Weekly Mass Discussion Thread #8

Hello !catholics and !christians, it is once again the Lord's day! It's also the feast day of Saint John Paul the Second!

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First Reading

Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus,

whose right hand I grasp,

subduing nations before him,

and making kings run in his service,

opening doors before him

and leaving the gates unbarred:

For the sake of Jacob, my servant,

of Israel, my chosen one,

I have called you by your name,

giving you a title, though you knew me not.

I am the LORD and there is no other,

there is no God besides me.

It is I who arm you, though you know me not,

so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun

people may know that there is none besides me.

I am the LORD, there is no other.

-Isaiah 45:1, 4-6

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Second Reading

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians

in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

grace to you and peace.

We give thanks to God always for all of you,

remembering you in our prayers,

unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love

and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,

before our God and Father,

knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God,

how you were chosen.

For our gospel did not come to you in word alone,

but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.

-1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b

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Gospel

The Pharisees went off

and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.

They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,

"Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man

and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion,

for you do not regard a person's status.

Tell us, then, what is your opinion:

Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?"

Knowing their malice, Jesus said,

"Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?

Show me the coin that pays the census tax."

Then they handed him the Roman coin.

He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?"

They replied, "Caesar's."

At that he said to them,

"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar

and to God what belongs to God."

-Matthew 22:15-21

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I find the topic in today's readings to be a very interesting one: the role of secular governments in God's plan. In the Old Testament, Cyrus the Great, emperor of Persia, is declared to be the anointed by the Lord, and his empire's dominance over the ancient world is willed by God. I believe he was the only Gentile in the Old Testament to be referred to as being anointed by the Lord. The Persian conquest of Babylon allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and start rebuilding it.

The second reading seems more divorced from the others, but note this: the Thessalonians are the people from Thessaloniki in modern Macedonia.

The Gospel is an infamous one. I know "repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar" is a line that many revolutionary !chuds struggle with. The idea of overthrowing the atheist government and replacing it with a Catholic monarchy is one often shared on /pol/. I think the point here is that the government shouldn't matter much to Christians. Respect its earthly authority, as you should have greater concerns than the tax rate. Any mortal government exists only because God allows it to. If conquest or revolution is necessary, it will happen. A good example to use here is Saint John Paul II. During his time as a bishop in communist Poland, he continued doing his pastoral duties, despite heavy pressure from the government not to. He never staged a revolution, he simply continued performing the Mass and administering sacraments. The rule of the Roman emperors draws some parallels to Cyrus. Jesus was born during the rule of Augustus, and performed his ministry under Tiberius. Early Christian evangelization happened under Caligula and Claudius. Let's go back to the second reading. Thessaloniki is in Macedonia, a long way from Judea. The Pax Romana of the early Roman Empire enabled Christians to travel great distances to spread the Gospel. While they faced persecution under the Empire, with Constantine, it became a Christian nation. God's role in politics is a complicated one.