Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that we have to always commit ourselves to the Lord wholeheartedly in each and every moments of our lives, in our daily living and in everything we do, while at the same time doing what we can to be good and dutiful citizens and members of our communities in this world. All of us must always be exemplary in our every lives and actions so that in whatever we do, we are both truly seen and witnessed as holy people of God, whose actions, words and deeds truly reflect His light, truth and love. At the same time,we must also be good and law-abiding in our world as best as we can, as long as the worldly laws are in accordance to Divine laws.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Peter in which the Apostle spoke to all the faithful regarding what they all must do in the meantime as they were awaiting the coming of the Lord. He reminded all of them to do what was right and just, in accordance to the things that the Lord had taught them and led them through the Church. They must still continue to carry on living their lives worthily in the Lord and not to be idle or ignorant of their missions in life, and at the same time also reminding them to be careful and vigilant that they might not be tempted and swayed by the false teachings and ideas by those who might attempt to mislead them down the wrong path in life.

We must understand the context of what the early Christians perceived and understood so that we may understand better of what we have heard in that passage today. At that time, there was a general understanding and anticipation that the Lord’s Second Coming, which He Himself had pronounced and proclaimed, would come really very soon, and that it might probably even happen within one’s lifetime. Consequently, some among the faithful people of God and the Church might have thought that they, who had been assured of salvation in the Lord, ought to withdraw from public and worldly life, awaiting for the Lord’s return.

But St. Peter clearly stated and explained that this was not what they were all supposed to do. Regardless when the Lord would indeed come again, each and every one of the people of God and the Church must still continue to carry out whatever missions that the Lord had entrusted to them. Indeed, the Lord had entrusted to them very important mission that is to reach out to the people of all the nations, and to go forth to the ends of the earth, proclaiming the Good News and salvation of God to everyone. That is why, each and every one of the people of God must still continue to do their best to live truly holy and worthy lives in all circumstances, as best as they could.

At the same time, withdrawing from the world would also not be a good idea as this would have resulted in even greater difficulties and challenges for the nascent Christian community at that time. There were persecutions and trials facing the Church even from its earliest days, from both the Jewish and the Roman authorities, and from other local government figures and systems that saw the early Christians with great suspicion and even hostility. Some of the accusations were that the Christians were not obeying the laws and rules as they should have done, and thus, they were persecuted. But many of them indeed suffered because they remained true to their faith against those laws, rules and regulations which went against their faith in God, such as the order to offer sacrifices to the pagan gods and to the Emperor.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the moment when the Lord and His disciples were faced with question from the Pharisees who wanted to test the Lord and potentially trap Him with the question regarding whether one should pay their taxes to Caesar or the Roman Emperor or not. At the time, this was indeed a very risky and politically charged issue which would have led to great trouble for the Lord and His disciples if that question was not answered in the right way. First of all, if the Lord had told the Pharisees that they all should pay the taxes to Caesar, then the latter could have assigned blame to the Lord as traitors to the people, as back then, Roman taxes were widely hated and despised by the people, who saw those taxes as sign of oppression.

On the other hand, should the Lord mention that the people do not need or should not pay the taxes to Caesar, then the Pharisees could then accuse Him to the Romans of wanting to incite rebellion against them, as they eventually did against Him during the time of His Passion, His suffering and death on Good Friday. The Romans took particular emphasis on all those who went against their authority and rule, oppressing and punishing harshly all those who attempted insurrection and rebellion against them. As such, we can see that the Lord was faced with problems no matter what he decided to do. But, He wisely and wonderfully settled it, by saying to the Pharisees that one ought to pay to Caesar what belonged to Caesar, and to God what belonged to God.

The coins that the people used to pay for their Roman taxes were minted by the Romans and were engraved with the image of the Roman Emperors, and hence, they indeed belonged to the Roman Emperors. Therefore, it is indeed lawful to pay what was due to the Caesars, just as one ought to pay what was due to God. And the latter was a reference and intention for the Lord to tell all of us to give our best to the Lord. Since all of us belong to the Lord, our Master and Creator, we must always strive to give Him the best of our lives, our every efforts to proclaim Him and His truth, to live worthily at all times, just as St. Peter had reminded the faithful earlier on as we heard in our first reading today. We must always strive to proclaim the Good News of God through our exemplary lives, and part of this is by our fulfilment of our obligations as citizens of our respective states in this world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore do what we can so that in each and every one of our actions in life, we may always be truly committed and faithful to the Lord, to give our best to Him, just as we live our lives dutifully as the citizens and members of the states and countries of this world. Let our lives and examples be great inspirations and role models for everyone else all around us, so that we may show the path of righteousness and virtue to everyone whom we encounter, and that we may help one another to come ever closer to God and His salvation. May the Lord be with us always, and be with His Church, empower and strengthen us to live ever more worthily in His Presence, now and always. Amen.