29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A (2026)
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6
Psalm 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10 (7b)
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b
Matthew 22:15-21
October 18, 2026
At every Sunday and Holy Day Mass we say our Nicene Creed. We profess our faith with the power and conviction of the Holy Spirit.
The Nicene Creed begins, “I believe in one God.” The Nicene Creed was written in the fourth century but our faith in one God goes back to the beginning. 600 years before Jesus came, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, our Lord reminded his people, “I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me…I am the LORD, there is no other.”
Do you believe in one God who is “the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible”? Do you put yourself above God (pride)?
Or is there a false god that you worship? Or do you make worldly things like money or worldly activities like sports your God? We must remember the words of Psalm 96, “For all the gods of the nations are things of nought, but the LORD made the heavens.”
There are people who want to compartmentalize their faith as one small part of their lives. For them, Jesus’ words, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” would seem to support the compartmentalization. What they are missing is that everything belongs to God as Creator.
Issues that are hot political issues like abortion and assisted suicide were faith issues long before they were political issues. Lives do not belong to the government. Our lives belong to God who created us.
We should not compartmentalize our faith. God can work through anything and anyone. Our reading from Isaiah speaks of King Cyrus. It is through Cyrus that God sees to the rebuilding of the Temple after the Babylonian Exile. The Lord even calls Cyrus “his anointed.”
God has worked through others before. What makes his working through Cyrus special is that Cyrus was a pagan. Yet, God chose to work through Cyris, “subduing nations before him, and making kings run in his service, opening doors before him and leaving the gates unbarred.”
King Cyrus did not know the Lord but God chose to work through him “for the sake of Jacob.” God worked through Cyrus for the sake of his people Israel.
Do you allow God to work through you? Or do you close yourself off to God’s calling?
Do you recognize what God has done for you and give Him thanks? Do you follow what Jesus teaches as “the way of God in accordance with the truth” or do you make your own truth?
If we really mean it when we say, “I believe in one God,” we will embrace God’s Truth.
We worship one God. He is one God but He is also three persons. We have the Father almighty. We have Jesus who is “begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.” We have the Holy Spirit “who proceeds from the Father and the Son.”
How the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three persons yet one God is the central mystery of our faith (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 234). As a mystery, we cannot explain it but we can, with the gift of faith, believe it.
God created the world. He has saved us from our sins through Jesus. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts to work for the building of God’s Kingdom. “Tell his glory among the nations; among all peoples, his wondrous deeds…give the LORD the glory due his name.”
God worked through the pagan King Cyrus. Are you ready to let him work through you?
Peace,
Fr. Jeff