“Repay to
Caesar What Belongs to Caesar and to God What Belongs to God”
(Mt 22:21)
Dear
Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
When speaking of justice, we often
focus more on social justice which means that all people without any form of
discrimination should receive fair treatment and have equal benefits and
opportunities in achieving their dreams in society.
In order to ensure and restore social
justice other types of justice have been established such as retributive
justice that includes legal enforcement with imprisonment, labor camp and even
death penalty.
It seems that social justice still
remains a hard work for all people to accomplish. It is by no way because the implementation of
the legal measures are not strict enough in defending the innocent and
punishing the criminals.
We witness the sad reality that social
justice is meant only for the politically and economically powerful. Kangaroo court in totalitarian regimes is
just a convincing proof of the failure of human social justice where the
offended—the scape-goats—take all the responsibilities for the wrongdoings of
their offenders.[1]
This Sunday Gospel gives us the most
meaningful and effective type of justice which is rightly coined as Christian
justice for it was taught and practiced by Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior of
the world.
“Repay to Caesar what belongs to
Caesar and to God what belongs to God”, in fact, means something much greater and deeper than
just social justice.
First, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”
confirms the truth that with regard to whom justice should be rendered there
are two different orders of ownership: one is God’s, the other is Caesar’s.
On the one hand, “Caesar” stands for those
responsible for the common good of people in society, or the secular authority,
or the State. They who come to power by
democratic and honest way, through fair elections for instance, enjoy their
legitimate authority to fulfill their calling. This means that they have
received from God the mandate of serving peace and order. Saint Paul admonishes Christians to obey
legitimate secular authority, saying “for
there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been
established by God. Therefore, whoever
resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will
bring judgment upon themselves.”[2]
“Repay to
Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” clearly and strongly
discourages those who have illegally and dishonestly seized power against the
will of the people and the assignment of God.
They are simply “thieves and robbers” who come “only to steal and
slaughter and destroy.”[3]
We Christians are by no means obliged
to obey those evil shepherds but on the contrary we are bound by our Christian
faith and moral standard to tell—sometimes, in case of necessity, but in a peaceful way, to force—them to render justice to
God and the people: “Repay to Caesar what
belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”.
Secondly, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”
means above all that God’s absolute and supreme authority and power should be recognized
and honored. God is always the Creator
of this world. He is the owner of His
creation. He is the master of
history. He is the loving caring Father
of all of us, human beings. He is the
judge of the living and the dead, yet He is slow to anger and quick to mercy
and bounder less
in forgiveness. Saint James strongly
defends God’s authority as the only lawmaker, saying “There is one lawgiver and judge Who is able to save or to destroy. Who then are you to judge your neighbor?”[4]
“Repay to
Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” becomes more urgent than
ever when we Christians celebrate Mission Sunday today to pray for the
preaching of Gospel values, that
of Christian justice included, to a world seriously torn by all forms of
injustices.
Let us start the missionary journey by
putting into practice Christ’s teaching “Repay
to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” right now
and here, in our families, communities and countries. Amen.
Fr. Francis Nguyen Van Nhut, O.P.
