My heart explodes with joy to report to you the number of people in this year's OCIA (formally known as RCIA) class. It’s the formation and catechetical classes that non-Catholics take, in order to be received fully into the Catholic Church. We have thirty-three! It’s the largest class our parish has seen in the last few decades. The Holy Spirit is proving to us again that He is active and moving in the hearts of the people of Vacaville. To mimic the words of St. Paul from our Second Reading today, I want to speak directly to these thirty-three brothers and sisters of ours:  “We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love….” (Cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5). 

There’s only one reason to be Catholic – love. That’s it. I am Catholic because I am striving to love Jesus Christ with all of my heart, my soul, my strength and my mind (Cf. Matthew 22:36-40). To love Jesus Christ, is to be faithful to all that he reveals to us. If we live this love to the fullest potential, we will stand out in the world. The English word “Church” is a translation of  the Greek word “ekklesia” (ἐκκλησία), which means “those who are called out.” In Spanish, we can hear the connection more readily, “iglesia”. To be a member of the Catholic Church, as we all are, is to be a part of this exclusive group of people that have been freed from the clutches of this fallen world. The price of this membership was paid through the blood of Jesus Christ. 

In the Gospel, this distinction between the world and God’s family, the Church, is made explicitly clear as the Pharisees and Heodians try to trap Jesus with a provocative question: “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” If he says yes, he will provoke the ire of the Jewish people who hate the occupying Roman forces. If he says no, he immediately becomes an enemy of the state. Either way, the enemies of Jesus will finally have cause to arrest him. Little do they realize, Our Lord sees the dark intentions of their hearts. They have no interest in the truth, only their own hatred. Jesus responds, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” In other words, leave the world to fight over the scraps of money, power, honor and pleasure. We Christians have been called out of that mess; we belong to a God who wants to give us more than what the world can offer.