Greeting and a Blessed Sunday to you all.
Today our Gospel from Matthew, once again has Jesus in confrontation with the religious leader. The Pharisees did not think it right to pay taxes to Caesar. Wanting to once again try to catch Jesus in a duel of words, asks Him if it is right to pay these taxes? Jesus, seeing what they were trying to do, poses a question to them, He asked for a coin. He asks them whose image is on it. They answer, “Caesar’s” and the Lord answers them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”
We as a country just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country. We as a country are not governed by a king or any other monarch. We are self-governing following what was written 250 years ago, The Constitution of the United States. The pre-amble of this document states “We the People . . .”
So, dear brothers and sisters, we find ourselves with “dual citizenship”. One to an earthly country and one to a heavenly one.
One commentator states, “Made clear from this declaration that every Christian holds a dual citizenship, and both citizenship have their own benefits and duties. Our birth made us citizens of an early nation while our baptism mad us citizens of a heavenly kingdom. Sometimes those citizenships overlap but in the end, our earthly citizenship will finish, while our heavenly on will last for eternity. It is obvious which one is more important.”
We are aware of our responsibilities to our earthly nation . We know that we have rules and regulations that keep us safe and protected. We pay our taxes to keep our earthly home going. Yes it is far from perfect, but maybe that may be where we need to work for change and not just for us, but for those who live around us. The care of our earth, our island home, as it is called, ensures a safe and well established place for our children .
But we also must attend to our other Kingdom. That one that is where we are destined to go once our journey on the earth has come to an end. What is it that we must “repay” God? Well we know that we can never really “repay” God for all His kindness and love. This means we must LIVE out our Christian life every day.
The living of this life of Christ is not easy. We may find ourselves in conflict with others around us who do not hold the same value system as we do. But that is reality. We cannot condemn them because they do not believe as we do. Nor can we use our faith system as a club to beat others to our ways of thinking.
We are called by Christ in our Baptism into His death and resurrection. That means we must try to live as good a Christian life as we are able. Will it be easy? By no means, but we are call to do our best. Christianity is not a race, or a game that we play to win or lose. It is believing in the words of Jesus where in John’s Gospel, He tells us “Everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” (Jn 13:35)
Peace and All Good,Fr. Vinnie, osf and the Bros and Srs of the Franciscan House of Prayer.
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