Render Reflection

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary prompt consideration of an underlying theme which draws people to be over scrupulous in approaching how we are to live in relationship to God. The passage from the Book of Tobit tells of the blindness of the charitable man Tobit who must depend on the extraordinary efforts of his wife, Anna, to earn their living. Illness and difficulty in families is identified by Friar Jude Winkler as a situation where our scrupulosity, like that of Tobit, may spark words or actions which create deep division and hurt. Jumping to the conclusion which suits our attitude is extremely dangerous.  The Gospel from Mark, The Questionabout Paying Taxes, (see also Matthew 22 and Luke 20) relates an attempt by the religious authorities to have Jesus choose a side for or against the Emperor. The spiritual, political and philosophical implications of Jesus instruction on this matter still resonate in the attitude Christianity takes toward government. The deep resentment of the occupied Jewish nation to Roman taxation was compounded by life in a society where they also owed some of their produce to local authorities and in which the Temple taxes were required in support of their spiritual observance. We seek that the choice be clear about which action to take. We would find it so much easier to hear God tell us clearly what to do. We fail to appreciate that the praise and joy proclaimed by the psalmist for the observance of the Commandments of God does not come from blind following of the rules but from the ordering of our lives according to the direction and will of God expressed in the Commandments. We, as Jesus points out in the Gospel today, need to wrestle daily with rendering under to Caesar those aspects of living which give respect to authority acting in the harmony with God, from Whom our tradition holds authority is given, and return to God a life which is growing toward being a living witness to the image of God in which we are created. It is not a black and white choice. Thank God.