“Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” This verse often goes misunderstood and is used as an argument that the religious realm is to be kept separate from that of the political realm. Instead of using this verse to segregate our practice of religion from who we are in other aspects of our life we should instead realize that is God is God who is not a being in or above the world. Instead God is Love and from this Love everything else flows. There is no way for us to segregate ourself away from the love which is made manifest in the Godhead. This love transcends everything which exists in creation for creation itself flows from it.
We cannot fall into this philosophy that religion and politics do not mix. Others will say that religion and what I do at home are separate realities. Others might proclaim that religion and what takes place at work are to be kept distinct from one another. From the encyclical letter “Deus Caritas Est” “God is Love” we are told by Pope Benedict XVI: “The two spheres are distinct, yet always interrelated...Justice is both the aim and the intrinsic criterion of all politics...here, politics and faith meet.” Therefore, as disciples of the Lord we are called to follow the Lord at all times. We must remember that it was of Nathaniel that it was said by our Lord: “There is no duplicity in him.”
This word duplicity comes from the Latin word which means “double” or “twofold.” In other words one who is duplicitous is divided in what they present on the outside and what is going on within them. Nathaniel was through and through a good man who came to love the Lord dearly to the point that all his actions came to follow after Him. This brings us back to those who live out a life of duplicity. Those who call themselves Christian and yet want to separate their identity as Christian from everything else that they do as a human person.
To put this Gospel into further context we must understand that the Pharisees were attempting to trap Jesus in His Words. He was trapped because on one side there was those of the Jewish faith who had now been occupied by the Roman army and have lost their freedoms and the Herodians who were willing to cooperate with Roman law. The Romans who were represented as Caesar imposed taxes on the Jewish faithful which they refused to pay. If Christ were to say “pay the taxes” He would be telling the Jewish faithful to accept domination by the Romans and if He were to say “don’t pay the taxes” then He would upset the local authorities.
Therefore to state, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” is to state that God’s realm is everywhere. This is to say that we are to give every aspect of our life unto God. When we segregate our life into quadrants which stay distinct from one other we are doing a great injustice unto God. God and our faith and what is handed down to us from it cannot simply be put into a category which is distinct from the other aspects of our life.
At this time it should be no secret that another election year is now upon us. We see this through the countless array of signs which align people’s yards and our roads and we know this through the large lines which are have been lined up at our polling stations. When one votes they should do so through the discernment of prayer and through reflection upon the moral teachings of our faith and how these will come to be made manifest in a particular candidate. Truly, God is the ultimate truth to which all things flow. We cannot cut away this reality in any aspect of our life, but instead must allow this very aspect to lead and guide us in all that we do.
