Loyal to God and Country

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary set up our consideration of the boundaries which we observe as citizens of the world. The text from the second letter of Peter was written, according to Friar Jude Winkler, about 120CE. The second coming has nor occurred and there is debate and confusion among the community. The author urges the community to be at peace and to live in witness to people of the grace given to followers of Christ. The text refers to Isaiah and the new heaven and the new earth. The temptation to live without regard to the existing world because we are citizens of the "New Jerusalem" is a serious matter. The welfare of our brothers and sisters in the political environment in which we live today is our proper concern. The motto of the US Marines, and many other groups throughout history, "semper fidelis", always faithful, comes to mind. The state in which we live is the civil organization which we are called to transform so that the "New heaven and the new earth" will also be one where, as Isaiah prays, where we have beaten our swords into ploughshares. In the Gospel of Mark, members of the Herodian party ironically try to present Jesus as traitor who does not reject the oppression of Israel by the Romans. The action of Jesus to hold the loyalty to the state in tension with the loyalty to God is the necessary condition to maintain the contact that will transform the state to the "New Jerusalem" through the witness of the disciples of Christ.