The Pharisees went away to work out between them how to trap Jesus in what he said. And they sent their disciples to him, together with the Herodians, to say, 'Master, we know that you are an honest man and teach the way of God in an honest way, and that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man’s rank means nothing to you. Tell us your opinion, then. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus was aware of their malice and replied, ‘You hypocrites! Why do you set this trap for me? Let me see the money you pay the tax with.’ They handed him a denarius and he said, ‘Whose head is this? Whose name?’ ‘Caesar’s’ they replied. He then said to them, ‘Very well, give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God.'
Looking at the protests throughout the world in the last few hours, one cannot but be forced to think about where we are going in the world. Young people, the disaffected and protesters of all kinds (not excluding people who may not have the best interests of society at heart) have taken to the streets protesting against corporate greed and government austerity. A cry seems to echo a voice from people on the ground concerning the state the world is in. It is hard to imagine it is 2008 when the whole system of the world economy started to shake. I came across a prayer service I used in autumn 2008 recently. The theme was fear and anxiety for the future. Dark clouds were amassing. Little did we know that those clouds were going to get very thick and remain would remain in the sky for a very long time.
Listening to the news and reading the papers it would be easy to believe that economics was the only subject in the world. Of course it is important, we could not function without money; we have to live and eat. The objection that could be made to all the coverage, however, is that there seems to be nothing else at all in the world. We have become experts in price.
I remember going to Rome for the first time. It was in the era just before the introduction of the Euro, so for the first few months there, I had the wonderful experience of the Lira! I kept one note from that time; a fresh green 2000lira bill. I brought it to school one day to show the 1st communion class. I told them about this great amount of money, all 2000 of it, and I asked them to guess how much it was worth in euro, I got all kinds of fantastic guesses. The were a bit disappointed when I told them it was worth about 1.20 euro. Not great on the face of it.
Somethings we hold very dear; our families and relationships. Often a position or a job is of huge value to us. A car, a house, a boat - there are endless examples. We hold them and treasure them as rightly we should. All of them, however, in an instant can be taken away from us. When look with thanks to God at all we have, we have to remember everything is a gift. If we can have a spirit of gratitude for all we have received, we will never fall into the trap of putting the gift before the giver.
There is only one thing that lasts. St. Theresa of Avila once said: "Let nothing trouble you,let nothing frighten you. All things are passing; God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever possesses God lacks nothing: God alone suffices." As we gather to give thanks, celebrating the Eucharist, may we give to God what is God's. The only thing we can possibly give to God is our thanks and our love; He has no need of it our desire to thank Him is itself His gift, as the liturgy says. When we are thankful to God, we will cheerfully give of all that he has given us. With grateful hearts we will receive the gift of Christ's body and blood and prepare to celebrate God's goodness in heaven.
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