In this Gospel, the Pharisees wanted to take this opportunity to trip up our Lord and put
him in a situation where he was damned if he did, damned if he didn't.
If he did say that they should pay the census tax, then the Jews would be against him for
supporting the occupation of the Romans in Jerusalem.
And if he didn't say that they should pay the tax, then they could get the Romans after
him to arrest him for promoting the idea of not paying the taxes.
But our Lord takes the opportunity to teach the people.
And all of us, an important, profound teaching that we should promote and help the state,
Caesar, and also give to God what belongs to God.
We must, we live in the world, but not of the world.
We live in the world and we need to improve the world and contribute to the world, contribute,
pay our taxes.
We need to contribute to voting in good elected officials, promoting good laws, cleaning up
our city, observing just laws, all of this, all these things, as well as other material
things that we should contribute in society.
This is where Christians, to be a light to the world.
Put the Christian values into the government and into the workplace and everywhere we go.
But we are also to give to God what is God's.
And that's what's really not happening in the world today and probably has been since
the beginning, that we don't give to God what belongs to God.
Even the Jews in the Old Testament didn't always give to God what belongs to God.
And we know.
Society becomes corrupt and wars happen and all kinds of evils come into society because
we don't give to God what belongs to Him.
That is, ourselves and worshiping Him, obeying His commandments, giving to Him what belongs
to Him.
This is the virtue of religion, that we give to God what belongs to Him, which is everything.
We give to, we put, you know, there are, you know, there are, you know, there are, you
know, there are, you know, there are, you know, there are, you know, there are, you
know, there are, you know, there are, you know, there are, you know, there are, you know,
there are crucifixes back into the schools and put Commandments back on the walls and
put, the Christmas crest scenes in public places and we teach the Christian faith to
the world and to the public and everywhere we go God should be, he belongs in society,
he's the King of the world and king of governments, king of everything and we should give Him
that due instead of putting Him off in accordance.
corner, relegating him to second place, to the government or the state. But our Lord should reign,
our Lord should reign in the public, but especially in our own lives and our own selves.
God should reign and we shouldn't relegate him as well just to a Sunday morning mass or just a few
prayers each day, but it's our whole life. We're to dedicate our whole life to God, giving to God
our day, our time, our energy, our heart, our will, our plans, our schooling, our families,
ourselves, our entire selves. In religious life or in the priesthood or in married life,
we give to God. In married life, we give children to God and bring them up to be
godly children, serving God to populate heaven. We're giving these things to God
and we give him our incessant prayers, our unceasing prayers. We give everything to God
and this is what is his due. He has created us for himself and we must give back to him
ourselves in return. But he gives us a free will. We can choose not to do this.
He wants us to do this. We can choose not to do this. We can choose not to do this.
He wants us to do it voluntarily, willingly, but it is our duty. But again, we have the free
choice not to do it. We can not serve God. Instead, we can serve the world. We can serve
ourselves, our selfish desires and pleasures, which may be at odds and often it is at odds with
God's will. But the plan is there. The commandments are there. God's will is there that we can observe
and see and it is our choice to give back to him what he has given to us and to go to him
for help and strength when we find it difficult to give back to our Lord what is his just due.
And we have our lady there at our side to help us and strengthen us and to enlighten us
and to enable us to do God's will as well, to give back to God as she did. She gave her entire life
and her every moment, her every thought,
to the service of God. And this is our model, our example, our plan of life. And so we are coming
here to worship God as our just duty to God, to worship him on Sunday, but we are to worship him
every day and in every moment in our life as our duty, as our vocation,
as our reason for example.
So let us do this and let us give to God what belongs to him.
Let us do this.