The Tax We Pay Together with Jesus, 9th Tuesday (II), June 2, 2020

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Votive Mass for Times of War and Civil Disturbance
June 2, 2020
2 Pet 3:12-15.17-18, Ps 90, Mk 12:13-17

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• We have a chance to ponder the Second Letter of St. Peter in the liturgy only two days every two years. Since yesterday we had the proper reading for the Memorial of Our Lady Mother of the Church, today is the only time we will be able to focus on Second Peter between June 5, 2018 and — because in 2022, the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time not appear in the liturgical calendar because we lose a week and a half of Ordinary Time each year depending upon the dates of Ash Wednesday and Pentecost — the next time it will appear in the liturgy will be June 3, 2024. So this is our one shot in six years to listen liturgically to this book. Insofar as we’re called to live off of every word that comes from the mouth of God, and this is the only time in six years to do so liturgically, it behooves us to be like Ezekiel and St. John and eat every morsel of the scroll.
• And there’s a striking message in the section we have today as we celebrate this Votive Mass in Times of War and Civil Disturbance as riots and diabolical destruction take place in New York and in various other cities in our country. The Second Letter of St. Peter was written during a time of gnostic antinomianism — gnostic pointing to a “secret spiritual knowledge” not contained in Sacred Scripture and antinomianism pointing to the fact that they were “opposed” (anti) to any and all “laws” (nomian) governing their conduct including God’s law explicit or written on our hearts — that was pretending as if God indulgently allows us to do whatever we want regardless of his commandments and the intrinsic demands of truth and genuine love. What we’re seeing today in the violence mobs plaguing our cities, torching cars, breaking in and looting our businesses is a modern form of this gnostic antinomianism or smug anarchy. The sacred author, after describing “flames” and “elements melted by fire,” tells us, “Be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall,” something we wish all of those doing violence would hear, as well as those who respond to evil by descending to the level of evil. What should we be doing, rather, at this time? The author says, “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.” We need to be turning to God, who in every age, as we pray in the Psalm, is our refuge. We’re summoned to become more like Jesus at this time.
• That brings us to the Gospel, taken from Jesus’ time in the Temple teaching after Palm Sunday, where two groups that were archenemies conspired to try to provoke and trap Jesus. Both the Herodians and the Pharisees were trying to get Jesus out of the way, because both felt threatened by him. They decided to ask him a question about which they themselves were constantly in disagreement — whether it was lawful to pay taxes to or support in any way the Roman empire. The Herodians were laxist sycophants, and, regardless of how they personally felt about a foreign power’s ruling over them, decided that if you couldn’t beat the Romans, you should join them. Herod and his partisans cooperated with the Romans in almost everything, including taxes. The Pharisees, like most of the Jewish people, deeply resented being dominated by a pagan power, and found utterly repulsive the thought of giving a tribute to a foreign ruler who fancied himself a god. To use his currency or to give him anything was, for them, tantamount to idolatry. Despite their disagreement, both groups agreed that their long-standing disagreement seemed to be a perfect catch-22 by which to nail the carpenter from Nazareth.
• So they approached Jesus and manifested their mendacity and hypocrisy by a barrage of empty flattery that we Christians know was nevertheless true: “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man, teach the way of God with accordance to the truth, show deference to no one, and don’t play favorites.” Then came the thorny, highly relevant, problematic, controversial, and indeed malicious question: “Is it lawful to the census tax to Caesar or not?” It was the perfect query, they thought, because no matter how Jesus answered it, they had him. If he failed to respond, he would lose authority by ducking one of the most relevant political questions of the day. If he said “yes,” he would risk losing the affection of the masses, who hated the Romans, hated the emperor, and particularly hated being forced to give him any recognition at all. Beyond that, because the coin bore the image of Caesar who had declared himself a god, many Jews thought that to use it for any purpose, including paying taxes, was to give that god homage, an idolatry that they couldn’t permit. If Jesus said “no,” however, then they could turn him over to Pontius Pilate for sedition and inciting lawlessness among the people. But Jesus would not be trapped, and would bring good out of their evil. In answer to their hypocrisy, he pointed the path to true human integrity. In response to their deceitfulness, Jesus gave us a truth on which to structure our lives, one that is as relevant today — in this time of civil disturbance — as it ever was.
• After he had asked to see the denarius stamped with the Emperor’s profile used for the tax and they had brought him one (showing that all of them used the money when it served their purposes!), he calmly queried, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” When they responded, “Caesar’s,” he gave them and us the principle that extends far beyond than the glory days of Rome. “Then give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” Most of Jesus’ original listeners thought that you couldn’t serve two leaders, both God and Caesar; either you gave to God, they thought, or gave to Caesar. Jesus said it was not necessarily “either… or” but could be and should be “both… and.” To pay taxes or to participate in the social order was not de facto an act of idolatry. In fact, Jesus said, there are imperatives in the social order just as there are imperatives in our relationship to God. The two in principle are not only not in conflict but in the best scenario should go together, because one of our responsibilities toward God is to love our neighbor, and one of the greatest services to our neighbor is the service of the truth that flows from faith in God. The Gospel has social consequences.
