(Homily 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr .A)
Human history itself has been
characterized by conflicts, oppositions and clashes. And one of the clashes is
that between religion and the state, which is no longer new. Drawing the issue
further, the history of Christianity especially in the West, was largely a
history of conflicts. In the first few centuries of its existence, the
Christian religion was strongly persecuted by the state. Even though, the
persecutions gave birth to the martyrs and Christianity later became the
religion of the state, however, the traces of that tension still linger today.
Our readings today talk about these oppositions and tensions: Cyrus a pagan
king as opposed to the Israelites, God chosen people and the tension between
Caesar and God etc. The first reading from Deutero-Isaiah presents a
remarkable story of the Persian King Cyrus, who did not know God, but all the
same God used him to achieve his divine purpose, thus revealing that God is Supreme over all, all the rulers of the
earth are subject to him. Cyrus was a pagan king but however was appointed
by God (first reading). This episode in the first reading introduces a sort of
Jewish teaching about the state, and the teaching culminates in the declaration
of Jesus on the tribute to Caesar and to God (Gospel). In the second reading, the faith account of the community of
Thessalonica is a manifestation of a community that has placed God in the first
position; they have given to God what is God’s through their faith, charity
and hope.
The first reading (Is.45:1, 4-6) tells us that God used
Cyrus, a pagan King of Persia, in order
to realize his designs, the promise of liberation of the people of Israel. Isaiah
envisaged God’s work in a pagan king, an unbeliever led by God and called by
name and appointed by God. The word of God
to Cyrus: “It is for the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen one,
that I have called you by your name, I surname you, though you do not know me” (Is. 45:4). The chosen people were
slaves in Babylon, and Cyrus won victory over Babylonians, and with his
political astuteness he made the exiled Israelites to come back to their own
country. Although, some scholars have it that the King did this not with the intention to liberate them, rather he
did it because he wanted to dominate them better by sending them to their own
land. But the overwhelming point here is that, Cyrus unknowingly became an instrument for the realization of God’s
project on Israel: Their liberation from slavery.
Extrapolating from the above fact, we
see two emergent considerations:
►God can use anyone to realize his divine
plans, believers and non-believers alike. However, he will use us more if
we are docile and disposed to the manifestations of His grace. ►We should not always consider whatever that
happens to us or in our world purely from the point of view of human criterion
and logic, sometimes behind the scenes of the happenings, negative or
positive there is God at work, for our favor and good. God can make something good out of evil. More so, it serves as a reminder to all of us, that the mission of
the Church is to bring to all unbelievers the Good News that it is God that
guides their destiny, and through faith in Christ and
baptism they too will be anointed by the Spirit and called by a new name. The
Good News is that God knows us even when we do not know Him.
In the Gospel (Mt. 22:15-21) Mathew presents the episode of the tension between
Jesus and the two opposing groups: Pharisees and Romans over the issue of tribute
to Caesar as a plot to trap Jesus. Latently, Mathew sets out to present the episode as part of the conflicts of
Jesus and his opponents. And the
fulcrum of this encounter is condensed in the words: “Give to Caesar the things
that belong to Caesar, and to God the things that are God’s”. Doubtlessly,
this pronouncement has been subjected to a number of interpretations in the
course of the history of Christianity. However, all the three evangelists collocated
the episode within the context of the happenings in the last days of Jesus in
Jerusalem.
In the context of today’s Gospel, we
see an unusual occurrence of two opposing groups (Pharisees and Romans) coming
together for a purpose, that is, to lay a snare for Jesus. In fact, with their initial eulogies they pretended
to be on the side of Jesus. The fake tributes to Jesus by two groups of
enemies that suddenly became friends, mention of his honesty, his fearlessness,
his disregard for the status of those he encountered, all this flattery coming from people who normally were hostile to
Christ merely exposes the hypocrisy of their praise. They wanted to get Jesus
by incensing him with eulogies, “Master, we know that you are an honest man and
teach the way of God in all honesty and that you are not afraid of anyone,
because human rank means nothing to you” (v.16).
Afterwards, they threw him the question “give us your opinion, then. Is it
permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (v.17). But Jesus “knowing their wickedness” (v.18), reacts immediately with a counterattack: “You hypocrites,
why do you tempt me” (v.18). And he
asks for a coin, saying “whose image is here?” (v.20), they couldn’t but reply “of Caesar”. And he told them “give
to Caesar what belongs to Caesar…” If
Jesus were to answer, “Pay the tax,” he would have been accused of
collaboration with the Roman oppressors, and would have incurred the scorn
of the ordinary Jews, who pay tax. If he
had advocated for non-payment of tax, he could have been arrested for sedition
by the Roman authorities. So Jesus played his cards well. “Give to Caesar
the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s”, these words
left them confounded and they quietly went away. However, it could be said that
the response of Jesus left the matter in
suspense, for it neither touch on the right of the Romans to rule the
Israelites, nor did it enumerate concretely the things of Caesar and those of
God.
However, the hot button phrase of today’s Gospel: “give to Caesar what
belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God” (Mt.22:21), was reported not only by Mathew, but by the three
synoptic. And in the account of the three synoptic we see the contending
question to Jesus: “Is it lawful or not, to pay tribute to Caesar?” (v.15), this was indeed a hot button
question because: ►If Jesus had responded that it was lawful, he would have
become a friend of the Romans, and attracted the anger of the Jews. ►If he
responded that it is not lawful, he would have fallen into the hands of the
Romans. ►If he did not respond it would have been a big disappointment after
that their initial eulogy.
But with his well calculated response
Jesus silenced them all, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar”. That is to say, if you accept the services
of Caesar, pay also the tribute. This goes a long way to educate the
Christians that they have their prescribed rights and duties before the State.
Then, Jesus added “And to God what belongs to God”, this invariably reveals that before the duties one owes to the State
comes the duties before God, who is the Supreme and Absolute Being. The
State / Government cannot appropriate to herself absolute values. Be that as it
may, if the State promulgates laws that are contrary to the laws of God, a
Christian has to respond courageously like the apostles: “obedience to God
comes before obedience to men” (At.
5:29).
The saying of Jesus above has been
interpreted in so many ways, some use it to justify the claim that religious
leaders should not interfere in secular domains like politics and economics
etc. But this could not possibly be the meaning. As a matter of fact, the whole teachings of Jesus reiterates the
fact that the whole of creation belong to God, “his is the earth and the
fullness thereof”. As such, there is no question of separate domains, for
everything belongs to God. More than that, the
saying is rather about maintaining priorities. The question was a trap
because for the Pharisees paying taxes to Caesar is important, but for Jesus it
is of a relative importance, little wonder he responded in such a wise manner.
What belongs to God therefore, must be considered from a wider sense to mean
what we can not compromise where and when it is concerned, for instance we can
talk about: family, the sacrality of human life, justice etc. Jesus in this passage is pointing out that
priorities have gone wrong, little wonder, his response took them by
surprise and at the same time, very satisfying, for they left him alone and
went away. Many a times, we fall into
the same misplacement of priorities like the Pharisees, for we lay too much
stress on things that are important but secondary, for instance: wealth,
prestige and popularity.
Symbolically, as the image of the emperor on the coin demonstrates that the coin
belongs to him, so also, man as an image of God, with God’s imprint, belongs to
God. For Genesis 1: 26-27
reminds us that man is a “creatio imago
Dei”, made in the image and likeness of God. As such, if the coin is giving
to Caesar because it bears his image, man bears the image of God and thus,
belongs to God. Therefore, to Caesar
things, to God Persons! Jesus responded
to their question with a double edged answer. First, he substituted the verb “to pay” with the verb “to restitute”,
restitute, therefore to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Here, restitute is a
strong imperative, that has to do not only with money, but the whole life. The
question we cannot but ask is this: who is Caesar? Caesar is not God, and Jesus
removed from Caesar any divine pretense. Restitute to God what is God’s: to God
belongs man, made little less than the angels (Ps. 8) and at the same time on our hands we carry the inscription:
“Yahweh’s” (Is. 44:5). No doubt, Jesus recognized the value and autonomy of political
powers in the spheres of their competence, however, he reminds Caesar
(political powers) that he also has “to give God what belongs to God”, to recognize
the universal sovereignty of God, therefore, respecting God’s law on man and
the human conscience.
In the second reading (1Th. 1:1-5b), we read from the
earliest written document of the New Testament, which was authored by Paul
around 50 AD during his stay at Corinth. It happened that Paul founded the
Church in Thessalonica not too long from the moment he wrote this epistle. He writes with preoccupation over his new
converts that he left, not only that, he even sent Timothy to go and see
how they were faring in the faith. And as God would have it, Timothy brought an encouraging report, and
that triggered the warm tone of the opening of this epistle, thus, he began
with thanksgiving. They tried to put God at the proper position in their
lives, they put God first, they did give
to God what belongs to God. He compliments them for their commitment in the
faith, industriousness in charity and for their constant hope in the Lord. Can
this be said of our own Christian communities and parishes too?
In all, the story of Cyrus in the first reading confirms the
fact that all authority comes from God and belongs to Him too (cf. Romans
13:1), all the same, giving to Caesar and to God does not mean compromising our
faith in God with the things of this world. There is a pressing need to put God at the proper position in our lives
and society. Today we are in a society that on and on tends to relegate God
to the background, a society where relative opinions that drag the human
dignity to the mud are made laws. In all this, we cannot but reaffirm the belongingness of man to God. Heavenly
Father, all power and authority in heaven and on earth belongs to and comes
from you, give us the grace to understand that it is in your Son we have life,
and may the light of the Holy Spirit enlighten our minds and our darkened world
to acknowledge and place You at the first position in our lives, thus God above
all else. As we celebrate World Mission Sunday today, may the Lord give us the
grace always to respond to his invitation like Isaiah: “Here am I, send me”
(Is. 6:8). May the Lord help us to participate in the Mission either by going
or by giving! Amen!
(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)
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