“What Belongs to God?” - 29th Sunday OT (A) – 10.22.23

“What Belongs to God?”

By: Fr. David Schmidt

St. Mark the Evangelist Parish (Cranberry/Butler, PA)

Mass Readings - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102223.cfm

In today’s Gospel we see the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus when they ask Him the question- ‘Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?’ What they are trying to do is that if Jesus says, ‘Don’t pay the tax’ then they can accuse Him of starting a revolt. And if Jesus says to ‘Pay the tax’ then the Pharisees can accuse Jesus of being a Roman sympathizer.

What Jesus does, is He asks for the coin that pays the tax, and asks whose image and inscription is on the coin to which they all respond ‘Caesar.’ Then, Jesus gives His great response saying, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

One of the common interpretations of this Gospel passage is that one of the things that Jesus is trying to teach us is to obey government authority. We pay our taxes, we follow laws, we do all that the government is calling us to do, and we pay to the government of the state what we owe them. Of course, this is true, and we are called to do that, but this doesn’t get to the heart of what Jesus is trying to say.

To get to the heart of what Jesus is trying to say, again He is saying to pay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but then He says, ‘Pay to God what belongs to God.’

The question, then, that we need to reflect on and think about is, “What belongs to God?”  

The simple answer is...our entire being.

God wants every part of us. He wants our entire heart, mind, body, and soul. This is what belongs to God. Our very person.

Again, as we saw with the coin, the coin that pays the taxes had Caesar’s inscription and likeness on it. And in a similar way, us as human beings, have the image and likeness of God put into us. And we see this in the book of Genesis, where we hear how God made us in His image and likeness. So what we pay to God, what belongs to Him, is our entire self.

It’s really incredible to think how we bear God’s image and likeness. How we are like small coins that bear the likeness of the emperor, but in this case, we bear the image and likeness of the King of the Universe.

Christ has given Himself to us completely on the Cross, and the ‘tax’ that we are to pay is the gift of ourselves completely back to God.

It’s to tell God “I give you everything.” “Here is my entire heart” “Here is my entire mind.” “Here is my entire body.” “Here is my entire soul.” “It is all yours!”

At first, we may not like the notion that our entire selves belong to God. As it makes us feel like we have no ownership of ourselves.

However, there is nothing greater than belonging to God. This is one of the deep desires of our heart. To belong to another. Specifically, to belong to God.

We see this in relationships, specifically with our significant other, where we use language such as, “They belong to me. They are mine.” Now, of course, this can be done in a possessive way which is not good, but in real love, it is a good thing. It is the language that we use. In real love, when we say that this person belongs to me and that they are mine, this satisfies a deep part of our hearts.

Parents will also use the same language when talking about their children, “They belong to us. They are ours.”

We belong to God. We belong to our Heavenly Father. We belong to our Beloved. He has placed in His image and likeness into each and every one of us. And all He is asking from us in return is our entire self.

We need to ask ourselves today, “How can I give myself more to God?” “How can I be more like Him?” If we are made in His image and likeness, then there is a responsibility to be ‘like’ Him. To love like Him. To live like Him.

In the Song of Songs it says, “My Beloved is Mine and I Am His” (Songs 2:16). This is the goal of our spiritual life. Where we can say to God, “I am His and He is mine forever.”

May we give what belongs to God this day. May we give Him our entire selves - heart, mind, body, and soul. And may we do this with a joyful and loving heart.