"Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar,
and to God what belongs to God."

Most of you know that I was in Rome from October 2nd through the 10th, for the celebration of John Sistare’s ordination to the diaconate. Rome is a place where the extraordinary is ordinary--and I’m not just talking about the pasta, although that is definitely extraordinary! I’m talking specifically in this context about the churches. Rome, of course, is a city that’s filled with beautiful houses of worship. In fact, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that there’s at least one on every street. But the amazing thing about many of them is that they look so ordinary on the outside. Their facades blend in so well with the surrounding buildings, that you almost don’t notice them. But then you walk inside and your jaw drops to the floor when you see how large and ornate they are; when you see the marble, the paintings, the frescoes, the icons, the statues. It literally takes your breath away. Now, sad to say, most of us have heard terrible comments made about these beautiful monuments of faith, haven’t we? People will sometimes say to us: "Why doesn’t the pope sell these things and give the money to the poor? If the Catholic Church really cares about helping those who can’t help themselves, it should get rid of these dust-collecting objects and buildings and do something productive with the proceeds." How do you respond when someone attacks the Church in that way? I’ll tell you my response. As charitably as possible, I try to tell the person that he or she has just made one of the stupidest comments in human history. Why? First of all, because these great buildings and works of art do help the poor! In fact, it’s only because of these great shrines that thousands of people are not poor. Think of all the men and women who benefit economically when people like me go to Rome to visit these places: those who work for the airlines benefit, taxi drivers benefit, hotel workers benefit, souvenir sellers benefit, restaurant owners and workers benefit--and on and on the list goes!

But I would say there’s something more behind all this. I really believe that those who attack the Church in this way often do so out of a guilty conscience. Because deep down on the inside they know why these great structures were built in the first place—because of faith. Yes, it’s true, some of these building projects were initiated to satisfy the ego of a certain emperor or pope, but ultimately they were built by ordinary people with deep faith: people who believed that Almighty God deserved the very best they had to give! In their minds he didn’t deserve second best, he didn’t deserve the leftovers; he was the King of kings and the Lord of lords and he deserved to be honored accordingly. And isn’t this precisely the idea to which Jesus is pointing us in today’s Gospel text from Matthew 22? We are told that the Pharisees and Herodians (who incidentally did not like each other) banded together against Jesus, because he was their common enemy. The issue they confronted him with was whether or not paying the census tax to Caesar was lawful in the eyes of God. If he said "yes" the Pharisees would have accused him of being a traitor to his own people; if he had said "no" the Herodians (who were Roman sypathizers) would have accused him of being an enemy of the state. Consequently they thought they had Jesus in a catch-22 situation. Realizing what they were up to, our Lord doesn’t answer the question directly; rather, he takes the whole discussion to another level. And he says, "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God." But I ask you today, my brothers and sisters, what does belong to God? Everything, right? And that’s the point. Everything good that we have ultimately comes from the hand of the Lord. Our life, our ability to think and love and relate to others, our individual talents--all of these are gifts from our heavenly Father. Which means that he deserves the very best we have to give him in return: our love, our complete obedience, our faithful service.

The great artisans of those magnificent churches in Rome understood this. Those people I mentioned earlier who criticize them and the present-day Church don’t. They want the Church to dismantle all her beautiful shrines because they’ve lost sight of who God is and what he deserves, and they’d rather not be reminded that other Christians in past centuries thought differently.

But what about us? Are we making every effort to give almighty God our very best? For example, are we giving him quality time every day in prayer, or does he get the leftovers--a few words at the beginning and end of the day--if we happen to think of it? Are we giving him our full attention when we come to Mass—the full attention he deserves? Are we giving him service each day, by looking for ways to help those in need: by visiting someone who’s sick, or in the nursing home, or in prison; by offering a word of comfort and counsel to those who ask for it? Are we giving God our very best financially? I know of young people, for example, who think nothing of spending $20 on a Saturday night when they go out with their friends, but who put nothing in the collection basket on Sunday morning (or Saturday night!). I know adults who give more than their share to their church and to other charities, but others who give the same amount now that they did 25 years ago, even though they could afford much more now. "Fr. Ray, you’re starting to talk like a pastor." Yes, I am, but it’s true!