Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Tuesday of the Ninth week in Ordinary Time

Mark 12:13-17

Listen to the whole reading — MP3

First reading

2 Peter 3:12-15,17-18

looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, which will cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight. Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you; You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

Responsorial psalm

Psalms 90:2,3-4,10,14,16

Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You turn man to destruction, saying, “Return, you children of men.” For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night. The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away. Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Let your work appear to your servants; your glory to their children.

Gospel

Mark 12:13-17

They sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to him, that they might trap him with words. When they had come, they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you are honest, and don’t defer to anyone; for you aren’t partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give?” But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test me? Bring me a denarius, that I may see it.” They brought it. He said to them, “Whose is this image and inscription?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Jesus answered them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” They marveled greatly at him.

Lectio

There is a quiet thread running through these readings about what lasts and what passes away. Peter writes of heavens that will dissolve and elements that will melt, urging us not to cling too tightly to a world that is, by its nature, temporary. The psalmist places this before us even more starkly: a thousand years are like yesterday to God, and our own days, seventy or eighty if we are strong, pass quickly and we fly away. Against this vast horizon of eternity, the question becomes not how to escape the world but how to be "found in peace, without defect and blameless" within it.

And then Jesus, holding up a coin, offers the most practical wisdom of all. Render to Caesar what bears Caesar's image, and to God what bears God's. The coin carries the emperor's likeness; we carry God's. The Pharisees came to trap him in a debate about money and politics, but Jesus gently turns the question inward. The real issue is not whether we pay our taxes, but whether we give to God the one thing that truly bears his image — ourselves. So much of our anxiety comes from confusing the two, from offering to passing things the devotion that belongs only to the eternal.

Peter does not ask us to despise the world but to grow within it — to grow "in the grace and knowledge of our Lord." Holiness is not a frantic flight from time but a patient ripening inside it, while we keep our deepest loyalty fixed on the One who remains when all else melts away.

Where in your life right now are you giving to "Caesar" — to work, money, status, or another's approval — the devotion and trust that your heart was made to give to God alone?

If your days really are as brief as the psalm says, passing like a watch in the night, what is one thing you have been postponing — a reconciliation, a prayer, a forgiveness — that you would not want to leave undone?

Saint of the day

Sts. Peter & Marcellinus, Martyrs († c. 304)

Ora reads this aloud, every morning, free. Ora