Pope Francis said Sunday that Christians must fulfill their obligations to the state but owe an even higher allegiance to God.
“Paying taxes is a duty of citizens, as is complying with the just laws of the state,” the pontiff told pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter’s Square. “At the same time, it is necessary to affirm God’s primacy in human life and in history, respecting God’s right over all that belongs to Him.”
As a basis for his reflections, the pope pointed to the gospel reading of the day, in which the Pharisees ask Jesus whether it is permitted to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus asks them to show him the coin used for the tax, noting that it bears the image of Caesar.
“Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” Jesus concludes, a response that undergirds the classic Christian distinction between the secular and religious realms.
“On the one hand, he acknowledges that the tribute to Caesar must be paid — for all of us too, taxes must be paid — because the image on the coin is his,” Francis observes, “but above all he recalls that each person bears in himself another image — we bear it in our heart and soul — that of God, and therefore it is to him, and to him alone, that each person owes his own existence and life.”
“In this sentence of Jesus we find not only the criterion for the distinction between the political sphere and the religious sphere,” the pope added, but “clear guidelines emerge for the mission of all believers of all times, even for us today.”
Because of God’s absolute primacy, he continued, Christians have a duty to preach the gospel to all peoples of all times.
“Hence the mission of the Church and Christians: to speak of God and bear witness to him to the men and women of our time,” he said. “Every one of us, by Baptism, is called to be a living presence in society, inspiring it with the Gospel and with the lifeblood of the Holy Spirit.”
“It is a question of committing oneself with humility, and at the same time with courage, making one’s own contribution to building the civilisation of love, where justice and fraternity reign,” he said.