Giving to Caesar
The Pharisees wanted to catch Jesus. They planned a clever trap. How silly! Sometimes we think that we can fool God. Other times we get upset with Him. We blame Him for things that are our own doing. We bring God down to our level to wrestle with Him. If we knew the infinite difference between us and God, we wouldn’t dare to mention even his name. When we place God in the proper context, we realise our nothingness. Thanks to Jesus, the Son of God who became man, we can become closer to Him.
It was a good trap, a catch twenty two. There was no way out. Whatever Jesus said, it would had upset one side. Even though both sides were against each other, they both hated Jesus, and they were allied against him. The Herodians were pro Romans, supporting Herod who was a puppet of the authorities; the Pharisees were Jewish nationalists. If Jesus had said no to paying taxes, the Herodians would have told the Romans. If he had said the opposite, the Pharisees would have had something against him in front of the people, to discredit him.
It was a brilliant answer from Jesus, a good come back, one of his most famous one liners, like the one with the adulterous woman. This allowed him to walk the thin middle line, avoiding both extremes. So many times in our faith we take sides, either or, black or white, and we fail to keep the balance. Heresies normally emphasise one side of the question, falling down through the gap. The truth is trying to keep both together, showing the mystery in all its splendour: grace and freedom, man and God, one and three, virgin and mother, body and soul, sinner and saint.
What Jesus is telling us today, through the trap that was put to him, is that we need to give to Caesar what is his due, but no more, because to God we must give everything. God and Caesar are on two quite different levels. We need to provide for the common good, help society in the way we can, but we cannot forget that we are passing by, that we come from God and we are going back to Him. Everything we have comes from Him and we need to recognise this reality in our own lives.
Jesus asked the Pharisees to show him a coin, not to keep it, but to ask them what was the image on the metal: the face of Augustus. It is a good reminder of what it is inscribed on our bodies: the image of God. Our bodies carry the most lovable face of Jesus Christ. We need to preserve His image, make it shine, portray it in the best possible way. It doesn’t belong to us, it’s not ours; don’t try to appropriate it; give His image back to Him. They say that Saint Francis of Assisi was the most perfect image of Jesus Christ. We can all be a special image of Jesus in our own way. Blessed Carlo Acutis used to say: “we are all originals, don’t become a photocopy.” We try to copy the people the media presents to us as role models. If we could meet them, we would realise their lack of virtue and holiness. We Christians, because of our Baptism, we have a special character inscribed in our soul, that enables us to become what we are: an image and likeness of God. You are the only one who can make it so.
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