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In our modern world Church and state are separate. In our country they coexist peacefully; both are there to fill peoples’ needs and this is to be recognised and respected. The Church relies on voluntary contributions for its temporal needs. The state receives its taxes through legislation. It is every Christian’s duty to support the Church and every citizen’s duty to pay income tax to the state. Governments are always promising to make taxation fair to all. Whether it is or not could be debated; but broadly speaking if we systematically cheat the state, we are cheating our neighbour.

The state Jesus lived in was very different from our own and far from an ideal one. The Romans conquered the Jews who lived under foreign rule and were forced to pay taxes to the occupiers. Some of them, like the tax collector Zacheus — later called Matthew the evangelist — benefited from the occupation by collaborating. He collected taxes for the Romans. But most people- as one would expect — resented the foreign control of their lives and the taxes. So the question put to Jesus, IS IT PERMISSABLE TO PAY TAXES TO THE ROMAN OCCUPIERS? YES OR NO? was a trap. If he answered YES, he would have disappointed and let down the people. If he said NO, he could have been arrested for inciting to disobedience.

Jesus was not about political revolution. He played their game by simply refusing to give a straight answer. He said instead: give the Roman denarius back where it belongs, to the Romans and give to God what belongs to God. What did he mean? That WORSHIP is for God alone. Not for human leaders., not for things like money, success or power. Our first LOVE is for God. If we truly love God we will always love our neighbour and ourselves as well. Because if we love God we love also what he loves. AND GOD LOVES EVERYBODY.

 Today is MISSION SUNDAY and we are reminded that EVANGELISATION is part of our Christian vocation. We are called to announce God’s LOVE, MERCY and FORGIVENESS; that through Jesus, the way to eternal happiness is open to everybody. We can do this here at home and we can support those who go abroad on the missions with our prayers and our donations.

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