29th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A

"Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, but give to God what is God's."

Lectionary Readings for 29th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://www.pcentral-online.net/catholic/lectionary/29th-sunday-a.html

The context of this statement of Jesus comes from the question posed to Him by the Pharisees. They wanted to test Him in order to find out whether He and His band of apostles were also paying their taxes to the Roman Empire. Jesus was aware that they wanted to"trap Him" in speech. But He responded with the statement, "give to Caesar what is Caesar's, but give to God what is God's."

Today's gospel makes us aware that there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of Heaven. We know that Jesus tells us that His Kingdom is not of this world. We, who desire to follow Him, know that His Kingdom resides in our minds and our hearts. But we are also citizens of our state and nation. And being citizens of our state and nation, we are obliged to follow its rules and laws, especially in relation to taxes and whatever constitution our State has.

We are called to place the Kingdom of Jesus above the kingdom of this world. This is a very big challenge indeed because oftentimes, we are torn by our consciences whether to follow the laws of the State or to follow the laws of the Church - a representation of the Kingdom of Jesus in a concrete community. There are laws in the State that are not necessarily moral when it comes to the laws of the Church. This is why in the history of our Catholic faith, eventually, there was a separation of Church and State in order to make a distinction between what belongs to the king and what belongs to God. When the system of governance was theocratic, as was in the times of the monarchies, the Church installed the king as a leader who will also lead his people to the Kingdom of God. However, when the Church began to be aware of how it was becoming worldly (especially in the time of Pope Innocent III), under the influence and inspiration of Francis of Assisi, gradually a separation of Church and State became a reality.

As people of God, we are called now to simply follow the Church's teaching and its hierarchy. They form our consciences in the right way. Whatever conscience we have that was formed by the State, must be subsumed under the moral teaching of the Church. We can then make good and wise decisions when it comes to serious direction by adding also our personal experience and discernment of our particular life situation. Although it may seem easy when Jesus said "to give to Caesar what is Caesar's, but give to God what is God's", in actual practice, this needs much prayer and discernment and the guide of a spiritual director and the counsel of people who are in a state of authority in both the institution of the Church and the institution of the State.

However, in ordinary circumstances and in situations that do not involve moral complexity, we are simply called to perform our obligations to the State and to the Church - meaning to be a good citizen of our State and to practice justice, mercy and charity as Christians and Catholics in our family and community.