29th Sunday In Ordinary Time :: Op-stjoseph.org

29th Sunday in OT, Oct 19, 2008 Freedom to Live In God’s Image Scripture Readings First Isaiah 45:1, 4-6 Second 1 Thes 1:1-5b Gospel Matthew 22:15-21 Prepared by: Fr. Jonathan Kalisch, OP 1. Subject Matter 

Jesus reveals that ultimate loyalty is to be given to God, while some things are owed to Caesar. This is not a separation of Church and state, but rather a reclaiming of humanity for God, made in his own image.

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We are to be spent as God‟s currency – in whose living image we are made.

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One freely gives to God precisely what must be withheld from political authority: one‟s conscience and soul.

2. Exegetical Notes 

Only here in Isaiah 45:1 is a foreign leader called the Lord‟s anointed. Isaiah sees YHWH grasping Cyrus as a legitimate King, directing his steps so that Israel may be saved.

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The Pharisees, while ostensibly against the foreign domination of the Chosen People, make common cause with the Herodians in order to trap Jesus. The Herodians were supporters of the dynasty of Herod, whose fortunes were based on unswerving loyalty to Rome.

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The „poll tax‟ or „census tax‟ under question was a prerequisite for living peacefully as a subject of the Roman Empire – to be paid by all men, women, and slaves age 12 or 14 to 65. It amounted to a denarius or one full days‟ pay for a laborer. The tax could be paid only in Roman coin, which itself was considered blasphemous by many Jews. It bore the image of emperor Tiberius, who reigned from AD 14 to 37, and said: “Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus, high priest.”

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The Pharisees attempt to trick Jesus into alienating the Zealots (nationalists) or else risk arrest for rebellion. Ironically, it is the Pharisees who possess the idolatrous coins, even in the sacred Temple area.

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC # 2246: “It is a part of the Church's mission „to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it. The means, the only means, she may use are those which are in accord with the Gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and circumstances.‟” CCC #2238: “Those subject to authority should regard those in authority as representatives of God, who has made them stewards of his gifts: „Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. . . . Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God.‟ Their loyal collaboration includes the right, and at times the duty, to voice their just criticisms of that which seems harmful to the dignity of persons and to the good of the community.” CCC #2239: “It is the duty of citizens to contribute along with the civil authorities to the good of society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom. The love and service of one's country follow from the duty of gratitude and belong to the order of charity. Submission to legitimate authorities and service of the common good require citizens to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community.” CCC #2240: “Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one's country: „Pay to all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.‟” CCC #2242: “The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community. „Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.‟ „We must obey God rather than men‟.” 4. Patristic Commentary 

St. Justin Martyr: “So we worship God only, but in temporal matters we gladly serve you, recognizing you as emperors and rulers, and praying that along with your imperial power you may also be found to have a sound mind. Suppose you pay no attention to our prayers and our frank statements about everything. That will not injure us, since we believe, and are convinced without doubt, that everyone will finally experience the restraint of divine judgment in relation to their voluntary actions. Each will be required to give account for the responsibilities which he has been given by God.”

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St. Augustine: “The image of the Emperor appears differently in his son and in a piece of coin. The coin has no knowledge of its bearing the image of the prince. But you are the coin of God, and so far highly superior, as possessing mind and even life, so as to know the One whose image you bear.”

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Tertullian: “That means render the image of Caesar, which is on the coin, to Caesar, and the image of God, which is imprinted on the person, to God. You give to Caesar only money. But to God, give yourself.”

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St. Augustine: “We are God‟s money. But we are like coins that have wandered away form the treasury. What was once stamped upon us has been worn down by our wandering. The One who restamps his image upon us is the One, who first formed us. He himself seeks his own coins, as Caesar sought his coin. It is in this sense that he says, „Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar‟s, and to God the things that are God‟s,‟ to Caesar his coins, to God your very selves.”

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St. Augustine: “Caesar seeks his image; render it. God seeks his image; render it. Do not withhold from Caesar his coin. Do not keep from God his coin. To this they could not think of anything to answer. For they had been sent to slander him. And they went back saying: No one could answer him. Why? Because he had shattered their teeth in their mouth.”

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars 

In the 11th Century, Saint Stanislaus of Krakow was known for his outspokenness, especially against the unjust wars and immoral acts of King Boleslaus II. Stanislaus continued his open opposition in spite of charges of treason and threats of death, finally excommunicating the king. The latter, enraged, ordered soldiers to kill the bishop. When they refused, the king killed him with his own hands.

