The Christian: A Citizen Of Two Worlds

Homily For The 29Tth Sunday In The Ordinary Time, Year A, October 22, 2023

“A Christian is called to commit concretely to human and social realities without opposing “God” and “Caesar”; to oppose God and Caesar would be a fundamentalist attitude. A Christian is called to commit concretely to earthly realities, but illuminating them with the Light that comes from God.” -Pope Francis

My Dearest Friends in Christ,

Welcome once again to this special privileged day and moment of spiritual encounter with God in this sacred space. The life-changing word of God makes us good citizens of our earthly and heavenly cities.The readings of today remind us that our allegiance and obligation to God is non-negotiable, even as we are called to be responsible citizens of the State.

God Truly Exists And He Is Alive

Preaching about the first reading would be considered by many as overemphasizing the obvious. Re-echoing the words of the first reading which says: “I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me” reiterates the first commandment of God. Why I wouldn’t see it as an over-emphasis to remind modern Christians that there is a God is because, in the first place, there are many who are still undergoing a process of conversion. Secondly, many still find it difficult to believe that there is a God. They forgot these words, “It is I who arm you, though you know me not”. Finally, there are many who, though are Christians, are not convinced of their faith. Therefore, there is a need to emphasize that there is God, lest the challenges of modern life cloud our minds from thinking about God and surrendering our lives to Him. We need to be constantly reminded of our source of life, He who arms us, the author and finisher of our being, who is God, lest we lose sight of Him and fall into unbelief. The allegiance we owe to God will be emphasized more in the Gospel of today.

Two Enemies Unite Against The Innocent

The Gospel of today began with a plot of two enemies who are divided along different political ideologies, but are ready to put aside their differences for the sake of uniting against Jesus. The Herodians are often mentioned in the gospels at the same time as the Pharisees. Like the Pharisees, the Herodians wanted political independence for the Jewish people. Unlike the Pharisees, who sought to restore the kingdom of David, the Herodians wished to restore a member of the Herodian dynasty to the throne in Judea.

The two groups came to Jesus and began by flattering Him, calling Him a teacher and a truthful man. They hoped He was insecure or foolish enough to be impressed by their hollow praise. They did all this to get Him entangled in His own words. Instead of coming to Christ, the author of their lives, to learn and be filled with Divine Wisdom and inspiration, their hearts were preoccupied with evil plans of persecuting Him. This is similar to many who come to church while hatching evil plans against their neighbor.

The above-mentioned groups considered themselves very clever in their plan to trap Jesus. They asked Him, “Tell us, what do you think? Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” This was their strategy. If He said that taxes should be paid, He could be accused of denying the sovereignty of God over Israel (making Himself unpopular with the Jewish people). If He said that taxes should not be paid, He would make Himself an enemy of Rome. However, the Lord Jesus was wiser than these evil men, for God knows the thoughts of men even before they start thinking them. Jesus defeated their plan.

You Are Made In God’s Image Likewise Ceasar

I want you to pay particular attention to how Divine Wisdom played out in this encounter with these two groups. Jesus began by reprimanding and rebuking them for their hypocrisy. He already laid bare the hidden thoughts in their minds. When He requested the coin that pays the census tax and asked whose image and inscription was on it, He indirectly taught them that they too are made in the image of God, likewise Caesar. So Jesus’ reply to “Pay to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what belongs to God” is an indirect affirmation that we are responsible to God in all things and we belong to Him, but we must be obedient to the government in civil and national issues and obey all constituted authorities in matters that are moral and just. Immoral laws and tyrant rulers command no obedience from Christians and must be resisted. Here the freedom of conscience and religious liberty play out.

Don’t Justify Immorality With God’s Word

Unfortunately, the response of the Lord to give to Caesar what is his and to God what belongs to Him has been erroneously interpreted and misapplied by those who justify their immoral lives on the grounds of this statement. For these gullible Christians, it means, to sin or worship the devil when it is his time and come to church and worship God when it is His time. This is the ideology that thrives in the lives of many Christians today, who are God’s children by day or on a Sunday and evil people at night or through the week.

Our Responsibility To God Comes First Before The State

Far from this kind of erroneous belief, our Lord’s statement implies that since Caesar is a leader of the State, all citizens of the State should render their civic responsibility to the State, while not neglecting their religious responsibility to God. A responsible Christian should be a responsible citizen of a State. As Christians, we must pay taxes to help our Government provide more support to the citizenry and we must also support the Church in her missionary works. Failure to carry out these two obligations, or the negligence of one, puts us at odds with God and man. We must always put God first before the State. This is why a Christian is said to be a citizen of two worlds –the earthly or temporal and religious or heavenly.

Let Faith and Love Unite Us

Like the Pharisees and the Herodians, many of us are divided along political lines (republicans, democrats, etc) Be that as it may, let our common faith and love in Christ unite us as children made in the image of God. While we can respectfully disagree amongst ourselves, let love unite us in Christ. The Church has always maintained a nonpartisan stand in matters of politics. While we encourage ourselves as Catholics to perform our civic rights like voting and paying our taxes, let your conscience and not political sentiments be your guide.

It’s Our Responsibility To Provide The Material Needs of The Church

Let us not hastily forget that it is our responsibility and obligation to provide for the material needs of the Church (CCC 1351; 1387; 1438; 2043 CIC 1983 1260) While the Church has the innate right to require from the faithful whatever is necessary to
support its legitimate temporal activities (1983 CIC 1260), in fact, it rarely exercises this authority. Rather, it leaves individual Catholics the right to determine precisely when and how they will assist with the temporal needs of the Church (1983 CIC 222, 1261-1262, 1266). Be generous to the Church in your donations, and offerings. Let us also pray for her. Every gift was given by God. Every sacrifice made for the Church is to God. It is giving to God what is His- The gifts He gave to us. Don’t forget you shall be rewarded according to the measure of your gift. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (1Cor 9:6)

Surrender Yourselves To God In whose Image We are All Made

In conclusion, we all belong to God. We are all created in His image. Both the money and Ceasar, and everyone belong to God. To give to God what is His is to surrender our lives totally and unreservedly to Him, acknowledging He is our God and there is none apart from Him. When we worship other gods, when we surrender to earthly authorities at the expense of God, we not only declare our independence from God but we also rob Him of what is His lives.

May the Virgin Mary help us to live always in conformity with the image of God that we bear within us, while also making our contribution to the building of the earthly city. Amen.