It’s been an incredible year in women’s basketball this season. I’ve particularly enjoyed watching two of my favorite teams and their coaches rise to the top over the last several years—Dawn Staley with the South Carolina Gamecocks and Niele Ivey with my Notre Dame Fighting Irish. What makes these two women special to me is not only their dynamic coaching acumen and storied careers but also their faith. In most of their post-game interviews with the press, they will “give all glory to God” and comment on how this game and their team are total blessings and gifts from God.

I appreciate how they root their work and lives in their relationship with God. They give God credit for what is God’s, which is everything! The game, the players, the schools, the television broadcast, the air we breathe, the bodies that train to compete are all gifts from God, and God should be glorified first in all we do!

In today’s gospel, Jesus slices through the trick question and gives us a model of discernment to follow. He makes us realize that humanity makes money and political jockeying for itself and so should be rendered back to humankind. None of this changes the reality of Christ. It is so important to give God what belongs to God because we have received the blessing of life through the loving sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

May Christ’s love be our anchor and source for our whole lives. And through that loving relationship with him, may we come into loving relationships with all others and give them their credit, too.