God often uses
people with earthly power for His ends even though they may not realize
it. Cyrus had earthly power. He was the king of Persia who invaded Babylon
and brought an end to the Babylonian Empire in a matter of months. The ancient
Hebrews had nothing but fond memories of Cyrus because it was Cyrus who ended
their exile and sent them back to Judea.
Cyrus may have been just solving the need to rebuild Palestine without
having to do it himself while at the same time setting up a friendly buffer state. He did a similar thing with people from other
lands who had been held captive in Babylon. He saw all these people as draining
the resources of his new capital.
Perhaps someday they would unite and cause a rebellion. It made
political sense to release them back to their lands in the friendliest way,
molding them into allies. Still, Cyrus did the will of God, even though he may
not have realized it[1].
The political
motivation of the Founding Fathers may have been less than pure as they chose
to break with England, some, like Samuel Adams may have had purely monetary
reasons. That did not mean that God wouldn’t use them to establish a country
based on deep faith in Him, respect for the dignity of human beings, and
ensuring that dignity through freedom of religion. “In God we trust,” may have
been conceived to rally people behind the revolution, but God’s hand had to be
present when weak colonies found a way to unite and defeat one of the most
powerful nations of the eighteenth century.
Regardless of original motivation, virtue, the living of God’s way,
became the core value of our country.
At the time of
the first reading, Cyrus was the most powerful man on the earth. His successors
would continue his power, but eventually they would be defeated by a new power,
that of Alexander of Macedonia, Alexander the Great. The Greeks were defeated
by the Romans. Certainly the Emperor of Rome was the most powerful man in the
Ancient World. His representatives
carried the full weight of his power in the territory they administered.
Picture then
Jesus standing before Pilate. Who was more powerful? On earth, politically and militarily, that
would be Caesar as represented by Pilate. In the realm that really matter,
God’s Kingdom, there was no comparison. Jesus was and is the King of Kings.
Even Rome’s earthly power could be, and would be taken away from it. The only power that lasts, the only power
that really matters is the power of the Kingdom of God.
We recognize the
power of the state. We respect our country for promoting justice, peace and
harmony. We pay taxes to support the government’s effort to protect us, to care
for us, to ensure our freedom, etc. We
will even die for the sake of protecting the future of our country and our
children. We render unto Caesar what is
Caesars.
We also
recognize that there is a greater power.
We live for God and country, in that order. The Kingdom of God comes
first. If we should ever be confronted with the choice of God or Country, there
is no choice. We choose God. Our
citizenship is in heaven[2].
If a law were to promote immoral behavior, we look to change the law and return
the country to morality. This is
patriotism. However, if the country were
to demand that we behave immorally, as, for example, demand that our medical students
take a rotation where they would have to perform abortions, then we would be
forced to oppose the country to the extreme of refusing to follow its laws even
if this meant the loss of a career, even if this meant the loss of personal
freedom. We render to Caesar what is Caesars, but Caesar is temporary, a
physical society. We render to God what is God’s because God is forever, and we
will always be member of the spiritual Kingdom.
With all this
being understood, we must thank God for our country. We pray for our country. Those who choose to
enter the military to protect the American way of life are certainly heroes and
patriots. Those who choose to enter a life of service to their fellow citizens
by becoming firefighters, police, workers in the fields of medicine, education,
and law, etc, ensure the healthy future of our country. They are patriots.
We spend a great
deal of energy, time and money to train our children to be good Americans. Every bit is well spent. But do we spend the same or greater energy
training our children to be solid, productive members of their other country,
the citizenship that last forever, their citizenship in the Kingdom of God?
God’s empire
will never die out. The Kingdom of God
is forever. It has a claim on its citizens
to a spiritual patriotism. Our children need to experience this patriotism
throughout their lives, not just at the time when they are prepared for
sacraments. It is not enough to teach them that they are members of this
Kingdom. They have to join their parents in acting as members of the Kingdom! It
is not enough to teach them that they are Catholic. They have to experience
living as fervent Catholics. It is not enough to provide the initial
experiences of the sacraments for our children; we have to train them to value
having a sacramental life.
We want the very
best for our children. They are our treasures. We want them to be good and
active citizens. We have got to expend all the energy that we can muster up to
lead them to be not only patriotic Americans, but determined and fervent
leaders in the Kingdom of God. We need
to form them to assume their rightful places in the leadership of the
Church. We need them. They are the Church of the future. May God
give us the perseverance to lead them into that future ■
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario