Daily Gospel Reflection

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June 6, 2023

Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Mk 12:13-17
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Some Pharisees and Herodians were sent
to Jesus to ensnare him in his speech.
They came and said to him,
“Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion.
You do not regard a person’s status
but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?
Should we pay or should we not pay?”
Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them,
“Why are you testing me?
Bring me a denarius to look at.”
They brought one to him and he said to them,
“Whose image and inscription is this?”
They replied to him, “Caesar’s.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God.”
They were utterly amazed at him.

Reflection

Gus Hauge ’24
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Every spring semester, in the middle of midterms, summer planning, and unexpected snow, I am reminded that I have once again procrastinated on my taxes, and I have to call my dad for help. Taxes are part of an annoying but necessary exchange for public works, buildings, roads, education, welfare, and plenty of upkeep behind the scenes of every community.

We can imagine how aggravating it would have been for the Jews of Jesus’ time, who resented the morally corrupt Roman Empire. The Pharisees in today’s gospel hope to trick Jesus with their question; he must either deny taxation and undermine the ruling authority or affirm taxation and alienate his majority-Jewish followers. But rather than giving a simple answer addressing the morality of paying Roman taxes, Jesus does something remarkable: he places this situation in an infinitely broader context.

Some interpret the statement “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” as a green light to keep pesky ethics out of business practices, but it speaks to a much deeper reality. Yes, we should give our due taxes to the state out of civil obligation, but even more importantly, we should give what is due to God.

We owe our life, our breath, our very existence to God. God supplies us with grace at every moment, working entirely unseen. This infinite gift of love necessitates a response out of the sheer magnitude of its goodness. How often do we go about our loud, busy lives blind to the hand of God at constant work?

So today, find those little opportunities throughout the day to thank and praise God, not out of fearful obligation but out of pure love for our Creator.

Prayer

Father Andrew Gawrych, C.S.C.

Lord, just as in the days of Jesus, we are pressured today by our society to compartmentalize and personalize our faith, to leave it out of the public sphere. Give us the courage and the love to live out our faith boldly, that it might inform the way we live, vote, and govern. While repaying to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, may we always repay to God what belongs to God. Amen.

Saint of the Day

St. Norbert

St. Norbert turned away from a self-serving life through a dramatic conversion experience, and went on to become a great reformer of the Church.

He was born in Germany in 1080 to royal parents. As a young man, he sought priesthood as an ambitious career move, and began preparations for ordination, even though he was only interested in a life of pleasures.

He was out riding one day when he was caught in a thunderstorm and tossed by his horse. He lay on the ground paralyzed for an hour. His first words when he awoke were the same as St. Paul’s after his famous conversion: “Lord, what will you have me do?” A voice answered, “Turn from evil and do good: seek after peace and pursue it.”

Immediately he changed his life. He returned to the court and gave his life to prayer and fasting. He finished his preparation for the priesthood and was ordained. He took on the life of a wandering preacher, encouraging conversion in the court where he lived, but the people there thought him hypocritical. In return, he sold all of his land and goods, keeping only a small bit of money, a mule (which soon died), and the things he needed to celebrate Mass.

He met with the pope, who gave him permission to preach wherever he chose. He set out on a mission to preach, and started to gather around him others who were impressed by his conversion and commitment to the faith.

Church leaders drew on his leadership to reform monastic communities that had grown lax in their observance. Norbert, himself, started a community in an abandoned monastery, and their numbers grew such that other monasteries were established.

While visiting a town in Germany, Norbert was chosen as bishop of that town by popular acclaim from the community’s leaders, but as he approached his new rectory, the doorman turned him away, thinking he was a beggar because he was dressed so humbly. As bishop, he asserted a reform of the Church, which was met with resistance, but Norbert persisted.

Late in his life, he was drawn into a crisis in which disputed popes claimed to have been elected, and his influence was a great help in resolving the matter. All of his work had exhausted him, however—he had only been ordained 20 years when he died on this date at the age of 53.

Along with St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Norbert stands as a great reforming saint of the time whose influence led people to holiness for generations. St. Norbert’s relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and his image is used here with permission from Catholic.org.

St. Norbert, your dramatic conversion experience helped you lead the Church to greater faithfulness—pray for us!