O GOD, MAKE US WISE
Author: Fr. Michael Byron
October 17, 2020
In the days of Nazi Germany, during World War II and the Jewish
Holocaust, which is called the “Shoah” in Hebrew, there were many Gentile
Christians in Europe (though sadly not nearly enough) who were sympathetic to
the Jews and wanted to shelter them from danger and death. Often they did this
by hiding Jewish people inside their homes as Adolf Hitler’s troops went
through the towns trying to round them up for deportation to concentration
camps. Sometimes the soldiers would go from house to house, asking the
Christians if they knew anything about Jewish people in hiding, or whether they
were themselves giving safe haven to Jews.
For those heroic homeowners the obvious answer to that
questions was “No.” That, of course, would have been a deliberate lie. Christians
aren’t supposed to lie. We honor truth-telling as a virtue. So in a case like
this one, a true believer is trapped, because Christians also are not supposed
to cooperate in activities that directly result in the murder of innocent
people.
I’ve always remembered this example being taught to me when I
was a very young person, probably in high school. It was a way of imparting a
very important life lesson, namely, just because someone asks you a question
does not mean that person has a right to an honest answer. It’s more
complicated than that.
Very often people do have that right – hopefully most of the
time. But first I have to ask myself some questions of my own, like:
- Why is this person asking me this? What are his or her motives?
- Does this person, in fact, have a need or a right to know?
- What will be the consequences of my response? Not just for me.
- Are other people depending on me not to betray them?
Nobody has ever put this question to me, thankfully, but,
for example, if anyone would ever ask me, “Hey, what did Alice talk about in
the Sacrament of Reconciliation last week?” the proper response would be, “I
don’t know what you are talking about,” because according to church law I’m not
even permitted to acknowledge that Alice and I had a conversation at all in that
context. My response, I suppose, would technically be a lie. But it would be
the right one.
Again, just because someone asks you a questions doesn’t
mean that they are owed an honest answer. In today’s gospel of Matthew, Jesus
is asked what appears at first to be a very simple yes or no question,
specifically, is it lawful to pay the census tax to the Emperor, Caesar, or
not? But Jesus is smarter than that. His first thought would have been, “why
are these people asking me this?” And he knows why; because it’s a trap.
The ones asking are a combination of Pharisees and
Herodians, who generally don’t like each other very much. The Pharisees hate
the occupation of Israel by the Roman Emperor, and the Herodians owe their jobs
and allegiance to the Emperor. The likely outcome of a simple yes or no answer here
could be civil war.
And it’s a bad questions anyway. Jewish law does not have
any opinion about paying taxes to Caesar because it was written long before
there was such a thing as a Roman Emperor. And if the question is about the
laws of the state, then the obvious answer is “yes” – pay up.
So as he does so often, Jesus refuses to address the
questions as it is presented, because his questioners – the ones he calls “hypocrites,”
think that it’s some kind of referendum about Jesus. In fact, it’s a referendum
about them: where are their hearts? To whom are they ultimately
dedicated with their lives and their resources? Just because a questions is
posed in a certain way does not entitle the questioners to a direct answer. There’s
a time and a place to be a responsible citizen of the state – even if you may
not be happy with the state of the state. And there’s a time and a place to be
responsible to God. Those two are not comparable in their importance, which is
why they cannot be elided into one and the same thing. Jesus knows and teaches
this:
“Repay
to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.”
That is not a yes or a no. it’s a throwing back of the
question to the ones who are asking it. The Christians in Nazi Germany who
protected the Jews were absolutely clear about what the gospel demanded of
them. So when the agents of the government arrived with their yes or no
questions, they knew how they had to respond, even if it was a lie. The soldiers
had no right to an honest answer under those circumstances.
For adult Christians – or really for any adult human being –
“yes or no” is often not a way to ask questions that lead to wisdom. And wisdom
is what we seek as we make our way forward to God’s reign. It is one of the
virtues that the Holy Spirit imparts to us, especially evident in the Sacrament
of Confirmation that we celebrate yet again this weekend. Gracious God, make
all of us wise through your grace!
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