Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's

Dear brothers and sisters, today's Gospel passage from the Gospel of Matthew leads us once again to Jerusalem, where Jesus confounds those who want to trap him with words. Because Jesus drew the attention of many, both those who followed him and those who did not welcome him, he often found himself in situations that seemed to have no way out. Exactly such a situation.

In today's Gospel, the story goes like this: the Pharisees, together with the Herodians, come to Jesus and ask him a seemingly simple question: is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? But a trap is hidden behind the question. The Jewish people at that time were under Roman rule and had to pay taxes to the Roman emperor. Many experienced this as humiliation because the Romans ruled over their land as a foreign power. If Jesus says that taxes must be paid, he could find himself opposed to those who opposed Roman rule.

And if he says that taxes do not need to be paid, he could be accused of being an enemy of Caesar and the Roman state. Jesus recognizes their intention. He knows that they are not asking because they want to know the truth, but because they want to catch him in his words. Therefore, he does not engage in long debates and does not try to satisfy one party or the other. He asks them to show him the coin for the tax.

When they bring it to him, he asks them a simple question: Whose image and inscription is this? They reply: Caesar's. At this Jesus speaks the words that have remained for all times: Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. On the coin was the image of Caesar and his name.

Therefore Jesus says that what belongs to Caesar must be given to Caesar. But Jesus does not stop his answer here. He emphasizes that there is someone who is owed much more than any earthly ruler, and that is God. And here, brothers and sisters, a much more important question opens up.

If money belongs to Caesar because his image is on it, what then belongs to God? Saint Augustine, meditating on these words of Jesus, makes a wonderful comparison. Just as money bears the image of Caesar and therefore returns to Caesar, so man bears the image of God and therefore belongs to God.

Augustine calls man the coin of Christ, because the image of Christ is engraved in him. Let us remember, brothers and sisters, the first pages of Scripture, where we read that God created man in his own image. Every person, regardless of who and what they are, carries the image of God within themselves.

And therefore, if Caesar is owed the coin on which his image is, we ourselves must belong to God, because He has engraved His own image in us. And Saint Ambrose, explaining the words of Jesus, reminds us of the Apostle Paul, who says that we have borne the image of the earthly, but we must also bear the image of the heavenly.

It is not enough, therefore, merely to know that we were created in the image of God, but we must also live so that this image is recognizable in us. So that in our words, our deeds, our relationship with our neighbors, Christ may be recognizable. This is precisely what the Apostle Paul reminds us of in today's second reading, when he speaks about effective faith, about commitment.

Because belonging to God is not manifested merely in words and prayers, but also in a life full of faith, hope, and love. And this is precisely what Jesus calls us to today, to give to God what is His, while we ourselves are His.

God's, undoubtedly, brothers and sisters, is the whole world. He created everything out of His love, and everything that exists owes its existence to Him. But God does not need to be paid taxes. There is no bill that would determine how much we should return to Him. We cannot give God just a little of our time, a little of our wealth, or a few of our prayers.

To Him we must give our whole heart, our whole life as a gift. And precisely this is what today's psalm calls us to, saying: Give to the Lord glory and strength, sing to the Lord, bow down before the Lord. And the prophet Isaiah, conveying the words of the Lord to the Persian king Cyrus, says: I am the Lord, and there is no other.

He reminds everyone, our brothers and sisters, that God is the only true master of our lives, and he has called us to consecrate our hearts completely to him. If we look for an example of such a complete sacrifice to God, we find it in the most beautiful way in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She proved with her own life what it means to belong completely to God.

She did not give Him only a part of her time or a part of her life, but she gave herself entirely as a gift to Him. From the moment she answered the angel: Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word, all the way to Calvary, her life was a total surrender to God. And the Blessed Mother teaches us precisely this.

Here in Medjugorje, where we gather every day for prayer and where so many come to seek God, especially in this month of November, which we dedicate to the prayer of the rosary, we must ask ourselves, brothers and sisters, is our heart truly God's? Because it is not enough merely to pray the rosary, to come to Holy Mass, to confess our hearts.

