Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
At some point in elementary school I came across a word that looked similar, but was also different. I couldn’t quite make out if it meant the same thing as the word to which it looked similar, or if it might be a different word altogether. I asked my teacher how I was supposed to pronounce the word c-o-l-o-u-r, and what its meaning was. I was sure it was supposed to be pronounced cah-LUHR, but was surprised that both the pronunciation and the meaning was the same as our word color, c-o-l-o-r, and that this was simply a British spelling. I have always preferred our American spelling as much more obvious and logical.
When we hear the Gospel, we likely are colored, however you might spell it, by our American experience. Though the words “separation of Church and State” never appear in Constitution, it has been so ingrained in our minds that we probably hear this Gospel and figure that Jesus was advocating the same some 2,000 years ago. I will admit that I have probably preached a homily or two on the same point.
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| Cyrus |
But look at our first reading today. God speaks through the prophet Isaiah about the Lord’s anointed, Cyrus. Cyrus was not a king of Israel. He was not a Jew at all. He was the king of the Persians, who had recently defeated the Babylonian Empire, which had exiled the two southern tribes of Jews. But God calls Cyrus his anointed, though he was altogether pagan. Still, Cyrus would start to provide for the return of the Jews to their homeland, and even for the building up of the temple, which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem. God is clearly demonstrating, through Isaiah, that even this pagan ruler was in God’s hands. There was no separation between God an any reality.
This idea, that what I do in politics and what I do in religion have no bearing on each other, is an intriguing idea. But it cannot be called Catholic. Because for the Catholic (as for the Jew before him), God is God of everything, not just some parts of the world. Though others may not recognize it, God holds sway over everything in the created world, and we cannot compartmentalize aspects of our life into Church and State, or said differently, religion and politics. If we really claim to follow God, then God has a say over everything I do, not just what I do within these four walls. If we owe God everything, then every act of our life belongs to God, even that which belongs to Caesar.
To be clear, I’m not advocating theocracy. I’m not advocating that we rush to rebellion to overthrow the government in order to set up our bishops as rulers. But if what the Church teaches is true, and truth applies to everyone, not just those who profess it in church, then our goal would be that all our laws would reflect the truth of what God has revealed, not just for Catholics, but for everyone.
Instead, we are used to the tired trope, “I personally believe X is wrong, but I’m not going to force that belief on others.” We usually hear it from baptized Catholics who advocate the heretical view that abortion should be legal. And people get very defensive about the abortion issue and how we seem to be forcing the Catholic Church’s teaching on others. So let’s apply this logic to other moral teachings, which the Church holds dearly, and if a Catholic supported it, he or she would be in heresy. Imagine a politician saying, “I personally believe that slavery is wrong, but I’m not going to force that belief on others.” Would you vote for that politician? How about, “I personally believe that human trafficking is wrong, but whom I am to judge another person?” Or, also consistent, “If a person’s conscience tells him that he should break into a house to get more money, that person should follow his conscience.” I would hope that no one would support such ridiculous propositions. But it’s precisely the same argument that people use for advocating that abortion should be legal so that those who think it’s ok can get one.
We do live in a pluralistic society, with many different religions. And there is some good in not having a particular religion being forced down our throats. Imagine that baptists were in charge, and they created a law that said that Bibles cannot be printed with the books we Catholics include but they tore out. That wouldn’t be right. But many of the laws that we should have do not have to be particular to one religion. You can know abortion is wrong without being Catholic, just like you can know stealing is wrong without being Catholic. We don’t eliminate all our laws against stealing just because we, as Catholics, hold theft to be immoral.
And further, the same Jesus who said, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God,” also said that if we are value family more than Him, then we are not truly following Him as He desires. Certainly if father and mother, brothers and sisters come in second place to Christ, so should the Republican or Democratic parties.
We view things with our American understanding because that has been our culture that has pervaded much of what we do and how we think. But Christ is not American, and His teachings don’t always square up with our Constitution. We may pay taxes because they belong to Caesar, but when it comes to how we live our lives, including our politics, it is all subject to God and His will, because to God belongs all that is.
