, Jesuits, along with all who seek the common good, are called to contribute from their religious-spiritual traditions towards the building of peace, on local and global levels. –CMRJ, n. 28.

Pope Francis has emphasized the fundamental connection between the environmental crisis and the social crisis in which we live today. Poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization are linked with environmental degradation. These are not separate crises but one crisis that is a symptom of something much deeper: the flawed way societies and economies are organised. The current economic system with its predatory orientation discards natural resources as well as people. For this reason, Pope Francis insists that the only adequate solution must be a radical one. The direction of development must be altered if it is to be sustainable. We Jesuits are called to help heal a broken world, promoting a new way of producing and consuming, which puts God’s creation at the center.... The multifaceted challenge of caring for our common home calls for a multifaceted response from the Society. We begin by changing our personal and community lifestyles, adopting behaviour coherent with our desire for reconciliation with creation. – CMRJ, nn. 29-30

From 35th Jesuit General Congregation

From General Congregation 35

By sending us to 'those physical and spiritual places which others do not or have difficulty reaching,' the Pope entrusts to us the task to 'build bridges of understanding and dialogue,' according to the best tradition of the Society, in the diversity of its ministries.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 6

To be missioned to this work 'at the New Frontiers of our times' always requires that one also be rooted at the very heart of the Church. This tension, specific to the Ignatian charism, opens the way to true creative fidelity.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 13

In every mission that we carry out, we seek only to be where (Christ) sends us. The grace we receive as Jesuits is to be and to go with him, looking on the world with his eyes, loving it with his heart and entering into its depths with his unending compassion.
- Decree on Identity, n. 15

For ultimately, there is no reality that is only profane for those who know how to look. We must communicate this look and provide a pedagogy inspired by the Spiritual Exercises, that carries people - especially the young - into it.
- Decree on Identity, n. 10

Our ministries of proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Life of Christ in the sacraments continue to be fundamental for our mission and our lives together as Jesuits.
- Decree on Mission, n. 19

The complexity of the problems we face and the richness of the opportunities offered demand that we engage in building bridges between rich and poor and establishing advocacy links of mutual support between those who hold political power and those who find it difficult to voice their interests. Our intellectual apostolate provides an inestimable help in setting up these bridges, offering us new ways of understanding in depth the mechanism and links among our present problems.
- Decree on Mission, n. 28

Jesuit community is not just for mission, it is itself mission.
- Decree on Mission, n. 41

In this global context it is important to highlight the extraordinary potential represented by our character as an international and multicultural body. Acting consistently with this character can not only enhance the apostolic effectiveness of our work but in a fragmented and divided world it can witness to the reconciliation in solidarity of all the children of God.
- Decree on Mission, n. 43

Faith in Jesus Christ teaches us that self-realization comes from self-giving and that freedom is not so much the power to choose as the power to order our choices toward love. At the same time, love for Jesus Christ and the desire to follow him call us to trusting commitment. Commitment to the Word Incarnate cannot be separated from commitment to the concrete manifestations of the Word that are at the center of our lives, the Church and the Society which exists to serve the Church.
- Decree on Obedience, n. 19

Breaking the Word

Sunday, October 18, 2026

Through the Haze

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