The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today alert us to our humanity and challenge our tendency to overemphasize the priorities of the material world.
The reading from the Second Letter of Peter is an exhortation to Preparedness before the Final Exhortation and Doxology.
* [3:13] New heavens and a new earth: cf. Is 65:17; 66:22. The divine promises will be fulfilled after the day of judgment will have passed. The universe will be transformed by the reign of God’s righteousness or justice; cf. Is 65:17–18; Acts 3:21; Rom 8:18–25; Rev 21:1.
* [3:16] These things: the teachings of this letter find parallels in Paul, e.g., God’s will to save (Rom 2:4; 9:22–23; 1 Cor 1:7–8), the coming of Christ (1 Thes 4:16–17; 1 Cor 15:23–52), and preparedness for the judgment (Col 1:22–23; Eph 1:4–14; 4:30; 5:5–14). Other scriptures: used to guide the faith and life of the Christian community. The letters of Paul are thus here placed on the same level as books of the Old Testament. Possibly other New Testament writings could also be included.
* [3:17–18] To avoid the dangers of error and loss of stability Christians are forewarned to be on guard and to grow in grace and knowledge (2 Pt 1:2) of Christ. The doxology (2 Pt 3:18) recalls 1 Pt 4:11. Some manuscripts add Amen. (2 Peter, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB, n.d.)
Psalm 90 praises God’s Eternity and Human Frailty.
* [Psalm 90] A communal lament that describes only in general terms the cause of the community’s distress. After confidently invoking God (Ps 90:1), the Psalm turns to a complaint contrasting God’s eternity with the brevity of human life (Ps 90:2–6) and sees in human suffering the punishment for sin (Ps 90:7–12). The Psalm concludes with a plea for God’s intervention (Ps 90:13–17). (Psalms, PSALM 90 | USCCB, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus addresses the Question about Paying Taxes.
* [12:13–34] In the ensuing conflicts (cf. also Mk 2:1–3:6) Jesus vanquishes his adversaries by his responses to their questions and reduces them to silence (Mk 12:34).
* [12:13–17] See note on Mt 22:15–22. (Mark, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB, n.d.)
Ed Morse comments that we are often tempted to compromise that higher principle of living as citizens of God’s kingdom for the sake of our own preferences. As St. Peter teaches, this undermines our stability. The rock of our faith is solid. Those who stand on that rock sometimes are rocked about, and indeed we see it happening around us as those who stand for truth are often ridiculed and condemned.
We are allowed to see glimpses of this in our own lives, when the hand of God leads us and protects us during times of testing and trouble, rescuing us from others and even more so from our own sins and errors. His gentle hand is unmistakable when we pause to see the bigger picture. Let us grow in faith and in holiness, responding in love to the miraculous and unmistakable gifts of God. (Morse, n.d.)
Don Schwager quotes “Put off the earthly image and put on the heavenly one,” by Origen of Alexandria (185-254 AD).
"Some people think that the Savior spoke on a single level when he said, 'Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar' - that is, 'pay the tax that you owe.' Who among us disagrees about paying taxes to Caesar? The passage therefore has a mystical and secret meaning. There are two images in humanity. One he received from God when he was made, in the beginning, as Scripture says in the book of Genesis, 'according to the image and likeness of God' (Genesis 1:27). The other image is of the earth (1 Corinthians 15:49). Man received this second image later. He was expelled from Paradise because of disobedience and sin after the 'prince of this world' (John 12:31) had tempted him with his enticements. Just as the coin, or denarius, has an image of the emperor of this world, so he who does the works of 'the ruler of the darkness' (Ephesians 6:12) bears the image of him whose works he does. Jesus commanded that that image should be handed over and thrown away from our face. He wills us to take on that image, according to which we were made from the beginning, according to God's likeness. It then happens that we give 'to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what is God's.' Jesus said, 'Show me a coin.' For 'coin,' Matthew wrote 'denarius' ( Matthew 22:19). When Jesus had taken it, he said, 'Whose inscription does it have?' They answered and said, 'Caesar's.' And he said to them in turn, 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.'" (excerpt from HOMILY ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 39.4-6) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 12:13-17 comments that the world tends to measure a person’s worth by his or her usefulness or by his or her social standing. So a president would be viewed as more valuable than a janitor, and a CEO would be given a higher standing than a prison inmate. But that’s not how God sees us—and it’s not how he wants us to see each other! Every one of us has infinite value because of the way he made us, regardless of our achievements. He loves you, not for what you can offer, but for who you are.
Never doubt your worth. You are immensely significant to the Lord. Never doubt your significance to the people around you, either. Simply by becoming the person God created you to be, you play a central role in revealing his love to everyone you meet.
“Thank you, Father, for stamping me with your image. Lord, help me to live in the dignity of a beloved child of you, my King!” (Meditation on Mark 12:13-17, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the apocalyptic conclusion of 2 Peter and the call of the author to live a righteous life. The religious leaders try to trap Jesus as either a collaborator with the Romans or a rebel. The denarius is used to expose their hypocrisy and teach our response to civil authority. Friar Jude reminds us of the traps of not staying aloof in such dichotomies.
James Finley focuses on the instructions of St. Symeon the New Theologian (d. 1022) for praying the Jesus Prayer.
St. Symeon also says, “Sit down alone, and in silence.”
In silence we are learning how to listen. If we’re not silent, we can’t listen, and it’s in listening that we can learn to hear. This ties into a mystical understanding of creation. In God’s “Let it be,” God is speaking all things into being: “Let there be light, let there be stones, and trees, and stars.” It isn’t as if God speaks everything into being and then goes off to leave the universe to run on its own. Rather, creation is absolute and perpetual. Right now, we’re being created by God in this self-donating act by which God is giving God’s very presence to us in our nothingness without God. Our body embodies the presence of God in our nothingness without God. God is speaking all things into being right now, and if God would cease this speaking, we’d all disappear. So we’re trying to become so silent that we can hear God speaking us into being. How can I become so silent that I can hear God speaking the sun into being as it moves across the sky, over the trees and fields rendered sacred in being created by God in their nothingness without God? And so the silence of our prayer embodies the deep, vast silence in which we learn from God how to listen to the living word of God, embodying itself as the reality of all things in their nothingness without God. (Finley, n.d.)
We invoke the wisdom of the Holy Spirit as we ponder the tension between the concerns of the material world concerning wealth and allegiance and the peace offered by Jesus in being what belongs to God.
References
Finley, J. (n.d.). Sitting in Silence. CAC Daily Meditations. Retrieved June 4, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/sitting-in-silence/
Mark, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 4, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/12
Meditation on Mark 12:13-17. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved June 4, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/06/04/989265/
Morse, E. (n.d.). Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries. Creighton University's Online Ministries. Retrieved June 4, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/060424.html
Psalms, PSALM 90 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 4, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/90?0
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Give to God What Belongs to God. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved June 4, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=jun4
2 Peter, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 4, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2peter/3
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