Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, Martyrs
Our gospel reading today identifies the complex situation of what is owed to God and what is owed to the government. Complex issues are rarely dealt with adequately in a paragraph, but we may at least call to our attention an important phrase in the Declaration of Independence which identifies a relationship between God and our government.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men . . .
This selection from the document identifies three important realities. First the Creator, which is inferred from other documents as God, is the source of rights, the location of these rights is in every human person, and that governments are not created to establish rights rather, governments are created to secure these rights within community. Therefore, the most important civil act, or at least an importance identified in the Declaration of Independence, is to assure the awareness of the relationship between rights that are prior to government that are given to us by God. We cooperate with the “governments instituted among men” when the best possible solution can be found to achieve these rights within the community. Therefore we “render unto Caesar” when we cooperate with government in achieving those means that take us to the fulfillment of our human rights. God respects the gifts he has given to humanity and among those are reason and the ability to find means to achieve a desired end. Therefore, we “render unto Caesar”—in this case, our government—when we assure that it complies with God’s intention of safeguarding human dignity and the rights that come from that dignity.