Word to the Wise
Sunday, October 22, 2017 - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Isa 45:1, 4-6; 1 Thess 1:1-5b; Matt 22:15-21]SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2017 TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [Isaiah 45:1, 4-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b; Matthew 22:15-21] "I am the Lord and there is no other, there is no God besides me." [Isaiah] "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." [Matthew] In our secular country, with its concept of separation of church and state, it is hard to understand how the political and religious can be co-extensive. We know that they rub up against one another from time to time, as in the cases involving Christmas displays on public property, or prayer in public schools, but those are illustrations of the separation rather than a union. In Jesus' time, both were united whether it was for Roman or Jew. For the Jew, the coin for the tax not only represented the hated Roman army, but it had the image of Caesar on it, which represented idolatry, since the emperor was considered a god. The words of Isaiah, quoted above, are at the center of Jewish (and our) faith. There is only one God, and it isn't a governmental figure! Thus, the question posed to Jesus is an attempt to trap him between Jewish and Roman religious authorities. What Jesus does is to reduce the coin to what it is - a coin. A tax is a tax, and not an act of worship. There is a bit of ironic humor in the situation because someone had to produce the coin, which the Pharisees would have considered an unclean object! One may imagine the discomfort among the conspirators. But, the important thing is to acknowledge that tax or no tax, there is only one God and Caesar is not God. There is also a lesson for us to consider, given the furor over football players and the national anthem. Nationalism and patriotism must be put into perspective. Our civic observances are not acts of worship. When they take on the appearance and importance of worship, we are treading close to a kind of idolatry. Jesus restored a sense of perspective in his encounter in today's gospel. We need to take that to heart. AMEN
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