Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - St. Boniface
[Tobit 2:9-14 and Mark 12:13-17]Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.
Genesis 1:26 states that human beings are made in God's own image. Therefore we belong to God. The coin that the questioners show to Jesus bears the image of Caesar. Jesus is careful to use the word "image" to make his point. A thing belongs to the one whose image it bears! The money belongs to Caesar, but the human person belongs to God. This takes the "trick" question about paying taxes to a completely different level than the political one on which the questioners hoped to trap Jesus. It also raises a question for us now. The question it raises now has to do with "image." Do we live as if we are made in God's image, or are we trapped by the "image-makers" of our own time? One expression puts it this way, "slaves to fashion." Whom or what do we want to "look" like, either exteriorly or, even more importantly, interiorly? Does our "image" really say to whom or what do we belong? To whom are we paying "tribute?" It's no longer a trick question but one of integrity. AMEN