Greetings my dear friends, brothers and sisters, all.
We once again hear from our wonderful first pope ever, Saint Peter, in today’s first reading.
“…be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability.”
In this case, the warning is against Gnostic teachers who held ideas which were in conflict with the Gospel. In our day too, there are many kinds of “error” which can lead us far from the ways of truth, love and justice.
With these words, Saint Peter is also reminding us of how important it is to examine who we allow to lead us, and when to be on our guard as regards the temptations that draw us in and impel us to act in certain ways.
Saint Peter speaks of the “unprincipled” as opposed to those who live prayerful, good, holy, and orderly lives. These are the people in whom we can find true and sure support as we make our journey.
I believe a good test of character is to see how a person interacts with the sacraments or the Church. Do they respect
the sanctity of each sacrament? Are the reverent? Do they treasure the sacraments? Do they try to help others approach the sacraments?
This leads me to what I consider the second most important test, posed quite simply in the question: does this particular person seek to help others and support them in holy things… in things which would please God? So for example: Going to a soup kitchen to help feed the hungry and the homeless is good and holy. Supporting a woman who seeks an abortion by driving her to the clinic, is not good and holy. I think I’m helping her when I’m actually not. What would be good and holy there would be a personal accompaniment to address other issues and a pledge of sure support to help sustain a newborn and their sacred and inalienable right to exist. So the way we help people needs to be examined. This is what Peter means by the “principled way” in which we need to conduct ourselves in keeping with the beautiful and true will of God.
Then, Peter continues his admonition: “But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.”
What is this knowledge? Well, it’s definitely not the false wisdom of the world, but rather it’s about knowing how the Lord thought, spoke, acted, healed, and what he desired from his followers. Knowledge of him means, gradually bringing ourselves more and more in line with his directives… allowing him to chisel away at our minds so that finally we can “put on the mind of Christ.”
And finally Saint Peter here concludes with a very telling praise in honour of Jesus when he says: “To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
Yes, sometimes the apostles didn’t flat out come out and say, “This is Jesus and he’s God… worship him.” Often times they would interject the truth of his divinity with praises such as the one we have concluding today’s first reading: “To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” Wait, I thought we give glory to God alone? Exactly. So there you go—Peter is giving Christ, who is God, the glory as should we.
In today’s gospel, He, Jesus, is approached by those who would rather NOT give him glory. In fact these Pharisees and Herodians had only one intention in mind: they “were sent to Jesus to ensnare him in his speech.”
Look at the premeditation that went into this attack: first of all, they were “sent.”That means someone else was orchestrating these attacks on our Lord and in a certain sense, we have subtle undertones and indications on how the devil “sends” his own ministers of evil to make war on all that we hold holy— or in apocalyptic language—to “make war on the saints.”
Jesus discerns their evil intentions immediately. See, sometimes it’s not only a devil within that raises alarm bells in heaven but the devil’s stench that clings to our person that Jesus is aware of, that he also wants to shew away from us. Jesus wants to purify even the air we walk in and breathe, when it comes to our separation from sin. The devil clings to a soul like cigarette smoke clings to clothing when you’ve been in a room full of smokers. Jesus wants to take it all to the dry cleaners so to speak. He wants us to have nothing to do with evil, and he does this in the confessional.
His persecutors continue trying to trick him with a seeming compliment: “Master, we know you are an honest man, that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man’s rank means nothing to you, and that you teach the way of God in all honesty. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay, yes or no?”
The first thing to note is that they call him “Master” here, but don’t really mean it. They weren’t there to learn anything but to cause more grief for Jesus and not just on a minor level, but something hopefully that they could use to bring about his demise. This shows us the emptiness of titles and why Jesus told the apostles to let no one call you all these high and lofty designations—rabbi, father, master—because hidden behind the elevation, might be a cunning plan to dismiss or get rid of you altogether.
They call Jesus honest, unbiased, not a respecter of rank, but they were violating all the things they were praising in their dishonest interlocution with Jesus. We are told that Jesus discerns their hypocrisy.
When they try to force him into a corner of choosing either God or Ceaser, Jesus cleverly demonstrates to them how all legitimate authorities need to be respected, and how that will not damage the supreme authority of God. Those who desire to rebel against legitimate authorities (like; parents, teachers, police officers etc … ) all in the name of God, sin against him and thwart his plan and will. Like imagine when Ceaser Augustus called the census and people had to be enrolled in their hometown, which meant Saint Joseph was meant to head to Bethlehem, and this in turn would lead to a fulfillment of the prophecy that from Bethlehem would come the Everlasting Ruler to guide the people… imagine had Joseph said, “Ahhh… who’s Ceaser, I obey but God.” Imagine had he not gone. He would have thwarted God’s fulfillment of the prophecy. Yes, of
course God can do all things and he would have gone to plan B, but the point is, given Joseph’s true holiness and docility, plan B wasn’t needed. Jesus shames them with his clear spiritual insight, without getting into the details of what legitimate authority entails. Their dishonesty and hypocrisy disqualified them from receiving a lengthier and insightful answer.
Again this is another lesson in how it is we should approach our Lord. We need to remember who Jesus is. This is something they were definitely not as clear on as we are today in 2024. Yet even today there are those who do not acknowledge who Jesus actually is, that he is divine and equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit and that his words are words of everlasting life. We need to approach Jesus with humility, and we do this also in the way we approach and treat others: with honesty, and with the fear of God.
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