• Today, we come to Mass not to entrap Jesus in his speech, but to learn from him the truth that will set us free. We come to ask him to go more deeply into the question about the allegiance we owe to the social order — to our society, our nation, our communities, our city, especially in this time of need — and the allegiance we owe to him. Today he wants us not mainly to look at our currency, but look in the mirror, and ask, “Whose image is this?” The human being, every person, you and I, carry within not just the image of our parents and grandparents, but another far more profound reflection and identity, that of God, and therefore it is to him that of us owes our existence. As one ancient author wrote, “The image of God is not impressed on gold, but on the human race. Caesar’s coin is gold, God’s coin is humanity,” and St. Augustine mentioned, “As tribute money is rendered to [Caesar], so should the soul be rendered to God, illumined and stamped with the light of his countenance.” We’re called to give to God the things that are God’s. All that we are, all that we have, all our time, our talents, our money, our resources, our health comes from God, are part of our being in his image, and we’re called by him in justice, in wisdom and in love, as good stewards, to give back to God with interest the things that are his. The greatest confusion of our age is not political, or racial or sexual. It’s when we forget our and others’ identity, when we fail to remember that we’re chips off the divine Block, that we’ve been formed like God to become like him by participating in his life. A few years ago Pope Francis spoke in his Angelus meditation about what Jesus’ words mean for us and for Christians of every age. “The reference to Caesar’s image engraved on the coin,” Pope Francis told those assembled in St. Peter’s Square, “says that it is right that they feel fully — with rights and duties — citizens of the State; but symbolically it makes them think about the other image that is imprinted on every man and woman: the image of God. …  From the question posed to him by the Pharisees, Jesus draws a more radical and vital question for each of us, a question we can ask ourselves: to whom do I belong? To family, to the city, to friends, to work, to politics, to the State? Yes, of course. But first and foremost — Jesus reminds us — you belong to God. This is the fundamental belonging. It is He who has given you all that you are and have. And therefore, day by day, we can and must live our life in recognition of this fundamental belonging and in heartfelt gratitude toward our Father, who creates each one of us individually, unrepeatably, but always according to the image of his beloved Son, Jesus. It is a wondrous mystery.”
• How much do we actually give to God?  The context of taxes in today’s Gospel is helpful. Most people hate paying taxes and do everything we can to pay less — at different levels, we save receipts, we take deductions, we pay accountants to find loopholes, we vote for politicians who promise lower rates, we move savings to off-shore havens, and those who run corporations often lobby legislators for loopholes. Sometimes we try similar strategies with God, whom we don’t want to “tax” the time, money, talents, he’s given us, because we prefer to be owners rather than stewards. Many Christians do what we can to get out of our spiritual commitments. We ask how far can we go without sinning. We do the minimum in terms of our prayers. We shop for Churches or Masses or confessors that are less demanding on our time. We donate something but do not make a real sacrifice. Today Jesus is calling us to a different way of living. He says to us, “Give to God the things that are God’s.” The gift that Jesus is asking of us is ourselves, and our supreme task in life is to make our lives fit to offer to him and with him for others. We’re all in a 100 percent tax bracket, called to give everything… with love! It brings us back to the famous Lenten Hymn When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, which finishes, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small: love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.”
• Today’s passage from the Second Letter of St. Peter is meant to form us to be able to give to God. I’d like to stress two points from it within the context of the Gospel. The first is that God gives us everything we need to pay the spiritual taxes that he deserves. “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.” Grace is our participation, as creatures, in God’s own life. God gives us his life. Knowledge of Jesus is not just knowing about him, but a friendship, indeed a spiritual espousal. He marries us and we pay the taxes fundamentally as a couple. He has given 100 for us and we join him in that total self-offering. Second, the Letter describes the way we should give of ourselves to God is through “wait[ing] for and hasten[ing] the coming of the day of God.” Those two verbs seem contradictory, telling us to slow down and speed up at the same time. But first we wait on the Lord’s grace, receiving everything as a gift, conscious that the “patience of our Lord” is part of our “salvation.” We slow down in order to let God act. But then, at the same time, we hasten in a several different ways:
  • First, through our prayer, by praying “Thy kingdom come!” and meaning it.
  • Second, through obedience, as we enter into his kingdom by doing the king’s will on earth as it is in heaven.
  • Third, through penance, making straight the paths of the Lord.
  • Fourth, through sharing our faith, because, as Jesus said in St. Matthew’s Gospel, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come.”
  • And fifth, through the Holy Eucharist, as we live in time the eschatological reality of the union with the eternal king of kings.
• At the same time as we wait for God to give us what we need, we with haste offer ourselves to God in each of these five ways.
• Today at Mass, God calls us not only to look in the mirror, see in whose image we are made, and then act in accordance with that dignity. He seeks to conform us ever more into that image through bringing us into the most profound communion possible. As Jesus prepares to give us his Body and Blood today, let’s give Him what belongs to Him as God, to love him with all our mind, heart, soul and strength, and to commit ourselves to hastening the coming of his kingdom in this world and in the next.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Gospel MK 12:13-17

Some Pharisees and Herodians were sent
to Jesus to ensnare him in his speech.
They came and said to him,
“Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion.
You do not regard a person’s status
but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?
Should we pay or should we not pay?”
Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them,
“Why are you testing me?
Bring me a denarius to look at.”
They brought one to him and he said to them,
“Whose image and inscription is this?”
They replied to him, “Caesar’s.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God.”
They were utterly amazed at him.

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