Reflection for the 29 th Sunday in ordinary Time year A. Is 45:4-6; 1 Thes 1:1-5b; Ps95; Mt 22:15-21
A win-win with God?
Context.
Sometimes there seems to be a great tension between our “being” Christians and our involvement in the life of the city. Sometimes we seem to separate what is secular to what is religious. In light of today's readings, we see uses all that he has created for the fulfillment of his plan and his glory. In the first reading (Isaiah 45, 1. 4-6), the temple had been destroyed in 587 by Nebuchadnezzar and the Jewish been in exile for 50 years. Yet Cyrus, the Persian King is the new world’s king who rules with a humanitarian heart. He does not kill those he has conquered; he does not destroy whatever he finds on his way. Whenever he finds the exiles in a new territory, he sends them back to their homeland and helps them to rebuild their country. Isaiah’s prophecy comes in this context of despair. He wants to give hope to the exile people of Israel. “Thus says the Lord, to his Messiah Cyrus to whom he has given power to subdue nations…”
God is sovereign and all-powerful
The message of Isaiah is that: 1) God is faithful. He can never abandon his chosen one. He says: “Because of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen one, I called you by your name”. 2) God is sovereign above all. “I am the Lord your God; beside me, there is no other”. Everything belongs to him. All people belong to him including the kings of the earth. So God will definitely use Cyrus to bring his people and to rebuild the temple. God is master of every situation, we must never despair. That is why the responsorial Psalm sings the hope of the people: “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing his wonders among all nations'' (Psalm 95,1). Again, besides God, the world is nothing; our history and our existence is nothing. The advice of St. Paul to the Thessalonians applies to us today. Our faith must remain active. We must put love for God and one another into practice. Our hope must stand firm in the Lord for God is all-powerful and must always be at the center of our life.
Are we hypocrites?
The question of the centrality of God is addressed in a tricky way in today’s gospel. There, we see the Pharisees and Herodians, who were two opposed groups, approaching Jesus with a question in order to trap him. “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Jesus reverse the roles against them. “ why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?” “Show me the coin that pays the census tax” “Whose image is on this coin?” To which the crow replied: “Caesar”. Then Jesus replied, “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”. What a honest and wise answer. We should never try to trap Jesus. He is God-himself. In both situations, Jesus would have been accused. On one hand, if he says ‘yes' , he could be considered betrayer of his own people because paying Roman taxes is a sacrilege, a blasphemy for the Jewish already paying a tithe to the Lord. On the other hand, if he says: “no”, he could be considered as a trouble maker or an insurgent who is trying to cause a rebellion against the Roman occupant. They know the truth but are only being hypocrites. Are you a hypocrite?
Whose image is on this coin?
The symbol of the coin with the image of Caesar is a powerful answer to them and to us today. By asking the deanery, Jesus is referring to a particular kind of coin with the profile of the emperor Tiberius with the inscription written: “Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the divine Augustus”. In the first century, Julius Caesar and Augustus were regarded as sons of the divine by even the Romans. By this, Jesus is on one hand asking us to accomplish the civil duty of paying taxes and participating for the well-being of our society. That is what belongs to Caesar. On the other hand Jesus is also reminding us that just as the image of Caesar is engraved on the coin, so is the image and likeness of God is engraved in us (Genesis 1:26-27). While giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar to contribute to the building of communities, we give ourselves totally to God in whose image we are made. Jesus invites us to love the Lord with our heart, mind and soul (Mt 22:37). It means, everything that we are and own, our families, our leisures, our political stand, our choices and the choices for our families must always glorify God in whose image we are made. No win-win game. God is always the winner. Ask the Lord to give you the grace and the strength to return to him with your whole life. St. Augustine once said: “In the same way as Caesar looks for his image on a coin, God looks for his in your soul.”
Prayer: Come Holy Spirit. Renew my faith, and take Lordship over my life!
Fr. Georges Roger BIDZOGO SAC