“You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above.”
(John 8:23)
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“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God.”
(Matthew 22:21)
The year was 1532; the country was England. The man was very much involved in what might be called the arena of daily living. He was a teacher and a lawyer, a politician, a good husband and father. Intertwined in that arena was another arena that for him was equally important—what might be called the arena of activity for God. He did not want those two arenas to come into conflict, but they did in that year of 1532.
The man was Thomas More, Chancellor of England, and he had a decision to make between those two arenas. The only person above him in the English government was the King of England himself. And that King had determined that if a person did not sign a document that made the King head of the Roman Church in England, the person was to be convicted of treason and would die.
Thomas More’s daughter Margaret and everyone around him pleaded with him to sign the document. Margaret even accused him of wanting to be some kind of hero, and in response to her, Thomas More said some words that every Christian must carefully listen to:
“If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable,
common sense would make us good.
And we’d live like animals and angels in the happy land that needs no heroes.
But since in fact we see that avarice, pride, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, justice and thought,
and we have to choose,
to be human at all, perhaps we must stand fast a little,
even at the risk of being heroes.”
Thomas More knew that the Church had to direct his State, and he died defending that thought in 1535, a true hero.
Thomas More tried to avoid the conflict between Church and State. Jesus temporarily avoided that conflict in the Gospel. He could see what the Pharisees and Herodians were doing: if he said that it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, the Jewish people would hate him; if he said it was not lawful, they would say that he was a traitor. He avoided the trap, simply saying that we must live in the two arenas as best we can. What he was to say later on was that in the end, the arena of God, that which is “above” is more important than the arena of daily living, that which is ”below.”.
This is a very practical concept for us, because you and I live in the world of “below,” a world of work and play that is intertwined with the arena of God, the world of “above.” Every moment with God such as Mass for example is a pause in the arena of daily living. Often, there is no conflict between what we do in Church and what we do in the arena of daily living.
But conflicts will come because as Thomas More says: we live in a world where virtue is not profitable. When conflict comes, then the arena we choose must be as Thomas More chose, namely, the arena of God. That is never easy. Too often we forget about God—we allow our arena of daily living to occupy all of our time, talent and treasure, and simply do not even consider the arena of God. When it comes to satisfying our humanly natural and good desire to enjoy ourselves in life, we must choose God and Jesus to guide it. When it comes to making a living, working with our money, we must choose God and Jesus to guide us. When it comes to a desire to be more important and to be superior to anyone else, we must choose God and Jesus to guide us.
Jesus tells us to:
Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.
Thomas More did that as much as he could, but in the end, he knew that we do not live where virtue is profitable. In fact, we live in a place where justice and virtuous thinking are often not acceptable. So, as Thomas More said, maybe the Christian must stand fast a little, move back from “below” and move ourselves “above” into the arena of God, even at the risk of being a hero.
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