Or to go up Apparition Hill, or Križevac. All these prayers and devotions must bring us closer to Jesus. They must change us, help us to live more and more worthily as children of God, to be completely His through prayer and deeds, that is, with our whole life.

Yet, brothers and sisters, how often we try to give God only a part of our life. We are ready to give Him some of our time, perhaps a few prayers, Sunday Mass, a good deed here and there. But there are parts of our life that we would most like to keep just for ourselves. Our decisions, our relationships with others, our habits, our weaknesses.

Sometimes we even try to adjust God's word to ourselves, instead of adjusting our lives to God's word. And we often twist the words of Jesus and explain them in a way that would be easier for us, to justify ourselves in our actions. And sometimes we convince ourselves that we are right because it seems that God is silent anyway.

But the Word of God, written down in Scripture and handed on to us by the Church, remains the constant guide of our life. We are not called to adapt the Word of God to our own desires, but to adapt our lives to the Word of God. We are not called to choose from the Gospel only what pleases us, but to accept Christ and His word in their entirety.

Brothers and sisters, let us never bargain with God. Do not think that we have given Him something and thereby settled the account. There are no such accounts with God. Because God did not just give us something. He gave us everything. He gave us life. He gave us love. He gave us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who gave His life for us.

He gave His life for us on the cross. And therefore He calls us to love Him in return. And true love is not given in portions. We give it entirely, unconditionally. Dear pilgrims, who have arrived in Medjugorje from various parts of the world, you have come here to pray, to go to confession, to participate in Holy Mass, to find peace, to renew your faith.

Many of you will soon return to your homes, your families, your daily obligations. And what are you taking with you from Medjugorje? Do not take only beautiful memories. Take with you a renewed heart, a heart that is even more God's.

Take with you the resolution that you will pray more, that you will forgive more, that you will love more, that you will live according to the Gospel. Because a true pilgrimage does not end with leaving Medjugorje. It continues in your homes, in your workplaces, in your parish communities. There you must show what you have received here. There it must be realized in you.

The known face of God, of which Saint Augustine and Saint Ambrose speak to us. Those people who meet you after your return should not only notice that you have been in Medjugorje, but that you have met Christ. Let them recognize through your life that you belong to God. And this, brothers and sisters, is also a missionary mandate. Not all of us need to go far away on our earth to be missionaries.

We can all be missionaries in our own family, in our workplace, in our parish. We can all proclaim, and must proclaim, Christ with our life, with our goodness, with our words and deeds.

On this Sunday, Mission Sunday, as a Church we commemorate in a special way all the missionaries who proclaim the word of Christ throughout the whole world. They have left their homes, their families, their homeland, to proclaim His good news to those people who have not yet known Christ.

Let us pray for them today, that God may grant them strength and determination to bring His word in all its light to every nation of the world, so that every nation may come to know Christ and glorify His holy name. And it is interesting, brothers and sisters, that today's Gospel, which begins with the question about money, leads precisely to this collection of ours today, which we give for the benefit of missions. Money in itself cannot express our love for God, but it can become an instrument, that instrument which expresses our love.

With this we can help those who proclaim Christ, who build churches, schools, hospitals, who bring hope to the poor and the forgotten. Thus, things belonging to the passing world can also become instruments for the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. And therefore today, while we pray for our missionaries and help them with our contributions, let us not forget the best things.

It is more important that not only what we put in the collection box belongs to God. We ourselves belong to God. Therefore today, together with the bread and wine that we bring to the altar, let us bring ourselves as well to God. Our joys and sorrows, our successes and failures, our weaknesses and desires.

Let us pray to Him that He may transform us with His grace, that we may be more and more His children, and that His face may be recognizable in us more and more clearly. This divine face is recognized in our words, our deeds, our families, and in our love for one another.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was God's with her whole life, help us in this, so that we too, following her example, may more and more belong to her Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.