· XXIX (A), October 16, 2005
· Theme: All belongs to God

· “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”
· This is a scripture passage that we hear quoted often,
· It is often taken out of context:
· To justify a “two-kingdom” Theology
· In other words, this is not a rationale for the “Separation of Church and State” in the U.S.
· Remember the intention of the Founding Fathers and Mothers was only that no state religion should be imposed.
· Even worse: to justify an unquestioning obedience to secular authority.
· Our lives are not bifurcated into compartmentalized units.
· And, this complete division certainly does not have a Scriptural foundation.

· The first reading from the Prophet Isaiah sets the stage:
· King Cyrus (580-529 BC) – a pagan – “One who does not know the true God”
· Yet, the prophet calls him the Anointed of God, because by conquering the traditional enemies of the “Chosen People,” he makes it possible for them to return to the Promise Land after their years of exile in Babylonia.

· Similarly, Matthew does not make a secular- spiritual division in today’s Gospel reading from Chapter 22.
· The setting is a trap for Jesus by his opponents
· The precise issue is the paying of taxes, not the autonomy of Caesar in a secular sphere.
· Taxes were an incendiary issue in the time of Jesus
· The occupying forces of Rome had imposed a head tax on the people.
· Armed revolts had been waged against these taxes.
· The Romans put these revolts down brutally.
· The Pharisees (who resented the tax), and Herodians (who supported it) team up to trap Jesus.
· Jesus is faced with either being called a Collaborator of the Romans, or an Insurrectionist.
· Jesus beat his opponents at their own game.
· Jesus asks them to produce the Roman coin used to pay the taxes.
· This coin bears the image of Tiberius Caesar that proclaims him a deity.
· The bearers of the coin are immediately discredited because they have carried this “graven image” into the Temple precincts.
· Then by saying, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesars,” Jesus repudiates violence even in oppressive situations.
· Finally, by saying, “and to God what belongs to God,” he is making a comprehensive statement – All belongs to God.

· Our response to the parable
· It might seem simplistic to say that we are talking about, “two sides of the same coin.”
· But we are not schizophrenic individuals who can divide our lives into boxes that have nothing to do with each other.
· We say, “Business is business” – does that suspend us from conducting all our affairs morally and with integrity?
· What does all the labor and energy of so many people working on the Carnival have to do with faith and worship?
· Everything – it brings our multilingual, multicultural community together to celebrate together.
· Harriet Miers has been nominated to the Supreme Court
· I do not know how she would do on the court,
· But her “faith” has become an absoulte litmus test of her judicial mind.
· Yet, her faith, as either a former Catholic or a present Evangelical Christian, does not determine her ability as a potential jurist.
· I opposed the war in Iraq, but I support our men and women under arms in that country.
· I am also proud of the Iraqi people who went to the polls this weekend even in the face of extremist insurgents who in the name of God are trying to violently disrupt the election.
· We are not God’s or Caesar’s – We are God’s with obligations to Caesar.

· In every age Christians are faced with balancing the demands of Caesar with the commands of God.
· To say that the state has nothing to say to the church about protecting children from abuse is absurd.
· Just as absurd is to say that the church has no moral voice to challenge the state in its decision making process.
· We have always admired church people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, and Cesar Chavez for the moral challenge that they have posed to the state.
· Whether we agree with their positions or not, church and state both have respected the integrity and faith commitment out of which these men and woman spoke.
· Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but remember we all belong to God.

· As we continue with our Liturgy let us pray that:
· Science and rationale thinking inform our system of Catholic Faith;
· Our faith in God inform our political, social and business lives;
· God might strengthen our resolve to put our faith in action by seeking a more just, equitable and loving world for all.

· Amen

← Previous Page — Next Page →