God loves you and has chosen you and had the Good News brought to you. May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. R/ And also with you.
Introduction by the Celebrant
1. God and Caesar
We love our country, and it is good we do so. But should we agree with everything that happens in it and with all its structures? A lot of times we don’t know what is best for it. A Christian should learn to be discerning and to judge what happens among us and what we should do in the light of the Gospel. For we are citizens both of our country and of the Kingdom of God. Let us pray with the Lord in today’s Eucharist that we may be good citizens of both.
2. Good Citizens of God’s Kingdom and Our Country
Sometimes the Church is accused of meddling in politics or the affairs of the state. But the Church has to raise a prophetic voice to form the consciences of its members regarding the moral aspects of political and economic questions, to see to it that the laws of God and human rights and dignity are respected. A good Christian must be a good citizen and take up his responsibilities toward the human community. Church and state must respect each other without trying to control each other. Let us give to the state what belongs to the state and to God what belongs to God.
Penitential Act
What have we done for our country? Have we done anything to enrich it with the values of the Gospel? Let us examine ourselves before the Lord. (pause)
-Lord Jesus, you wept over Jerusalem because your people did not recognise the coming of God’s kingdom: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
-Jesus Christ, you criticised the religious leaders of your country because they were misleading the people: Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
-Lord Jesus, on the cross you prayed that your Father would forgive those of your people who rejected you: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Have mercy on us, Lord, and forgive us all our sins. Help us to live by the Gospel and lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray that the Lord may guide our world (pause)
Lord, mighty God, you lead the world and all humanity to their destiny in you. Give to the leaders of the world and of our country a vision of the future that is both imaginative and realistic and respectful of human rights and dignity. Help us to bear witness in everyday life to the values of the Gospel and to be involved in the work of freedom, integrity and justice. May we thus build up a community that foreshadows our heavenly homeland. We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
First Reading
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6
A Pagan, Instrument of God’s Plan: Cyrus, without knowing it, serves God's plans by liberating the Jews from exile. For God is the Lord of history.
Second Reading
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b
Words of Appreciation: Paul thanks God for the young Christian community of Saloniki; it is an ideal community of faith, hope and love.
Gospel
Matthew 22:15-21
Church and State: (We belong to both the human city and the city of God and we must give each its due. The values of the Gospel must be our guide.)
Prayers of the Faithful
Let us remember before God our Father our country and Its people and give thanks for them and for all the people. Let us say: R/ We pray you, hear your people.
– That everywhere on earth the Church may speak out without fear for peace and the rights and dignity of the human person, let us pray: R/ We pray you, hear your people.
– That justice, love and responsible freedom may be the basis of the social order in the world and in our country, that all may live in peace and security, let us pray: R/ We pray you, hear your people.
– That all humanity may share equitably in the world’s material and spiritual goods, and that the state and civic organizations may help and protect the weak and the victims of calamities, let us pray: R/ We pray you, hear your people.
– That all citizens may have a strong sense of civic responsibility and actively participate toward the common welfare; let us pray: R/ We pray you, hear your people.
– That the Church in our country may bear witness to God’s kingdom to all the peoples of Asia; that our country may play a role of honor in the family of nations and cooperate to world peace and unity, let us pray: R/ We pray you, hear your people.
God, you love people and people are your concern. Make us share in your care through your Son who became one of us, Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God, we bring this bread and wine before you as the signs in which your Son Jesus Christ relives his commitment to us. May they also become the signs of our responsibility towards others, that with your Son we may be ready to break the bread of ourselves and to share ourselves with people as a refreshing cup that is passed around. Grant us this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
With Christ, we offer to the Father the sacrifice that saved the world. From Christ we have received the mission to continue his work and to bring his Good News to the ends of the earth.
Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
Let us pray the prayer of Jesus to his and our Father in heaven, that everyone may seek his will and his kingdom. R/ Our Father...
Prayer for Peace
Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles: I leave you peace, my peace I give you. Look not on our sins, but on the many victims of war and violence, and have mercy on them. Grant peace to all nations, regard the faith of your Church and give to your people the gift of the peace and unity of your kingdom, where you live for ever and ever. R/ Amen.
The peace of the Lord be with you always. R/ And also with you.
Invitation to Communion
This is Jesus, the Lamb of God who gave to God what belongs to God and who saved us by his death and rising. Through him we can live our faith, labor in love, and show constancy in hope.
R/ Lord, I am not worthy...
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God, you are about to send your people gathered here around your Son, back to the human city to join forces with all to build up the city of God. Make us sensitive to the needs of others and help us to give to all equal chances in life, to build up communities of friendship and love and to warm the earth with a touch of your gentleness. Be present in our human world through Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Blessing
In this Eucharist we have given praise and thanks to God not only as his people but in the name of all humanity, for Christ died and rose from the dead for all. Our world is not yet God’s world, the earthly realities are still mixed with injustice, inequality, fear. We are sent to make this earth God’s world. May God give you the courage to carry out this task, and may he bless you: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Go in the name of Christ and bring his love to all. R/ Thanks be to God.
REFLECTIONS; Matthew 22:15–21
God and Caesar
The tax at issue was not a general levy but the head tax owed by every subject of the empire. Fr Fernando Armellini explains that it fell on men from the age of fourteen and women from twelve until about sixty-five, that it required the censuses which repeatedly triggered unrest in Judea, and that counting a people who belonged to God felt to devout Israelites like handing them over to a human master; his commentary on this Sunday's Gospel also notes the inscription on the coin, which named Tiberius as son of the divine Augustus and carried a priestly title on the reverse.
For the pious, a census was not merely bureaucratic: Armellini recalls that counting a people who belonged to God felt like a transfer of ownership, and that David's heart struck him after he numbered Israel.
The alliance that approaches Jesus is itself revealing. Pharisees, who resented the occupation, arrive with supporters of Herod, who depended on Roman favour; the notes to Matthew observe that the Herodians would have favoured payment while the Pharisees did not. The trap is symmetrical. A refusal could be reported to the governor as sedition, which is precisely the charge later brought before Pilate, and an approval would cost Jesus the sympathy of a crowd that hated the tax. The compliment that opens their question is flattery designed to make retreat impossible.
Jesus asks for the coin, and the request exposes something. Those who object to the tax on religious grounds are carrying the emperor's portrait in their clothing, since garments of the period had no pockets and coins were tucked into the folds. The silver denarius of Tiberius, the coin generally identified as the tribute penny, bore his likeness and a seated figure on the reverse, as the Jewish Virtual Library's note on the coin records. When Jesus asks whose image and inscription it carries, he uses the vocabulary of Genesis, where the human person is made in God's image and likeness. The notes to Matthew add a dry observation: how readily the questioners produce the coin shows how comfortably they used it.
So the answer does not settle a tax policy. It sets two belongings side by side: the coin stamped with Caesar's face may go back to Caesar, while the life stamped with God's image belongs elsewhere. The questioners came for a political verdict and were handed a question about themselves, which is left here as an invitation rather than a rebuke.
Pastoral lens: Pope Francis drew from this scene the question each person can ask quietly about where their deepest belonging lies: family, work, and state have their claims, yet the first belonging is to God, in whose image every life is made.
