27 — OUR DUTIES

XXII Sunday after Pentecost

Presence of God. — Teach me, Lord, to fulfill all my duties in homage to your sovereign Majesty.

Meditation

1 — The teachings contained in this Sunday’s Mass can be summarized in the well-known phrase of Jesus that we read today in the Gospel (Mt. 22:15-21): “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” In other words: fulfill exactly your duties toward God and toward neighbor, giving each his due.

The Epistle (Phil. 1:6-11) presents St. Paul as model of charity toward those whom God has placed under our care. “I have you in my heart,” writes the Apostle to the Philippians, “all of you are partners with me in grace, both in my chains, and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel.” Paul feels vividly his spiritual fatherhood toward souls he has begotten in Christ; even from afar he feels responsible for their good outcome, worries about their perseverance in good, supports them with paternal affection and wise counsels: “Being confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus.” He does not want them dismayed by his absence: he is only poor instrument, God alone is true guide of souls, and God will continue the work begun. As for him, let them be sure he does not cease to love them: “For God is my witness, how I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.”

St. John Chrysostom says Paul’s heart is Christ’s heart, because of his great love for souls that makes him so like the Redeemer. So should one be able to say of every apostle’s heart. When God has placed a soul on our path and asked us to care for it, we can no longer lose interest in it; that soul is now bound to ours; we must feel responsible for it, committed to helping it to the end.

After speaking of solicitude we must have for those entrusted to our care, the Epistle also recalls charity in general toward every neighbor: “that your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all understanding.” It is a charity ever more delicate in understanding others’ dispositions, ever finer in adapting to others’ mentality, needs, tastes; a charity that must impel us, as St. Paul says, to “approve the better things,” so that we may be “sincere and without offense unto the day of Christ.”

2 — The Gospel traces clearly the Christian’s position before civil authority. The insidious question whether it is lawful to pay tribute to Caesar gives Jesus occasion to solve the problem of relations between civil duties and religious duties. He asks for a coin and says: “Whose image and inscription is this?” “Caesar’s,” they answer. And He replies: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

There is no opposition between rights of political power and rights of God, since “there should not be any power, but from above” (cf. Jn. 19:11): legitimately constituted political authority comes from God and must be respected as reflection of divine authority. Precisely for this reason every Christian is bound to fulfill all duties of good citizen and therefore to obey political authority, except when it commands things contrary to God’s law, because in that case it can no longer represent divine authority, and then, as St. Peter says, “we ought to obey God, rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

We must not think that, because we are dedicated to apostolate or consecrated to religious works, we are therefore dispensed from civil duties. On the contrary, Catholics should have primacy also in this field. Emperors, kings, statesmen and men of arms whom the Church honors as saints tell us holiness is possible everywhere and can be realized even in service of the State, because here too it is a matter of serving God in creatures.

By saying to give Caesar what is Caesar’s, Jesus teaches us to give the State all within its competence, that is, all concerning order and temporal common good. But Jesus does not stop there and says also: “render to God what is God’s.” If money, bearing Caesar’s image, must be returned to Caesar, much more must our soul, bearing within itself image of God, be returned to God. To say we must give God our soul is to say we owe Him everything, because everything we have received from Him. In this sense, fulfilling our duties toward neighbor - equals and inferiors, ecclesiastical or civil superiors - is fulfilling our duties toward God: returning to Him what He gave us, submitting our freedom to his law, placing our will at his service.

Colloquy

“O my God, since I am yours for so many reasons and have so many obligations to serve You, never again permit either fault, or Satan, or the world to usurp, even in the least part, what is entirely yours. But take, if You please, complete and absolute possession of my being and my life. O my God, behold, I give myself wholly to You, vowing to will to exist only for You and to will neither think, nor speak, nor do, nor suffer anything except for love of You, today, tomorrow, and always” (St. John Eudes).

“O my Lord Jesus, You gave me Yourself and from me ask only the heart. But, my Lord, what is this heart of mine, while You are such greatness? If I had one heart that by itself were worth more than all hearts of the sons of men taken together and all affections of angels, and were so capacious that it contained at once many spiritual and bodily things, and could contain more than the highest heaven, I should owe to consecrate it wholly and entirely to You; and still for such a Lord it would be small gift, almost nothing. How much more should I not give You and place fully in You this little spark of heart I find in myself! For it is for me a very great thing that You deign to hold my heart. And would I not be foolish if from now on I consecrated it to some creature, when my God wants it for Himself? I do not want it to remain in me any longer; I want it to rest wholly in You, who created it so it might praise You. Better that my heart be in eternal joy, in divine majesty and immense goodness, than in my fragility; in your divinity rather than in my iniquity” (St. Bonaventure).