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Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 19 October 2014


Denarius 14AD

Denarius 14AD

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

When I am in a reflective mood, there are times when I wonder if I am a hypocrite like those Jesus mentions in Matthew's Gospel today. In various ways a hypocrite seeks to deceive others by showing a different external side of themselves from the truthful inner reality. Being a priest, and because people expect quite a lot from me, I am aware that my words and actions as somebody with a particular pastoral role, does not always match up with what I really think or believe or do.

That’s always a problem with those in public life, we have to deal with compromise all the time. However on balance I hope that my hypocrisy is simply that of a truthful person struggling to deal with what life brings rather than overt deception. Jesus warns people like myself to watch out and not lay intolerable burdens on others because of our position as his pastors!

This approach can be clearly seen in the teaching of Jesus .Two different and antagonistic groups come to ask him a simple question, ‘is it lawful to pay the Roman Census tax or not’? Here’s part of the hypocrisy, one lot are very much the Herodian party on the side of Jewish insurgents, the Pharisees are linked to Roman occupation. Whatever answer Jesus gives will be wrong. If he says ‘yes’ , he will be seen as a collaborator with an unjust power, if he says ‘no’ he is guilty of sedition.

Jesus sidesteps the whole issue by taking a denarius (the price of the tax), and confronts them with a pastoral problem; whose coin is it, whose tax is it? Is it part of normal law? Then render to Caesar his due. But in a subtle twist he turns the tables over, ‘render to God what is God’s’ he says! His meaning is that everything including ourselves belongs to God and it is to the Lord we owe allegiance, but we live in a world of different contexts. Jesus tells us to navigate these waters with discerning and merciful love.

Pope Francis, in a homily during the Synod of the Family, reminded people not to become rigid or inflexible in their application of Church law which is only a servant of God’s mission and love! Following the teaching of Jesus, the Pope is continually drawing our attention to that need for loving kindness in dealing with others, the ‘mercy of God’!

 Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Britain.

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