Gospel – Matthew 22:15-21
The Pharisees went off
and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.
They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,
“Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion,
for you do not regard a person’s status.
Tell us, then, what is your opinion:
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”
Knowing their malice, Jesus said,
“Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
Show me the coin that pays the census tax.”
Then they handed him the Roman coin.
He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?”
They replied, “Caesar’s.”
At that he said to them,
“Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God.”
Reflection on the Gospel
Let us remember we are in the holy presence of God.
We aren’t chosen by the authority figures of empires, no matter what religious or political guises they moralize with or campaign in or what certainties they claim to offer or platitudes they attempt to ply us with. We are chosen by God. And the God who chooses us has a dream for us—the individual us and the collective us—that surpasses the imagination of empire.
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Dr. Maureen O’Connell
Chair Religion Department – La Salle University
Saint John Baptist de La Salle – Pray for us.
Live, Jesus, in our hearts – Forever.