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In 287, the emperor Diocletian martyred Saint Sebastian, at the time an officer in the Praetorian Guard. Sebastian‟s Christianity was unknown to the Emperor until Sebastian balked at his job of executing Christians who refused to offer a libation to the emperor (a god, according to the emperor cult of the time). Sebastian had gone so far as to encourage two Christians martyrs in their faith, and to convert several others. Upon hearing of all this, Diocletian ordered Sebastian tied to a tree and shot to death with a firing squad of the ancient sort: bows and arrows.

6. Quotes 

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Pope Benedict XVI: “History is marked by the confrontation between love and the inability to love, that devastation of the soul that comes when the only values man is able to recognize at all as values and realities are quantifiable values. The capacity to love, that is the capacity to wait in patience for what is not under one‟s own control and to let oneself receive this as a gift, is suffocated by the speedy fulfillments in which I am dependent on no one but in which I am ever obliged to emerge from my own self and thus never find the path into my own self. This destruction of the capacity to love gives birth to lethal boredom.” Pope Benedict XVI: “The principle focus of [the Church‟s] interventions in the public arena is the protection and promotion of the dignity of the person.” Pope Benedict XVI: “Sacred Scripture affirms that „God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them‟ (Gen 1:27). As one created in the image of God, each individual human being has the dignity of a person; he or she is not just something, but someone, capable of self-knowledge, self-possession, free self-giving and entering into communion with others. At the same time, each person is called, by grace, to a covenant with the Creator, called to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his place. From this supernatural perspective, one can understand the task entrusted to human beings to mature in the ability to love and to

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contribute to the progress of the world, renewing it in justice and in peace. In a striking synthesis, Saint Augustine teaches that „God created us without our aid; but he did not choose to save us without our aid.‟ Consequently all human beings have the duty to cultivate an awareness of this twofold aspect of gift and task.” Pope John Paul II: “The individual today is often suffocated between two poles represented by the State and the marketplace. At times it seems as though he exists only as a producer and consumer of goods, or as an object of state administration. People lose sight of the fact that life in society has neither the market nor the State as its final purpose, since life itself has a unique value which the State and the market must serve. Man remains above all a being who seeks the truth and strives to live in that truth, deepening the understanding of it through a dialogue which involves past and future generations.” (Centessimus Annus, 49) Pope John Paul II: “In the totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, the principle that force predominates over reason was carried to the extreme. A person was compelled to submit to a conception of reality imposed on him by coercion, and not reached by virtue of his own reason and the exercise of his own freedom. This principle must be overturned and total recognition must be given to the rights of the human conscience, which is bound only to the truth, both natural and revealed. The recognition of these rights represents the primary foundation of every authentically free political order.” (Centessimus Annus, 29) Archbishop Charles Chaput: “American democracy does not ask its citizens to put aside their deeply held moral and religious beliefs for the sake of public policy. In fact, it requires exactly the opposite. People are fallible. The majority of voters can be uninformed or biased or simply wrong. Thus, to survive, American democracy depends on people of character fighting for their beliefs in the public square – legally, ethically, and nonviolently, but forcefully and without apology. Anything less is a form of theft from the nation‟s health.” Archbishop Charles Chaput: “The church claims no right to dominate the secular realm. But she has every right – in fact an obligation – to engage secular authority and to challenge those wielding it to live the demands of justice. In this sense, the Catholic Church cannot stay, has never stayed, and never will stay „out of politics.‟ Politics involves the exercise of power. The use of power has moral content and human consequences. And the well-being and destiny of the human person is very much the concern, and the special competence, of the Christian community.”

7. Other Considerations 

Christ reminds the disciples that there are limits to the claim made upon them by political authority – precisely those things which are due to God alone by our being made in his image.

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US Bishops, Living the Gospel of Life: “Any politics of human life must work to resist the violence of war and the scandal of capital punishment. Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing, and health care…But being „right‟ in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life.”

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Faithful Citizenship, 38: “It is important to be clear that the political choices faces by citizens not only have an impact on general peace and prosperity but also may affect the individual‟s salvation.”

Recommended Resources Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Mark ed. by Thomas C. Oden and Christopher A. Hall, Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1998. Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI, ed. by Peter John Cameron, OP. Magnificat, 2006. John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer, Hamden, CT: Circle Press, 2007. Charles J. Chaput, Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life, New York: Doubleday, 2008. The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 8, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995. http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerus/index_fra.html