Daily Meditation - Sunday 19October 2008 - WE DO NOT BELONG TO OURSELVES

[BarbaraTherese]

For Liturgy and Prayers of Today
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[Readings for Today (http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings/oct7.htm)
(for historical background to The Gospel, see next Post -
which will be posted at a later point today)

Readings

Meditation

What do we owe God and our neighbor?

• Scripture tells us to give to everyone whatever is their due and to “owe no one anything, except to love one another” (Romans 13:6-8).
• The Jewish authorities sought to trap Jesus in a religious-state issue.
• The Jews resented their foreign rulers and despised paying taxes to Caesar.
• They posed a dilemma to test Jesus to see if he was loyal to them and to their understanding of religion.

If Jesus answered that it was lawful to pay taxes to a pagan ruler, then he would lose credibility with the Jewish nation who would regard him as a coward and a friend of Caesar.
If he said it was not lawful, then the Pharisees would have grounds to report him to the Roman authorities as a political trouble-maker and have him arrested.

Jesus avoided their trap by confronting them with the image of a coin. Coinage in the ancient world had significant political Read on HERE

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Background Information

http://www.ocarm.org/lectio/anno_a/ora29eng.htm
**a) The context of our text of the Gospel of Matthew: **
As we were saying, the context of the Gospel of the 29th Sunday is the debate between Jesus and the authorities. It begins with the discussion with the priests and elders on the authority of Jesus (Mt 21:23-27). Then comes the parable of the two sons where Jesus denounces the hypocrisy of some groups (Mt 21:28-32). There follow two parables, one of the murderous wine growers (Mt 21:33-46) and another concerning those invited who refuse to attend the wedding feast (Mt 22:1-14). At this point in our text (Mt 22:15-22) enter the Pharisees and the Herodians who set a trap. They ask him about the tribute to be paid to the Romans. It was a vexed question that divided public opinion. At all costs they wanted to accuse Jesus and so lessen his influence over the people. Immediately the Sadducees begin to question him on the resurrection of the dead, another controversial question and cause of dissent between the Sadducees and the Pharisees (Mt 22:23-33). It all ends with a discussion on the greatest commandment of all (Mt 22:34-40) and the Messiah as son of David (Mt 22:41-45).

Like Jesus, the Christians of the communities in
To conclude go to above link.