XXIX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Faith and State

Readings: Is 45:1,4-6; 1 Thess 1:1-5; Mt 22:15-21

Today’s Readings invite us to reflect on the thorny issue, for the believer, of the relationship between Faith and the State. In the first Reading (Is 45:1,4-6), the Persian king Cyrus (557-529 BC), despite being a pagan (Is 45:4-5), is chosen by God to liberate the chosen people from slavery in Babylon, and to him are attributed titles reserved for the leaders of Israel and the future Messiah: Shepherd (Is 44:8) and even “Anointed”, “Messiah” (Is 45:1).

The Book of Proverbs exhorts: “Fear the Lord, my son, and the king; do not rebel against either of them” (Prov 24:21): according to rabbinic teaching, submission to the sovereign was due even when it concerned a foreign authority. Paul, as a good Rabbi, is the one in the New Testament who most upholds this statement, which conversely raises many questions for us: all political authority is established and ordered by God, for the good of mankind (Rom 11:4). The authorities are “leitourgoì theou” (Rom 11:6), ministers, servants of God, to be obeyed, honored, and prayed for (1 Tim 2:2; cf. 1 Pet 2:17). But on the other hand, Paul knows that he is at the service of a Crucified one, that is, someone condemned to death by the State (Acts 3:13; 13:28), as were the martyrs of faith (Rom 8:36); in a very harsh passage, he rebukes Christians who allow themselves to be “judged by the unrighteous (Ed.: the pagans) rather than by the saints…, people with no standing in the Church” (1 Cor 6:4-7); Paul also knows from Jewish tradition (think of the story of the Maccabees: 1 Macc 2:19-22; 7:30…) that in certain cases obedience to the State must be refused; he himself affirms that authority “is God’s servant for your good” (Rom 13:4), and that therefore, if it is not acting for the common benefit, it can be challenged; finally, the Apostle, linking submission to political authority to “reasons of conscience” (Rom 13:5; cf. 2:15), thus allows for “conscientious objection”…

The Christian is not out of the world but is in the world (Jn 17:15), and therefore, today’s Gospel tells us (Mt 22:15-21), must “render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar” (Mt 22:21). The disciple of Jesus does not withdraw from the reality of the “polis”, but like salt (Mt 5:13) and leaven (Mt 13:33), must transform it from within: “The Church… moves forward together with all of humanity and experiences the same earthly lot with the world, and is like a leaven and, as it were, the soul of human society… The Church believes she can contribute greatly to making the family of men and its history more human” (Gaudium et Spes, no. 40).

The believer’s stance is therefore essentially one of respect and collaboration with the authority of the State. But the Christian also knows that there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ (1 Cor 8:6; 12:4), before whom “every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil 2:10): now “standing in the midst of the throne” is “the Lamb that was slain” (Rev 5:6), “Lord of lords and King of kings” (Rev 17:14); to him has been given “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Mt 28:18). Therefore, it is necessary to “render to God what belongs to God” (Mt 22:21), and thus “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

Therefore, the believer does not hesitate to proclaim judgment against unjust political authority and its fall, as the Book of Revelation does for the Rome of Nero and Domitian (Rev 17:1-19:10): “The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusal of obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community (Mt 22:21; Acts 5:29)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2242; cf. Gaudium et Spes, no. 74).