GIVE TO CAESAR THE THINGS THAT ARE CAESAR'S

Further to my homily from this weekend, the 29th Sunday in Ordinary time, I would like to provide the 2 links for the documents that I quoted. 

The question that I brought forth to think about was:   In this day and age, how do we give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's?    The coin bears the image of Caesar, but we bear the image of God.  The document that I quoted from St. Pius X, Vehementer Nos, was written at a time when the French Government instituted a total separation of Church and State and this particular encyclical was the response.  There is indeed a place for God in government and in societies and yet the tension continues with Catholics beliefs being marginalized in our society when it comes to government policy.  This tension, and sometimes animocity, towards Christians is not new. 

That the State must be separated from the Church is aCaesa thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error. Based, as it is, on the principle that the State must not recognize any religious cult, it is in the first place guilty of a great injustice to God; for the Creator of man is also the Founder of human societies, and preserves their existence as He preserves our own. We owe Him, therefore, not only a private cult, but a public and social worship to honor Him. Besides, this thesis is an obvious negation of the supernatural order  (Vehementer Nos, Article 3).

I concluded the homily by reading from the Letter to Diognetus, which dates back to the late 4th century.  This letter shows the wonderful dynamic of faith in society.  Once again, it reiterates that the tension between the Catholic Faith and the Secular world has existed since the very beginning and this is nothing new but also reminds us that nothing should discourage us because with God we can conquer all things and the Kingdom of God can continue to fluorish even amidst all the persecutions that we may find ourselves facing.