29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 22, 2023

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What do I owe to civil authorities? What do I owe to God?

Matthew 22:15–21

Then the Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap him in speech.

They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”

Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin.

He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

Music Meditations

Opening Prayer

From the Carmelites:

Lord, help me to see that serving you and being a good citizen of my country need not be contradictory. Help me the choose wisely in those situations when I must make a choice, always keeping your will and your precepts in my heart. Help me to see in others a witness to your incredible care and love for everyone and everything you have created, because it is all yours.

Companions for the Journey

From “Working Preacher”:

We think of the last days of Jesus’ final week as being full of vexation.

Indeed, they were: betrayal, arrest, torture, and crucifixion. But the first two days of the week were also filled with difficulty. In Matthew’s version of the week, Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly on Monday and proceeds to the temple to cleanse it of abuse. Tuesday is particularly full.

Jesus returns to Jerusalem for a series of pronouncements and confrontations by religious leaders. On this day, Jesus curses the fig tree, is questioned about his authority, offers three parables that each conclude with dire warnings for those who assume they are comfortably within God’s favor.

Then he is challenged on whether to pay taxes to Caesar, is questioned about the resurrection of the dead, challenged about the greatest commandment, and engaged in discussion about the nature of the messiah.

Finally, Jesus engages in a long discourse (23:1-25:46) in which he denounces religious leaders, laments over Jerusalem, foretells destruction of the temple, gives his disciples a list of signs concerning the end times, offers additional parables, and tells of the final judgment. Tuesday was a big day.

It seems one of the chief accomplishments of the day was to put the religious leaders in their place. Jesus overwhelms his verbal adversaries and denounces temple leadership so thoroughly that by the next day, Wednesday of Holy Week, the leaders began plotting to arrest and kill this bothersome prophet.

The pericope for this day lies within Tuesday’s busy agenda. Here we have the failed attempt by the Pharisees and Herodians to trap Jesus on what appears to be a political issue: whether or not it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. We might imagine the smugness with which they employ this trap. The Pharisees are against the Roman occupation government, so they bring along the Herodians, people obliged to Rome for keeping Herod in puppet power.

Governments are necessary, taxes may be necessary, and every country has a Caesar of sorts to contend with. So, render unto that Caesar whatever is due. But, don’t mess around with the things that belong to God.

Whom do we belong to? Sometimes it seems like we belong to Caesar. Taxes, legal restrictions on our freedoms, imprisonment if you engage in civil disobedience. Or, perhaps, we feel that our job owns us. Or our families. Sometimes, we even feel owned by our material possessions. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it: “Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind.”

But to whom do we really belong? Take a look at any person. Whose inscription is on him or her? Each is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). There can be no doubt, then, what Jesus means here. Give yourselves to God because it is to him that you belong. 

It is God who claims us, who made us in his own image. We do not belong to anything or to anyone else. We don’t even belong to ourselves. We belong to God in all our being, with all our talents, interests, time, and wealth. “We give thee but thine own, whatever the gift may be. All that we have is thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from thee.”

The consequences of belonging to God are remarkable. First, it means that God will not forsake us. The Pharisees and the other religious leaders that Jesus denounces were notoriously bad at caring for the people. They forsook their responsibilities and the people God gave into their care. They deserved condemnation. But, God does not forsake his own. By Friday of Holy Week, Jesus made that clear in the boldest way possible.

Second, it means that because we belong to God, we belong to the people of God, the body of Christ. We are baptized into this fellowship and can only lose our membership by turning our backs on God. If there is any alienation, it is our own doing. And, if we return, God is there, as always.

Third, it means that we give to God that which belongs to God’s: that is, we give ourselves. We take the sacred trust and invest it in lives of worship. Sometimes, that worship occurs privately, in devotion. Sometimes, in church with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And the rest of the time, it occurs in the sphere of daily work and service. All of this is worship. Ultimately, giving ourselves to God means that we give ourselves to the world.

