Our Dual Citizenship

In 1956, Queen Elizabeth, the widow of King Albert I of Belgium,  visited Warsaw, Poland. At the time Poland was dominated by communist Russia. A chief of protocol official was assigned to accompany the queen to Mass. On the way there, she asked him,  “Are you a Catholic?” “Believing,” replied the official, “but not practicing.”

“Of course,” said the queen, “then in that case you must be a  communist.”   The official replied,  “Practicing, Your Majesty, but not believing.” The Polish official’s heart was in the right place  when it came to the issue of the relationship  between Church and state.

The same cannot be said of the officials in today’s Gospel. Jesus forces them to look into their hearts on this vexing issue  of religion and politics, knowing full well that  they will find hypocrisy there.

The Pharisees were strict observers of the Jewish laws,  which forbade them to accept the emperor worship,  which the Romans were trying to impose. To honor coins with the face of Caesar imprinted on them  would be idolatry. And yet, the Pharisees in today’s Gospel carry Roman coins.

Jesus’ response,  “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar,  and give to God what belongs to God,”  offers no basis for a theory of politics. Jesus certainly did not intend to divide the world  into two autonomous spheres –  areas belonging to Caesar  and areas belonging to God,  each with its respective and exclusive jurisdiction.

When Jesus says, “Give to God what belongs to God,”  we must remember that  the whole of creation belongs to God, including Caesar!

Neither did Jesus answer the question of  what precisely belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. This he left to the personal decision of each person,  who must solve the problem of the opposing claims of God and Caesar.

We Christians have a dual citizenship. We are citizens of two worlds – citizens of the world  and citizens of heaven. As such, we have obligations towards each,  which we must respect and honor.

It is hoped that the dual citizenship and the obligations we have to each  will never come in conflict. But if they ever do, the Christian must resolve the conflict. And Christians have had to do this since the time of Jesus. They did it during the Roman persecutions of the Church. They did it during the middle Ages. They did it in the 16th and 17th centuries,  when tens and thousands of Christians fled to America  in order to practice their religion without state intervention. They do it today in communist countries and other dictatorial regime.

We can find a clear illustration in the classical case of St. Thomas More, the English martyr. To recall the story:King Henry VIII of England was validly married  to Catherine of Aragon. He appealed to Rome to annul the marriage,  so that he could marry his mistress, Ann Bolyn.   But, there was no honest basis for annulment. So Rome refused. Henry took matters into his own hands and re-married.

He then ordered his friends and officials  to sign a document declaring that they agree  that the king acted rightly in this matter. Many of More’s friends signed the document, but More refused. King Henry demanded that he sign or face arrest, trial for treason,  and execution by the state. More still refused.  He had two obligations, one to God  and one to his country. When they conflicted, More had no choice  but to remain faithful to his obligation to God. He said, “I am the king’s good servant, but God’s first.”

And so in our case as Christian Filipinos, we are citizens of God’s Kingdom and the Church, and  citizens of the Republic of the Philippines. We hope that our obligations to each will never clash. But if they ever do, we are to resolve them as Thomas More did –  without compromise to our God or to our conscience.

There was a young man working for a firm that did weapons research. It was interesting and well paid work. And he knew it was extremely important  to his country’s security.

But he came to believe that the creation  of more and more efficient ways of killing people was wrong,  and quit his job. Not satisfied with that, he also destroyed some important research documents  as a way of protesting the weapons program. He ended up in jail  – but curiously enough he retained the friendship  and respect of several people,  who believed that the weapons  were needed for the nation’s defense and for the sake of peace. And they all attended the same church.

And there was the elderly woman,  who found she couldn’t bear the idea of unborn babies  being destroyed by abortion,  even though it was perfectly legal in her country. She joined a group that kept vigil outside abortion clinics,  and when they refused to move, they were arrested. She wasn’t charged and was sent home. But soon she was back at the vigil.

All these people, and many others, make different choices  based on their convictions. Jesus reduces the debate over religion and politics  to a question of priorities. And for the Christian believer, there can be but one sovereign.

Let us end with a prayer sent me by my friend, Ron Miros. It was an invocation by Rev. Joe Wright  at the opening of the Kansas Senate some years ago:

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ‘Woe on those who call evil good,’ But that’s exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word  and called it pluralism.

We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn children and called it a choice.  We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children  and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography  and called it freedom of expression.  We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, O God, and know our hearts today. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women, whom you have sent  to direct us to the center of Your will. I ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.”

With the Lord’s help may this prayer sweep through our own country, and wholeheartedly become our desire  so that we truly can be called a Catholic nation  that fears the Lord!