THE WORD
Ezk 1,2-5.24-28 / Mt 17,22-27
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were overwhelmed with grief. When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
“Yes,” he said. When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?” When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him, “Then the subjects are exempt. But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you.8
IN OTHER WORDS
As Son of God Jesus was exempt from the Temple tax in his Father’s house. Not knowing this, the collectors might misinterpret a non-payment for lack of faith or as an indirect encouragement to disregard this law, weakening their convictions on tax paying. Jesus pays the tax to avoid the possibility of scandal.
Actually, the apostle Paul gives similar advice to the Corinthians: eat all kinds of food, but if that off ends the feelings of a weaker or ignorant brother, then don’t eat so as not to scandalize him. This scandal of the weak and ignorant is always a danger when we live in a community of faith.
Some people simply do not have our degree of religious education. What we know we can do without sinning, they often consider a sin. If we disregard their opinion as childish or misinformed, we run the risk of their imitating us with a bad conscience and the guilt feeling of having sinned.
And so, for the sake of fraternal love, we must sometimes abstain from what we know in conscience we are allowed to do. It is all a matter of love. Love does no harm. Love does not scandalize. But we will strive to educate our weaker brothers and sisters in the faith and bring them to a better understanding of what are Christian obligations and what are not.
- Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD | CKMS, QC
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
