Giving God What Is His Due, Ninth Tuesday (I), June 2, 2015

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Church of the Holy Family, New York, NY
Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, Martyrs
June 2, 2015
Tob 2:9-14, Ps 112, Mk 12:13-17

To listen to an audio recording of this homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• In the Gospel, two archenemies, the strict Pharisees and the lax Herodians conspire to try to trap Jesus in his speech so that they could use it to turn the crowds and the Romans against him. They asked whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not. It was not fundamentally a question of “taxation without representation” or things of the sort, but a question of potential idolatry. Because the Jews need to pay taxes with Roman currency, because Roman coins had the image of the emperor on it and because at this point in Roman practice people had given Caesar the title of Augustus, meaning he was divine, to pay taxes in Roman coins was considered like making sacrifices to pagan gods. If Jesus said, “Yes, it’s lawful,” the Pharisees could accuse him of blasphemy and idolatry and turn the Jewish faithful against him. If he said, “No, it’s not licit,” the Herodians could turn him into the Romans as someone trying to incite a tax revolt. But Jesus wasn’t getting to get caught in their trap. He asked for a coin that was used to provide the census tax and they provided him one, showing precisely that they carried the money and used it for ordinary business affairs, and hence that they were duplicitous in asking the question since they didn’t really consider using coins for such a purpose idolatrous. Then Jesus gave a response that is far more important than an issue of taxes. After querying whose image was on the coin, he said, ““Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” They were already participating in Caesar’s system and could give him money but not worship — Jesus implied — because worship belongs to God.
• We can focus on the latter part today. We are made in God’s image and hence we are to give to God the things that are God’s: we’re to give him the time he gives us, the talents he gives us, the money he gives us, indeed the life and love he gives us. We’re to give not just something, but what’s worthy, which is all our mind, heart, soul and strength.
• We see that today in the early martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, who died in 304 under the Roman emperor Diocletian for their fidelity to Christ. Their giving thanks to God even in jail awaiting martyrdom converted several other prisoners who soon with them would give their lives to the God who gave his life for them on the Cross.
• We also see it in Tobit in today’s first reading. Tobit had lost his eyesight by a freak means. Instead of cursing God, however, he thanked him for all the years he had had eyesight. And his loss of sight led to two great gifts. The first was that he couldn’t go personally, but needed to send his Son, Tobias, to collect a huge sum of money he had left in Media where he used to work, and it was there that Tobias would meet his wife. And second, he would be healed after four years in a true miracle of God’s presence. Then he would: “Blessed be God, and praised be his great name, and blessed be all his holy angels. May his holy name be praised throughout all the ages, because it was he who scourged me, and it is he who has had mercy on me. Behold, I now see my son Tobiah!” We see in the first reading that it Tobit was very human insofar as the great charity he had toward God and toward his Jewish neighbors wasn’t adequately translated toward his wife, whom he didn’t believe when she had received a bonus of a goat for work. Often we are willing to do all types of sacrifices for God and for strangers and can sometimes neglect those neighbors literally closest to us among our family members. But the central point remains. Even in his distrust for his wife, Tobit was zealous for the Lord’s commandments and so great was his desire not to profit from stolen goods that he didn’t give his wife the trust she deserved. She pointed out that his behavior wasn’t consistent with the character and virtues he was known for. She called him, essentially, to remember in whose image he was made and she was made and to start acting accordingly.
• As we come to Mass today on this Feast of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, we ask God for the grace to learn from them, from Tobit and his Wife, how to give Him thanks for all of his blessings, because even when we seem to be missing a blessing — for Tobit, his sight, and for the martyrs, their lives — God is in fact planning to give us every greater blessings still. On this day on which we remember in whose image we’ve been made and thank him for all his generosity in giving himself for us, we respond by trying to conform our whole life according to the image of that generosity, giving our body, blood, sweat, tears, heart, mind, soul and strength to the One who gave everything to save us.

The readings for today’s Mass were: