22 October 2023 – 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

by Fr Simon Anand

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the First Reading taken from the Prophet Isaiah this Sunday, God reminds us at least four times, though in different words, that He has equipped us with His arms so that others would know, from the rising of the sun to its setting (meaning an expression to say always or forever), that others may know forever that apart from God, we can do nothing. This is the crux of the sentiment in the First Reading. And in order for others to know that we can do nothing without God, God has equipped us with arms. And this has been repeated, though in different words:-
i) He has chosen us;
ii) He has called us by name;
iii) He has conferred us a title;
iv) He has equipped with arms.

So this four-fold reminder, brothers and sisters, is not a sheer emotional or sentimental promise from God but it relates to our fundamental self-identity. And from that self-identity, it floats out to our mandate to be on mission. Therefore mission is not a choice. It is a mandate that comes from the Father, from the Old Testament. So Jesus takes up this idea from the book of Isaiah, though it is not cited as such, in the Gospel very intelligently.

In the Gospel today, Jesus has been confronted with a very serious question by the Pharisees but Pharisees sent their very own disciples and Herodians along with them. And this question demands a binary answer. The answer usually should have been ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, ‘Can’ or ‘Cannot’. And that is how the Pharisees could have trapped Jesus. so it is a very serious, dangerous question yet Jesus answered in a very intelligent way.

I am sure you are quite familiar with the context of the Gospel today but just let me give you a quick refresher of the Gospel and its context.

The Pharisees, in order to trap Jesus as we have noted in the Gospel, sent first their very own disciples. And secondly, with their disciples, Pharisees sent Herodians. And Pharisees are very particular and precise in their choosing of the people who could confront Jesus. And with them Pharisees sent this question. Go and ask Him:  Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not? 
Clear question, yes or no. You can answer also if you want to. 

So, had Jesus said ‘Yes, you should pay‘, He may have been seen as a Roman complot. Because at that time, this heavy taxation policy created many poor people around the world, especially under the Roman conquest, created a lot of poor people who are actually suffering. So if Jesus had said ‘Yes’, that could be tantamount to Jesus condoning the suffering of the poor. So that is very dangerous. That is against the Gospel.

Not only that. If Jesus had said ‘Yes’, it could also tantamount to Jesus worshipping Caesar because in that coin has got inscription of Caesar’s head. Not only that. Underneath that inscription it is stated ‘Caesar, the son of God‘. So therefore, you use this coin in paying taxes, it also renders that one implicitly worship Caesar. So these are some of the dangerous things that Jesus may have to face if He had said ‘Yes, you should pay’. Thus, Jesus may have become very unpopular. It is not about celebrity and popularity.

You note here that Pharisees sent their very disciples to Jesus. And these disciples are young so if these disciples had been influenced, they could have influenced all the other budding, intelligent people. Because these are budding scholars, they are blooming scholars. So therefore, as young as they are, they could have influenced the world. You know sometimes young people don’t ask us questions because they do not know the answer. They ask us questions because they want to test whether we know the answer. Likewise here, it is not that they do not know the answer. They knew the answer perfectly well by the very fact they were trained under the Pharisees. But they still asked to see what this man has got to say. To see whether this man knows the answer or not. So that kind of a trap. And that is precisely why Jesus called them ‘Hypocrite’. You actor. You know the answer at the same time you pretend as if you do not know. Hypocrite – that’s the word. That is one.

Had Jesus said ‘No, you should not pay‘. If Jesus had said that, okay perhaps the disciples of the Pharisees might have been happy but there was another group that followed them, Herodians. Herodians are not like any other lay people, ordinary people. Herodians have got the direct access to Herod. Herod has direct access to Caesar. So if Jesus had said ‘No’, Herodians would have charged Him almost immediately and brought Him to court, trial Him and put Him to death. So crucifixion that was supposed to come later could have brought forward for Jesus if Jesus had said ‘No, you should not pay’ because that is treason according to the people, Herodians, at that time. 

So therefore Jesus was put in a very difficult situation just with this question: “Should we pay tax to Caesar or not?” So it is an intelligent trap. A very intelligent trap. Sadly the intelligent trap was cast at a very intelligent man. It was given to Jesus. Intelligent trap for an intelligent man.

Next would be how this intelligent man comes out of the trap. And that forms the Good News this Sunday. To see how Jesus comes out, what Jesus has got to say and that would be the crux of the Good News this weekend.

