Genuine Love

Good morning, happy Tuesday, and blessings.

In Mark ‪12:13-17‬ Jesus taught a simple solution to convoluted criticisms thrown at Christians. Instead of getting bogged down in futile, endless arguments, why not implement His Formula which works so effectively! Stay tuned, keep it simple!

When answering His critics, Jesus was a master at stating complex issues in simple terms. Nowhere is this phenomenon more pronounced than Mark’s account of our Lord’s encounter with critics who opposed Him. According to Mark, as Jesus entered the final phase of His three-year ministry, sharp disagreements between Jesus and the Jewish rulers became intense and complex.

As you know, His enemies had constantly sought but failed to discredit this “teacher come from God” - by dispatching scribes and Pharisees to go wherever Jesus went to interrogate Him and try to trap Him into committing an act of treason – a sure way to get rid of Him.

Nonetheless, after all that He had gone through, Jesus arrived at the gate to the Holy City unharmed, but fully aware that a confrontation loomed on the horizon. Jesus calmly and politely said, “Show me a denarius.” Then He asked whose image was on it. (At that time, Tiberias would have been the Caesar.) On the back side of the coin would have been wording that means “the high priest of the Roman nation.” But, to their amazement, Jesus did not throw the coin to the ground, stomp on it, and declare no allegiance to Caesar!

Rather, He astounded them with a very simple statement: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” We can claim that basically, what Jesus said was, “Since you are citizens of a province ruled by the Roman Emperor and you use this coin that technically belongs to the Roman Empire, you have no choice but to abide by the rules of Rome; therefore, you must obey the laws of Caesar and pay taxes to the Roman government.” But at the same time, from his radical ministry and in tune with his spiritual liberation, it could have helped them to reflect on another reality. For example, Palestine is colonized by the Roman Empire and these taxes have been imposed on us. It is like asking, does the Empire of Rome have something in our homeland? We could say no. What is Jesus’ implication? So, don't pay taxes to the empire that colonizes you.

The second part of the formula is often referred to as the Christian’s “horizontal” relationship – to others – which may be the most difficult part of the formula due to the fact that a lot of folks tend to be exclusive rather than inclusive in their associations with folks who are not like them,  whose practice of faith varies from what they consider to be the “norm”.

Genuine love requires a conscious effort to identify the needs of: the society in which we live – our “neighborhood” – people who live under the same roof – those within our sphere of influence, folks inside our circle of friendship and fellowship. Genuine love inquires of them how we may be of assistance, indicates willingness to be of service, involves others in our endeavor to minister in the name of Jesus. Are you ready to put this type of radical discipleship into practice?

Blessings,

Fr. Luis+