God and Caesar; Our Faith and Government.

God and Caesar; Our Faith and Government.

Should we the Christians participate in government? What does it mean to say,  "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's"

When Jesus was asked whether they should pay tax to the Roman Emperor, he was actually put into trap. This is because His "Yes" or "No" answer would make him an enemy of Romans or Jews.

If Jesus had asked them to pay the Roman tax, he would be accused of betraying his people and collaborating with their enemy. On the other hand, if he replied that they should not pay the tax, he would be denounced to the Romans as a rebel.

Today's  gospel tells us that Jesus was well aware of what his opponents were up to, and knew how to handle them.   Even though the passage seems to create a distinction between two spheres: one sphere relating to Caesar or worldly matters, and the other sphere relating to God or religion matters. We can grasp , that we should recognize and respect what belongs to each sphere. But before then, we should know that everything is God’s. So the point seems to be: When you realize that all of life, including all of Caesar’s rights and power and possessions, belong to God, then you will be in a proper frame of mind to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.

What the Gospel is teaching us is that we should be loyal to our authorities because they exist for our welfare. We are to respect the worldly sphere of society in its own right (render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar). 

Paying taxes which is one of the respects  is never pleasant, and we may not always agree with the way the government spends our money. But we should remember that no one has ever hated to pay taxes any more than the Jews hated to pay them to Rome. Yet Jesus and Paul both said that the state should be respected in the proper matters because of its God given authority (cf. Matthew 22:21 and Romans 13:1 respectively).

We need to pray and also work for the good of our government, remembering that it is a gift from God for our good. Pray for them also that they will make wise decisions and turn to God.

Have God's Choicest Blessings.

Happy Sunday.

Your Brother in Christ.

Izunwaonu.

Come back to me

Come back to me Izunwaonu

 

What more do you expect of me? Is there some reason why you continue to reject me? My dear, what more can I do that I have not done? I love you so much, why can't you love me too? I love to make you happy, I love to make you smile. There is nothing more lacerating than to be abandoned by someone you love. I'm supposed to be remembering that I love you and now I find out you didn't love me.  I ask for a return of love and I wish you do what my heart is saying... "Love me as I love you"

Yes, we feel angered when it seems to us we are rejected by the someone we love and we feel put down and less than human. How many of us do not feel rejected when our loved one forgets our birthday even if we did not directly say it should be remembered?

As we journey through life, we encounter seemingly rejections especially from the people we love, and Jesus was no exception. In today's Gospel periscope (Matthew 21:33-43), God has done everything possible for us by sending his only son but in return, we have refused to love Him back. If the truth about us were brought to the surface, if we dig deep enough and check our credentials, we reason, we would find out that we reject God's love.

God laments through Isaiah in the first reading... "What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done?" (cf. Isaiah 5:1-7). God's promise is that we will all sing a new song and God is constantly, ceaselessly calling us back to Himself. It's the same song that God's always been singing: love and grace, love and grace. Each of us is a song of God sung into existence out of the love of our God who is Song.

A time will come when we will be answerable for the life we lived, the way we have carried out the task God has entrusted us with. Let us be the nation that produces the good fruits. Let us not offer the Lord the sour grapes of selfishness, unfaithfulness and neglect of our duties. He wants us to respond to his appeal to come back to him and bear good fruit.

Happy Sunday.

Yours in Christ

Izunwaonu