Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear brothers and sisters,

Today we celebrate the gift of St. John Paul II. He had a great impact on me and helped me in my process to discern my calling. I call myself a JPII priest. What I learnt from him is that you can be a great Christian and be ‘normal’ as well. The pictures of him in nature, on a kayak, skiing, etc… always moved me a lot. Jesus became someone close, not someone who was far away in heaven. This is also part of our charism as a Sodalit priest. We call it the lay charism or the importance of incarnation. You see, in the incarnation God became Emmanuel: “God with us”. God who is close! That was an unthinkable thing at that time and even almost 2000 years after for young me the idea of God that I had was that He was very far away. JPII showed me that God is close! Jesus danced, went to weddings, had a BBQ beside the shore… He is ‘normal’ and He is God. 

As a young man JPII really challenged me to take God seriously. He helped me recognize what we hear in today’s Gospel: "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." The idea that the coin had the image of Caesar and therefore should be given to Caesar left me with the question of what is marked with the image of God? The obvious answer is myself! I was created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore I come FROM God and am destined FOR God! All of me makes sense in God. Taking serious our Lord little by little became something that I embraced. 

But then, as I am a nature lover, I realized that not only I was marked with the seal of God but everything carries the mark of the creator. Going on a hike, contemplating the beauty of nature made me recognize His presence in everything. Even very small and insignificant things. All comes from God and wants to go back to God. This helped me realize that anything done far from God makes no sense at all. 

I hope this mass today will help you recognize His presence in your life! How much he loves you and how much it makes sense to have Him in your life.

God bless you!

Fr. Carlos