Gospel: Matthew 22:15-21

The Gospel is the text about the legitimacy of the tribute to be paid to Caesar, which contains Jesus’ famous answer: “render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mt 22:21). Those who are speaking with Jesus — disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians — compliment him, saying “we know that you are true, and teach the way of God truthfully, and care for no man” (v. 16). 

 

It is this affirmation itself, although it is prompted by hypocrisy, that must attract our attention. The disciples of the Pharisees and Herodians do not believe in what they say. They are only affirming it as a captatio benevolentiae to make people listen to them, but their heart is far from that truth; indeed, they want to lure Jesus into a trap to be able to accuse him. 

 

For us, instead, those words are precious: indeed, Jesus is true and teaches the way of God according to the truth, and stands in awe of none. He himself is that “way of God”, which we are called to take. Here we may recall the words of Jesus himself in John’s Gospel: “I am the way, the truth, and the life”. 

 

In this regard St Augustine’s comment is illuminating: “It was necessary for Jesus to say ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’, when knowing the way by which he went they had to learn where he was going. The way led to truth, it led to life.... And where are we going, but to him, and by what way do we go, but with him? (In Evangelium Johannis Tractatus 69, 2). 

We are called to walk first on this Way that is Christ, and on this Way, one never walks alone, but in company, an experience of communion and brotherhood that is the Church. 

 

A brief reflection also on the central question of the tribute to Caesar. Jesus replies with a surprising political realism, linked to the Theo-centrism of the prophetic tradition. The tribute to Caesar must be paid because his image is on the coin; but the human being, every person, carries with him - or herself another image, that of God, and therefore it is to him and to him alone that each one owes his or her existence. 

 

The Fathers of the Church, drawing inspiration from the fact that Jesus was referring to the image of the Emperor impressed on the coin of the tribute, interpreted this passage in the light of the fundamental concept of the human being as an image of God, contained in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. 

 

An anonymous author wrote: “The image of God is not impressed on gold, but on the human race. Caesar’s coin is gold, God’s coin is humanity…. Therefore give your riches to Caesar, but keep for God the unique innocence of your conscience, where God is contemplated…. Caesar, in fact, asked that his image be on every coin, but God chose a man, whom he created to reflect his glory” (Anonymous, Incomplete Work of Matthew, Homily 42). 

 

And St Augustine used this reference several times in his homilies: “If Caesar reclaims his own image impressed on the coin”, he says, “will not God demand from man the divine image sculpted within him?” (En. Ps., Psalm 94:2).