![\"Archbishop](\"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Chaput_Charles_01_240px.jpg\" "\\"Chaput_Charles_01_240px\\"")
by Archbishop Charles Chaput –
\nPaul Claudel, the French poet and diplomat of the last century, once described the Christian as \u201ca man who knows what he is doing and where he is going in a world [that] no longer [knows] the difference between good and evil, yes and no. He is like a god standing out in a crowd of invalids . . . He alone has liberty in a world of slaves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like most of the great writers of his time, Claudel was a mix of gold and clay, flaws and genius. He had a deep and brilliant Catholic faith, and when he wrote that a man \u201cwho no longer believes in God, no longer believes in anything,\u201d he was simply reporting what he saw all around him. He spoke from a lifetime that witnessed two world wars and the rise of atheist ideologies that murdered tens of millions of innocent people using the vocabulary of science. He knew exactly where forgetting God can lead. <\/p>\n
a man who no longer believes in God, no longer believes in anything<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
We Americans live in a different country, on a different continent, in a different century. And yet, in speaking of liberty, Claudel leads us to the reason we come together in worship this afternoon.<\/p>\n
Most of us know today\u2019s passage from the Gospel of Matthew. What we should, or should not, render unto Caesar shapes much of our daily discourse as citizens. But I want to focus on the other and more important point Jesus makes in today\u2019s Gospel reading: the things we should render unto God.<\/p>\n
When the Pharisees and Herodians try to trap Jesus, he responds by asking for a coin. Examining it he says, \u201cWhose image is this and whose inscription?\u201d When his enemies say \u201cCaesar\u2019s,\u201d he tells them to render it to Caesar. In other words, that which bears the image of Caesar belongs to Caesar.<\/p>\n
The key word in Christ\u2019s answer is \u201cimage,\u201d or in the Greek, eikon. Our modern meaning of \u201cimage\u201d is weaker than the original Greek meaning. We tend to think of an image as something symbolic, like a painting or sketch. The Greek understanding includes that sense but goes further. In the New Testament, the \u201cimage\u201d of something shares in the nature of the thing itself.<\/p>\n
Every one of us shares \u2014 in a limited but real way \u2014 in the nature of God himself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
This has consequences for our own lives because we\u2019re made in the image of God. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the same word, eikon, is used in Genesis when describing the creation. \u201cLet us make man in our image, after our likeness\u201d says God (Gen 1:26). The implication is clear. To be made in the image of God is more than a pious slogan. It\u2019s a statement of fact. Every one of us shares \u2014 in a limited but real way \u2014 in the nature of God himself. When we follow Jesus Christ, we grow in conformity to that image.<\/p>\n
Once we understand this, the impact of Christ\u2019s response to his enemies becomes clear. Jesus isn\u2019t being clever. He\u2019s not offering a political commentary. He\u2019s making a claim on every human being. He\u2019s saying, \u201crender unto Caesar those things that bear Caesar\u2019s image, but more importantly, render unto God that which bears God\u2019s image\u201d \u2014 in other words, you and me. All of us.<\/p>\n
And that raises some unsettling questions: What do you and I, and all of us, really render to God in our personal lives? If we claim to be disciples, then what does that actually mean in the way we speak and act?<\/p>\n
God made us for more than the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Thinking about the relationship of Caesar and God, religious faith and secular authority, is important. It helps us sort through our different duties as Christians and citizens. But on a deeper level, Caesar is a creature of this world, and Christ\u2019s message is uncompromising: We should give Caesar nothing of ourselves. Obviously we\u2019re in the world. That means we have obligations of charity and justice to the people with whom we share it. Patriotism is a virtue. Love of country is an honorable thing. As Chesterton once said, if we build a wall between ourselves and the world, it makes little difference whether we describe ourselves as locked in or locked out.<\/p>\n
But God made us for more than the world. Our real home isn\u2019t here. The point of today\u2019s Gospel passage is not how we might calculate a fair division of goods between Caesar and God. In reality, it all belongs to God and nothing \u2013 at least nothing permanent and important \u2013 belongs to Caesar. Why? Because just as the coin bears the stamp of Caesar\u2019s image, we bear the stamp of God\u2019s image in baptism. We belong to God, and only to God.<\/p>\n
True freedom can walk away from anything \u2014 wealth, honor, fame, pleasure. Even power. It fears neither the state, nor death itself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In today\u2019s second reading, St. Paul tells us, \u201cIndeed religion\u201d \u2014 the RSV version says \u201cgodliness\u201d \u2013 \u201cwith contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, just as we shall not be able to take anything out of it.\u201d True freedom knows no attachments other than Jesus Christ. It has no love of riches or the appetites they try to satisfy. True freedom can walk away from anything \u2014 wealth, honor, fame, pleasure. Even power. It fears neither the state, nor death itself.<\/p>\n
