"What belongs to God..."

St. Joseph Church (Cottleville)
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
October 18-19, 2008 - 5:00 p.m., 7:00 & 8:45 a.m.

Is 45:1, 4-6
Ps 96
I Thes 1:1-5b
Mt 22:15-21

Thirty years ago this month, in October 1978, Karol Wojtyla was elected by the cardinals of the Church as the 263rd successor of St. Peter. At his first public Mass as pope, on October 22, John Paul II spoke words that would mark the rest of his pontificate. He said to the people of the world, “Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid” (John Paul II, “Homily for the Inauguration of his Pontificate,” 22 October 1978).

These words of the servant of God might easily come to mind today when we reflect upon the words of our Lord in the Gospel: “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” These familiar words probably surprised the Jews who heard them at the time of Christ. At a certain point in their history, the time of the kings, there wasn’t much of a distinction between the civil government and their practice of their religion. Kings like Saul, David, and Solomon were understood to be acting in the place of God in their rule of the nation. The people of Christ’s time awaited the return of a Messiah who they though would restore this kind of kingdom, a sort of theocracy. Christ’s words calling upon them to fulfill their obligations toward secular authority were a great challenge for them.

For us, this isn’t so difficult. We know well that we have obligations as citizens of this nation – duties like paying taxes or serving jury duty. We don’t look for our religious leaders to be the leaders of the state as well. In fact, I’m sure our bishops would be the first to say that they are not qualified to be secular rulers. Yet this passage is still very important for us. While the Jews of Jesus’ day needed to be told to fulfill their obligations to civil authorities, we often need to be reminded of the opposite. We need to be reminded of the second part of the saying: Repay “to God what belongs to God.” In our nation, so often, the separation of church and state has been interpreted to mean not a freedom for religion, so that I can practice freely the religion to which I choose to belong, but a freedom from religion. There is pressure from many directions to push faith aside, to simply make it a “private” matter. We need to be reminded that we have an obligation to repay to God what belongs to Him.

So the question is: What belongs to God? It doesn’t take us long to see that ultimately everything belongs to God. The fact that we have life, that we have air to breathe, comes from God. Everything that exists, including our very selves, ultimately belongs to God. God, then, deserves the first place in our lives. Against those who would have us push God aside in the public square, we must assert that God has the first priority in our lives. Every part of our lives should be open to Him and to how He wants to work in us. This is what Pope John Paul II was calling us to remember when he spoke those powerful words in St. Peter’s Square. So today, in calling us to render unto God what belongs to God, our Lord is asking us to open wide the doors of our lives to Him. He wants to be the Lord of every aspect of our lives, not out of a thirst for power over us but because He knows what is best for us. He knows what will bring us true happiness.

Over these past weeks, the bishops of our nation have been exhorting us time and again to repay to God what we owe to Him when we enter the voting booth on November 4th. They are asking us not to leave Christ outside when we enter to fulfill our duty. In a sense, they’re asking us to open wide the doors of the voting booth to Christ. In fact, it is by voting according to our conscience, formed by the teaching of the Church, that we will best serve our nation when we cast our ballots. Ultimately, when we do this, when we return to God what belongs to Him, we giving to the state, to Caesar, the best thing we have to offer.

Particularly, the bishops have asked us to vote in favor of life on that day. There has been much confusion among Catholics and non-Catholics alike about what can appear to be bishops meddling in affairs of the state. “How can they tell me how to vote?” we might ask. But when we really think about it, what the bishops are asking of us makes perfect sense. The Church teaches that life begins at the moment of conception. She doesn’t teach this from some special revelation from God. It is a fact of science that is taken up by the Church as proof for the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception. If we subscribe to this teaching, if we truly believe that what is conceived in the womb of a woman is a human person, then abortion suddenly becomes a chilling reality. It can be nothing other than the killing of an innocent human life, of a human person who has not even had the chance to breathe. Since the legalization of abortion 35 years ago, over 47 million lives have been ended before they could even see the light of day. 47 million… That means that for the last 35 years one out of every four children conceived in our nation have not even seen the light of day.

Here we can begin to see why the bishops are stressing life as the key issue for voting. It is true that there are many things to consider when voting. Our struggling economy is perhaps the most prominent right now. Perhaps many of us here today have felt the effects of it in our lives. There are many issues about the quality of life of people in our nation that are important, issues central to Catholic social teaching, but how can we hope to promote a quality of life when we don’t even defend the basic right to life in the first place? Mother Teresa said it well: “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love but to use violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.” As people of faith, we believe that our bishops speak with the voice of the Church and that the voice of the Church is none other than the voice of Christ echoing in our world down through the centuries. Through our bishops, our Lord is crying out on behalf of the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters, those who have no voice of their own. He is pleading with us in this election year to vote for candidates on the national, state, and local levels who will defend the dignity of human life. “If you love me,” our Lord is telling us, “listen to my voice. Choose life on November 4th.”

In the end, our Lord is asking us to trust Him. He’s asking us to trust that if we are faithful, if we do our part to defend the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters, we cannot fail to begin to prosper again as a nation. We will see rise up in our midst a culture of life and of love. As Pope John Paul II reminded us 30 years ago, He wants us to open every aspect of our lives to Him, to His saving power. At his first public Mass as pope, Pope Benedict recalled Pope John Paul II’s words in 1978. Let us listen to the voice of our shepherd and choose here and now to open our lives anew, ever more fully, to the power of Christ at work in us who believe:

“Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way?” Pope Benedict asked. “If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? And once again the Pope said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you,…: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life. Amen” (Benedict XVI, “Homily for the Inauguration of his Pontificate,” 24 April 2005).