So instead of answering the question, Jesus asked them about the image. What Jesus asked in the Gospel: “Show me your coin. What is inscribed on it?” So that is what Jesus will ask. So instead of answering the question, Jesus asked them about the ‘image‘ or sometimes it is also referred to as ‘likeness‘ or in a most accurate way it is referred to as ‘icon‘. So it can be image, it can be likeness and in a very accurate manner, it is referred to as icon. So in a way Jesus said:
What is the icon that is imprinted on that money, on that coin?

And the word image, likeness or especially icon, brothers and sisters, here in the context of the Gospel is the same word used in Genesis Chapter 1 Verse 27 to describe that God has created man and woman in His icon. Not only in His image but in His icon. So misunderstanding of this context of icon in the church, at one point of our history has caused much destruction of statues and images, what we call iconoclasm, misunderstanding of this word of Icon. But today, we have understood the word ‘icon’ in a better way.

So while the coin has the ‘icon’ of Caesar on it, human beings by the virtue of Genesis 1:27 has the ‘icon’ of God on us. So what was Christ’s eventual answer?

Give to Caesar the coin since it belongs to him.
Give to God your soul and your self since it belongs to God.

That is a very implicit answer that Jesus has given, in a very intelligent way. Therefore it is true. It is true as Isaiah states in the First Reading today, that:-

Apart from God, we can do nothing.

We can’t even think of being apart from God by the very fact that we have got the icon on us. We have got divine DNA on us. Even though we walk away from Him, we still have His divine DNA. So it is almost impossible to think of us apart from God.

So Isaiah states in a very poetic manner that God has equipped us with His arms. God has chosen us. God has called us by name and God has conferred a title upon us. And He has armed us with His icon. That is the fulfilment of what Isaiah has said when he said: God has equipped us with His arm.

And this God has armed us with His icon is beautifully celebrated in our baptism. During baptism, brothers and sisters, when we are anointed on our forehead with a special oil called Chrism, we assume the threefold identity, threefold icon of Jesus. And that is to be a:-
i) Priest;
ii) Prophet; and
iii) King.

So this is the icon that we receive, icon of Jesus that we receive at our very baptism. And we know that this threefold identity of Christ is gratuitous in nature. gratuitous means freely given. We did not buy it. We did not purchase it. So when a gift is freely given, it is not given to us but it is given through us for a greater purpose. It doesn’t end with us. It is given through us. And this is what we call vicarious in nature. vicar means on behalf of. So if a gift is given to us, it is given in a vicarious manner so that it is given to us on behalf of the world, on behalf of others who are in need of that gift.

So therefore as priests, by the virtue of baptism, we have the duty to pray and perform sacrifices for others. That is why our fasting, our alms giving, all our dietary thing makes sense, has got a spiritual value because we are priests, we are a group of priests who are supposed to perform prayer and sacrifices for others. And later in the Eucharistic prayer, the preface of the Eucharistic prayer, will tell us that we are chosen people, we are a royal priesthood, chosen especially by God. So therefore when we sacrifice, when we fast, when we do abstinence, it makes sense for prayer life as how we recently fast and prayed and did abstinence for the people in Israel and Palestine. So it is connected.

As prophets, we have the duty to speak and live on behalf of the voiceless and those who at the margins of society. So serving the poor is not a choice. It is a baptismal mandate. Have to. Not I choose to. We have to.

And third, as kings, a good king is the one who leads his nation well. As kings, we have the duty to listen, to accompany and to lead the younger ones and as the entire community towards holiness. And this is what Holy Father, Pope Francis, also mentioned in his document to young people, Christus Vivit, that a good leader should be able to listen, accompany and lead the young ones to a greater holiness.

So remember, brothers and sisters, that baptism is not about personal salvation alone. If baptism is all about personal salvation, then we are myopic. If baptism is all about ‘I want to enter heaven, not to enter hell’, that is very myopic. Baptism has got a missionary dimension to it, not only personal salvation. This kind of mutual praying and performing sacrifices, mutual speaking and living on behalf of others, especially the voiceless, the destitute and the poor. This kind of listening, accompanying, leading, in short this kind of a Synodal way creates amongst us a circle of neighbourhood saints, as Pope Francis said. Neighbourhood saints, not only the saints that we are supposed to attain in heaven. Neighbourhood saints exist here and now.

So lastly, the real sadness in our lives as noted by one of the French writer. The read sadness, the real failure and the only tragedy in life is when we are not inserted into this circle of being or becoming neighbourhood saints.

So we pray that we too would be conscious of our zeal, of our call and particularly the mandate to be missionaries.

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