29th Sunday Ordinary Time cycle A. Ngay 15-16 )oct 2005

Các Trưởng và Thiếu Nhi Thân mến,

To understand today’s gospel, it will help to consider the context. The controversy regarding the census tax comes immediately after the parable of the wedding feast, which we heard last Sunday. It is about a king who puts on a wedding banquet for his son, who is of course Jesus himself. When Jesus spoke about this parable, he referred to himself as the son. Thus it leads into a series of confrontations with the religious leaders in Jerusalem. Today’s gospel is the first dispute among them. The question of whether or not to pay the census tax. The Pharisees and Herodians saw this as an issue they could use to trap Jesus. They ask, ‘is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar? What is the census tax? Each year, Rome levied a tax on each man, woman, and slave. The tax had to be paid in Roman currency. And there is the problem. Roman coins bore the image of the emperor, with the inscription, ‘Tiberius Caesar, August son of the divine Augustus, high priest.’ The emperor claimed to be divine. The Pharisees hated paying the tax to a pagan emperor. The Herodians were Roman sympathizers, and to refuse to pay the tax, the Herodians would call treason against the Roman occupation. So, they posed a dilemma to test Jesus. If Jesus answered yes, to pay taxes to a pagan ruler, then he would lose credibility with the Jews who would regard him as a coward and a friend of Caesar. If he said no, he would get himself into trouble with the government. It was good planning and thorough thinking that there was no way out for Jesus. However, Jesus avoided their trap by confronting them with the image of a coin. The coin in the ancient world had significant political power. Rulers issued coins with their own image and inscription on them. In a certain sense the coin was regarded as his personal property. Where the coin was valid the ruler held political sway over the people. Jesus looked at the coin and said, ‘give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. And give to God what belongs to God.’
My Dear brothers and sisters, what is the lesson that we can learn from our gospel today? The lesson is, Jesus also tells us that we do have to pay our duties and our obligations to the governments in which we live. At the same time, we do have our obligation to give to God as well. For example, it is ok for us to pay taxes to the government, so that the government can use this money to maintain the Public services like maintaining the roads, funding for the schools and helping out the poor in our society. It is ok for us, to serve in the military. When our government calls us for the armed forces to defend our country, we must respond to it. In short, we are called to be responsible citizens in many activities that would involve us in our daily lives.
Then the next question is what about God, what does belong to God? What do we have to give to God? The answer: everything! God gives us life. God created this world. Every person, everything belongs to God. In particularly, I would go as far as what we would consider to give to God is your marriage, your children, your money, your conscience, your abilities, and your time. They all belong to him. Whatever you entrust to God will acquire a lasting value. Moreover, the last important thing, I think about what we should give to God is our own person, ourself. We have been stamped with God’s image since we are created in his own likeness. We rightfully belong, not to ourselves, but to God who created us and redeemed us in the precious blood of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Offering our own person is essential. To make it perfect, we are doing it by taking up our daily sacrifices.
My dear friends, Jesus said: give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.’ Does this mean we act like Christians only inside the Church, but when we are outside of the church we can do as we please? Does this mean we seek God in prayer, but do not follow God’s commandments in our daily life? Of course not! Jesus charges us to live our Christian faith in every way of life- in business, in our civic duty, in our personal lives. And most of all, God wants us to give God what belongs to God. That is A God – centre of our lives. He must be centre of our lives in every day, and in every circumstance.
Let us conclude with our prayer for today: Lord, because you have made me, I owe you the whole of my love. I owe you more than my whole self. Draw me to you, Lord, in the fullness of love. I am wholly yours by creation; make me all yours, too, in love.’ Amen.