Making present the Kingdom of Heaven in a secular world

Are we fulfilling our responsibility to God? Or are we pushing those responsibilities off onto others or are we neglecting them all together?

WORD OF FAITH: A breakdown of each week's upcoming Sunday readings to better understand the Word of God at Mass.

The Universal Church is in the midst of the Synod on Synodality, which is meeting throughout the month of October at the Vatican. There are representatives from the Catholic Church gathered together from throughout the world in Rome. Those representatives are a cross-section of laity, clergy and religious. The working document for the synod sessions is known as the “Instrumentum Laboris” (Instrument of Labor). The document is an instrument of labor because it was drafted on the basis of all the material gathered during the listening sessions — known as the Continental Assemblies — that were held in archdioceses and dioceses through­out the world. 

The synod is an opportunity for the Universal Church to be in dialogue with itself through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, the Universal Church is in prayerful discernment in three specific areas: communion, mission and participation. Pope Francis is calling on the church to make its presence known in the world by fostering communion among the faithful and reaching out to others as missionary disciples who may be outside of the church. In communion with God and one another, we are called to make the good of God present in the secular world.

The synod is drawing on several documents of the church, conciliar documents as well as post-conciliar documents. Conciliar documents such as “Gaudium et Spes,” which was the final major document of Vatican II. Gaudium et Spes is the “Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World.” The document calls us to connect our liturgical practices with our daily lives. This is the goal of the synod, for the faithful to live out fully integrated lives through the Holy Spirit. By exercising our Christian vocation, which we receive through our baptism, we are to live out our faith in the secular world as we serve in our civic responsibilities as good citizens. 

The religious officials of Jesus’ time did not understand their civic and religious responsibilities in this way. This is why Jesus challenges their hypocrisy as they are trying to ensnare him in the controversy of the Roman occupation and Rome’s influence on the economy of Israel. The controversy they wanted to entrap him in was the payment of taxes to the Romans. During the Babylonian exile, they were forced to pay a tribute tax to the Babylonian gods. That was blasphemous and idolatrous and anyone who paid it would be punished under Jewish law. This punishment could be severe, even death. The Romans required an imperial tax and even poll taxes. The problem with paying the taxes, especially the imperial tax, was that it was a tribute to Caesar, who was seen as a living God. Again, this would have been blasphemous for the Jewish people.

This is the backdrop to the question the Pharisees ask Jesus, “Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” (Matthew 22:16) Jesus asks for a coin, and they handed him a denarius, a Roman currency. But this was not the only currency that was used in Israel; they used shekels to pay the Temple tax. The shekel was the currency of Israel and of the Temple in Jerusalem. When Jesus asks to see the coin used to pay the census tax and they show him Caesar’s face on the coin, he simply says, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” (Matthew 22:21) Jesus is challenging the Pharisees to be faithful to God, and since the coin has the image of Caesar on it, to give it back to Caesar. Jesus’ response, “Give back to God what is God’s,” also echoes the Book of Genesis, which tells us we have been made in the image and likeness of God. “Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26) All creation comes from God and Jesus tells us that we are to give our full selves back to God because the image and likeness we possess is of God. This is reiterated in the First Reading from Isaiah, “I have called you by your name, giving you a title. Though you knew me not. I am the Lord and there is no other.” (Is. 45:4-5)

Jesus is asking us to reflect on what we are giving back to God. Are we fulfilling our responsibility to God? Or are we pushing those responsibilities off onto others or are we neglecting them all together? The responsorial psalm for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time makes it perfectly clear, “Give the Lord glory and honor.” (Ps. 96:7-8) All people of every family and nation are called to give of themselves in praise and service to the Lord. Paul reminds us in the Second Reading, “For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy ­Spirit and with much conviction.” (1 Thess. 1:4-5b) 

Paul reminds us that we have been chosen for the task of making present the Kingdom of Heaven even in a secular world that so often rejects the presence of God.