Who is the most free person at anything? It\u2019s the person who masters her art. A pianist is most free who \u2014 having mastered her instrument according to the rules that govern it and the rules of music, and having disciplined and honed her skills \u2014 can now play anything she wants.<\/p>\n
The same holds true for our lives. We\u2019re free only to the extent that we unburden ourselves of our own willfulness and practice the art of living according to God\u2019s plan. When we do this, when we choose to live according to God\u2019s intention for us, we are then \u2014 and only then \u2014 truly free.<\/p>\n
This is the freedom of the sons and daughters of God. It\u2019s the freedom of Miguel Pro, Mother Teresa, Maximillian Kolbe, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and all the other holy women and men who have gone before us to do the right thing, the heroic thing, in the face of suffering and adversity.<\/p>\n
This is the kind of freedom that can transform the world. And it should animate all of our talk about liberty \u2013 religious or otherwise.<\/p>\n
Real freedom isn\u2019t something Caesar can give or take away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
I say this for two reasons. Here\u2019s the first reason. Real freedom isn\u2019t something Caesar can give or take away. He can interfere with it; but when he does, he steals from his own legitimacy.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the second reason. The purpose of religious liberty is to create the context for true freedom. Religious liberty is a foundational right. It\u2019s necessary for a good society. But it can never be sufficient for human happiness. It\u2019s not an end in itself. In the end, we defend religious liberty in order to live the deeper freedom that is discipleship in Jesus Christ. What good is religious freedom, consecrated in the law, if we don\u2019t then use that freedom to seek God with our whole mind and soul and strength?<\/p>\n
Today, July 4, we celebrate the birth of a novus ordo seclorum \u2013 a \u201cnew order of the ages,\u201d the American Era. God has blessed our nation with resources, power, beauty and the rule of law. We have so much to be grateful for. But these are gifts. They can be misused. They can be lost. In coming years, we\u2019ll face more and more serious challenges to religious liberty in our country. This is why the Fortnight for Freedom has been so very important.<\/p>\n
Will we live wholeheartedly for Jesus Christ?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
And yet, the political and legal effort to defend religious liberty \u2013 as vital as it is \u2013 belongs to a much greater struggle to master and convert our own hearts, and to live for God completely, without alibis or self-delusion. The only question that finally matters is this one: Will we live wholeheartedly for Jesus Christ? If so, then we can be a source of freedom for the world. If not, nothing else will do.<\/p>\n
God\u2019s words in today\u2019s first reading are a caution we ignore at our own expense. \u201cSon of man,\u201d God says to Ezekiel and to all of us, \u201cI have appointed you as a sentinel. If I say to the wicked, \u2018you will surely die\u2019 \u2013 and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them . . . I will hold you responsible for their blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what that means for each of us: We live in a time that calls for sentinels and public witness. Every Christian in every era faces the same task. But you and I are responsible for this moment. Today. Now. We need to \u201cspeak out,\u201d not only for religious liberty and the ideals of the nation we love, but for the sacredness of life and the dignity of the human person \u2013 in other words, for the truth of what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God.<\/p>\n
We need to be witnesses of that truth not only in word, but also in deed. In the end, we\u2019re missionaries of Jesus Christ, or we\u2019re nothing at all. And we can\u2019t share with others what we don\u2019t live faithfully and joyfully ourselves.<\/p>\n
When we leave this Mass today, we need to render unto Caesar those things that bear his image. But we need to render ourselves unto God \u2014 generously, zealously, holding nothing back. To the extent we let God transform us into his own image, we will \u2013 by the example of our lives \u2013 fulfill our duty as citizens of the United States, but much more importantly, as disciples of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Text above is the address from the Archbishop of Philadelphia, given at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. Archbishop Charles Chaput is one of the most respected pro-life voices within the Catholic Church and he has proved that once again with this wonderful homily to close the Fortnight for Freedom event.<\/em><\/p>\n HT: LifeNews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Archbishop Charles Chaput – Paul Claudel, the French poet and diplomat of the last century, once described the Christian as \u201ca man who knows what he is doing and where he is going in a world [that] no longer [knows] the difference between good and evil, yes and no. He is like a god … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[68,79,15,58,141],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-freedom","category-moral-issues","category-roman-catholic","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}