Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 2, 2020 - Tuesday in the 9th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Pet 3:12-15a, 17-18 and Mark 12:13-17]"Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not pay?" Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, "Why areyou testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at." They brought one to him and he said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" The replied to him, "Caesar's." So Jesus said to them, "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." [Mark]
The Church returns to "ordinary time" now, and we pick up where we left off before Ash Wednesday! (If only the coronavirus would let us go back to "ordinary time" as well!!!!)
The scene that gives rise to the traditional quote, "Render unto Caesar, etc." involves Jesus facing off with two different groups who have come together to challenge him: Pharisees and Herodians. The Pharisees, with their passion for the law and ritual purity, wouldn't touch a denarius because it had the image of Caesar on it. The Herodians, who owed their jobs to Roman patronage, would not have such scruples. The two groups represented a political situation in which the power of faith confronts the power of the state! (Hmmmm......is that what we are dealing with when the government shuts down church services in the interests of public health? Probably not.)
Although the confrontation undoubtedly has political ramifications, the essential point has to do with the image. Those bearing the image of God will give to God what that image requires. Those bearing the image of Caesar (on the denarius, no less) must give that to Caesar.
The lines in this discussion are not always clear to us because we often engage in "civil religion" which we call patriotism. For much of the history of the USA, Catholics were accused of being unpatriotic because of our "allegiance" to the Pope. The Louisville riots of 1850 were a vivid example. However, when Caesar demands that Catholic hospitals engage in immoral procedures, we must say to Caesar that we cannot obey. The martyrs of old died because they would not engage in the civic duty of offering sacrifice to the "divine" emperor!!!
In many Catholic churches the flags of the USA and the Vatican City State are on display, but they are rarely, in my experience, placed next to one another. The wisdom of Jesus' answer to the Pharisees and Herodians explains the difference and we are left to navigate that gap with the guidance of the Holy Spirit! AMEN
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