Deuteronomy 10:12-22 / Matthew 17:22-27
We want the good things of life. It is a human desire.
We are not asking for extreme pleasures or luxuries.
What we want is to live comfortably and have security in life.
So, what do we need to do to have the good things of life?
In the 1st reading, Moses said this to the people:
What does the Lord your God ask of you? Only this: to fear the Lord our God, to follow all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and laws of the Lord that for your good I lay down for you today.
So, keeping the laws and commandments of the Lord God is not for His sake.
Rather, it is for our good. When we obey what the Lord God tells us, then we will have the good things of life, and we will be happy.
And when we are not demanding for too many good things, then the Lord our God will give enough, and we will be happy and contented.
In the gospel, Jesus was asked to pay the tax of the half-shekel.
Though He could have argued that He need not have to pay it, He choose not to offend the tax-collectors.
So, Jesus asked Peter to go catch a fish and there in the mouth of the fish was a shekel that paid the tax for both of them.
When we choose to do what the Lord wants of us, when we choose not to annoy others, or to irritate them, or to insult or offend them, then God will give us the good things of life.
When we walk in the ways of the Lord our God, it is certainly for our good, as well as for the good of others.