“The Coin of Great Worth” There is something about Christ’s use of a ‘coin’ in his response to the chief priests and Pharisees which makes this scripture event very real for us. For what is more real in this material world than a ‘coin’, a means of monetary exchange. It means Christ was very definitely with us, indeed walked among us, engaged in the same commerce of daily human life as we are today.
Now, some of us, when we think about a ‘coin’, might immediately think of the 1954 film, “Three Coins In The Fountain”, a simple story set in Rome, a kind of ‘travel’ feature film of its day when trips abroad were becoming more common. Three women toss coins into the Trevi fountain, hoping it will bring them love and happiness. Its theme song was sung for many months over the radio-waves by the legendary artist, Andy Williams, while many women like my mother were on hands and knees scraping and waxing linoleum floors, singing to themselves: “Three coins in the fountain, Each one seeking happiness. Thrown by three hopeful lovers, Which one will the fountain bless?” Others might be thinking how coins are slowly disappearing from our marketplace. Exchange of currency is now taking place electronically as we ‘tap a terminal’ at the grocery store, or do on-line banking at home or from our cell phones. When I think about ‘coins’ I think about when I worked in the ‘Tape Library’ for Bell Canada, a dept now either non-existent or vastly changed. On over-night shifts, while programs were running, the junior engineers like myself, often played a game of ‘coin-toss’ on breaks. You had to bounce a ‘dime’ off the wall, and hope it would land close to the wall, because whoever’s dime was the closest, got to leave early, while the rest of us shared finalizing his remaining assignments. You also had to turn up ‘heads’ in order to win, and tape measures were pulled out, if 2 or 3 seemed the same distance. Then it was the best of 3 games. But what I still remember is one engineer saying: “‘heads’ means you give to the government and get to go home early for a good night’s sleep; ‘tails’ means you give to God by doing a good deed for your fellow man.” Well, whether he intended to or not, he certainly shed light on our gospel today: ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, to God what is God’s.’ In fact, Christ’s penultimate statement of God versus government to those contesting him, not only reveals his utter genius, but provides us with perhaps one of the most important instructive, guidelines Jesus ever gave us. Because in his divine wisdom, he knew we must maintain ‘balance’ in this world which teeter-totters between our physical and spiritual needs. Like the coin, our lives have 2 sides to them: physical and spiritual, the seen and the unseen. Jesus hears our pain. But while governments collide, economies are threatened, jobs are uncertain, and an unseen organism engages us in a biological war, Jesus tells us not to engage in ‘extremes’, to maintain the subtle balance of the ‘coin’. Why? Because our world demands we attend to our physical welfare, even before our spiritual needs. Christ said, first: “Feed the hungry, clothe the poor, heal the sick”. Yes, indeed: Heal the Sick! We must listen to and pay respect to our advocates in health care, working tirelessly in hospitals, laboratories, and medical offices to heal us; listen and pay respect to our govt officials who are trying their best to assist our medical professionals to implement procedures and directives to heal us. This is part of Christ’s directive, to ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s’. Caesar is the world we live in, Not just our government. Caesar is in fact our world community! Once we have listened and adhered to the caring specialists in our community – whom God has graciously sent to help us, we must make time for God in gratitude for giving us life itself, giving us our caring communities, and conduct ourselves as active, committed, loving Christians in whatever way we can, regardless of lockdowns or restrictions. We must ‘Give to God the things which are God’s’. Like the ‘coin’ ‘everything in balance’: on one side, our physical and mental needs in harmony with our spiritual needs and commitments to God’s work on the other. Albert Einstein once said, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” Let us keep moving ahead, with trust and support in our communities – local and global, and with complete confidence in God who will pick us up when we fall. Rev Fr Christopher Tracey Saint Joseph Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario
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Father's Blog
Rev. Fr. Christopher Tracey
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