Further reflection:

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • What in your life belongs “to Caesar”?
    What belongs only “to God”?
    When do these duties overlap?
  • Have I ever felt that my worldly obligations have taken time away from God?
  • Has there been a time when I was pressured by the prevailing culture of the workplace or the world I inhabit into making a decision that went against my principles?
    How did it turn out?
    How did I feel?
  • When has my duty to God impelled me to speak out against the inequitable or cruel treatment of others by our own government, for example?
  • Is there a contradiction between being a good citizen and serving God?
    Do I see Church and state on a collision course?
  • If we were to live in a theocracy (no daylight between the laws of God as expressed by religious and civil laws) which religion should be the defining standard?
  • Do I have a double standard regarding religious intrusions into political discourse (My Catholic views are ok, but others’ religious views are not)?
  • Should my church tell me whom or what to vote for?
    Should it tell me what or whom to vote against?
  • Does legitimate civil power have a right to ask anything from us (voting in elections, obedience to laws, the payment of taxes, conscription in the military, for example)?
    What does it not have a right to ask of me?
  • Where does the notion of civil disobedience fit into the meaning of this gospel?
  • What do I think I should render to God on earth, specifically to the people of God, to all God’s creation, including the natural world?
    Can the term “rendering unto God” be interpreted as working for just laws, support for the poor and marginalized, respect for all life? Can it be interpreted as working to wipe out racism, sexism, elitism of any kind?
  • What am I personally unwilling to render to God?
    For this week, keep track of where you spend your money and what you spend it on. What does your checkbook and your datebook tell you about your priorities?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Adapted from “First Impressions” 2002:

It is clear from church teaching that we Christians are called to engage the world and bring our beliefs with us into Caesar’s domain. Vatican II reminded us to take our faith into the market place and interpret our times in the light of the gospel. If we have any doubts all we have to do is to read papal and episcopal documents that address: poverty, globalization, war, abortion, the death penalty, health care, environment, the economy. These teachings remind us that the church of Jesus’ followers doesn’t exist apart from the world and that we are called to be agents of change for peace and justice. It is God’s will that all people be treated justly, the poor cared for and everyone must be given respect and treated with dignity as a child of God.

What is my job as a citizen to call out the failures and omissions, the cruelties and injustices that our system perpetuates? What is my job as a citizen to address poverty, to care for the sick and lonely, to bring justice to the captives, to welcome the stranger? Is this only the job of government, or do I have a part to play? What am I doing in this regard right now? If not right now, when will be the right time to get started?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style:

Psalm 72

1O God, give your judgment to the king, to a king’s son your justice,
2that he may judge your people in justice, and your poor in right judgment.
3May the mountains bring forth peace for the people, and the hills justice.
4May he defend the poor of the people, and save the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor.
5He shall endure like the sun and the moon through all generations.
6He shall descend like rain on the meadow, like showers that water the earth.
7In his days shall justice flourish, and great peace till the moon is no more.

12For he shall save the needy when they cry, the poor, and those who are helpless.
13He will have pity on the weak and the needy, and save the lives of the needy.
14From oppression and violence he redeems their souls; to him their blood is dear.
15Long may he live!

Read sections from Psalm 72, then reflect on the way power is revered in our society, and, in the main, how that power is used. What are the dangers of power? This psalm is frequently used as a description of the way an ideal ruler must use power. Think of our history and all of the ways in which power has been abused. Has this been the story in our own church? In our country? Reflect on these verses as you make your voting decisions for November.

Poetic Reflection:

When we say we want to give to God what is God's, what, exactly, do we mean? Wendell Berry reflects on the ways we pay lip service to God, but are really in the service of another reality altogether…

“We Who Prayed and Wept”

We who prayed and wept
for liberty from Kings
and the yoke of liberty
accept the tyranny of things
we do not need.
In plenitude too free,
we have become adept
beneath the yoke of greed.

Those who will not learn
in plenty to keep their place
must learn it by their need
when they have had their way
and the fields spurn their seed.
We have failed Thy grace.
Lord, I flinch and pray,
send Thy necessity.

—from Collected Poems

Closing Prayer

Jesus, I ask for courage to stand up for what is true and just. Help me to speak out against the atrocities of war, genocide, systemic poverty and the cruelties that people seem to visit on one another, all in the name of being right. Help me not to be too quick to judge those whose decisions are other than I would approve of, and help me to have patience with the mistakes I and others make in living out our lives. Then help me to rest in the hope that in Your will is our peace.