For the Youtube video, Please click here
For the times we have failed to realize that we belong to God, Lord, have mercy...
For the times we have treated things of this word as things in heaven, Christ, have mercy...
For the times we have failed to realize the difference between the things of this world and the things in heaven, Lord, have mercy...
My dear sisters and brothers,
As human beings, we make choices all the time…Even now, you may be making a choice between actively listening to the homily and passively listening to me/or not listening to me at all…
When was the last time you were in a dilemma wherein you had to make a choice between two equally undesirable options?
Or between two seemingly attractive alternatives wherein choosing one would eventually exclude the privileges of the other?
In the gospel text of today, we find that such a situation is forced upon Jesus wherein whatever choice that he would make was gonna offend either one group of people or the other.
The context is this: At the time of Jesus, Jerusalem, and the surrounding area were occupied by the Romans, and they imposed census or senses taxes/state taxes that had to be paid by every adult of that time. But the people were not for it. Because they didn’t wanna pay taxes to foreigners or foreign rule. So, it is in this background that religious leaders, the adversaries of Jesus at that time, come to Jesus with this double-edged, loaded question the intention of which they themselves knew, as the evangelist Mark puts it, to test Jesus: Tell us, is it right to pay taxes to the emperor?
Now, if Jesus were to support the payment, then he would have made himself highly unpopular among the people. On the other hand, if he were to say No, then he would have been considered a political suspect by the Roman authorities.
I tend to think that caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, Jesus in his time seemed to have practiced a method of answering that modern psychology reaffirms today. That is, where the problem is, there lies the answer also. It is often because the issue is so overwhelming that one finds it difficult to see the answer through and through by himself or herself.
So Jesus, ask his own adversaries, the ones who questioned him, to present him with a coin in which was an image of Cesar, the emperor…
And in there, he found the answer… Whatever belongs to Cesar, the emperor, the state, and the government, give to it. But, Jesus doesn’t stop at that. He added…” What belongs to God, give to God…”
What has he done, he has not only made them find their own answers, but in so doing, Jesus had also elevated his adversaries to a higher level by making them aware that even though the denarius in their hand belonged to the state, the hands that held them, in other words, they themselves, belonged to God…
“What belongs to God, Give to God…”
What is it that belongs to God? It’s you and I - the Human Person.
Perhaps the denarius you hold, the dollar in your wallet, the bill in your pocket, the money in your bank, the treasures you possess, and the properties your own, belong to the state… But, you who hold them ultimately belong to God.
It is so true because in Genesis we read that “Human being is made after the image and likeness of God”.
And, St. Augustine adds, “Our Hearts are made for you Lord, and they find no rest until they find their rest in you…”
Can I understand this difference today?
What Changes am I gonna bring inside as well as outside of me as a person who has realized that I belong to God?
Accordingly, in my choices made hereafter, be it choosing between two or more equally undesirable alternatives, or between two or more seemingly attractive options, how indifferent am I gonna be with regard to the things of this world?
As St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises puts it, in my making choices, what is the extent to which I am gonna seek that which brings greater glory to God and more help to one another?
No comments:
Post a Comment