Tuesday of Week 9 in Ordinary Time
2 Pet 3:11-15,17-18
Mark 12: 13-17
“Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar — and to God what belongs to God.”
I certainly have heard this verse a lot when I was a young adult, especially in the context of being able to differentiate things that are of ‘this world’ from ‘heavenly things’. For sure, such a distinction was extremely useful to someone just entering adulthood and trying to find my way through university, work, and life in general. But what I focused on then was more about trying to figure out what those worldly things were, and how I could simply just do my civic duties without them clashing with my faith, which was still being shaped. Now, however, I have come to realise that I also need to focus on what those heavenly things are. What exactly does it mean to render to God the things that are God’s?
This verse made me think of 2 things. First, the way we treat other people. Second, letting go and letting God.
The way we treat others
I had a sudden revelation after hearing a priest say that our children really belong to God and not to us. I always had a low-key grasp of this — that as parents, we are also stewards of children — but this time, it really meant something to me. They belong to God as much as we belong to God. It was a few weeks back when I heard the priest say that, and then it struck me that not only do our children belong to God, everybody else also belongs to God; and we have to ‘render’ everybody else to God. So does this mean I am not just my brother’s keeper, but also everybody else’s keeper?
I suppose the answer is ‘Yes’. And with this ‘Yes’ comes an immense weight, both of guilt and of responsibility. Guilt when I recall the many times I have treated someone callously, without much thought about how my words or actions could have affected them. Even worse, when I recall deliberately acting in a certain way to force a negative reaction from someone else, thinking and justifying to myself that “they deserve it”. Is this how I should be leaving a fellow child of God? Broken and injured, not just physically but also mentally and emotionally. Is this all I can render to God? Whatever He has entrusted me with, I could only harm and destroy.
This may sound extreme, but we really never know how we might hurt someone very deeply. To make things a little bit more…exciting, many of us have been left broken, precisely because someone else had treated us badly in the past. The foremost example I can think of is in regard to parenting. Many of my generation who now have children of their own keep saying that they want to parent differently from how they themselves were raised. I do agree to a large extent. And I do do that to a large extent. Now that I am so far away from my childhood, I can take a look back at it and assess it to see if it would work for my own children. Alas, I don’t think so. Many things need to change, starting with recognising that our children are their own persons, and are God’s children. It is not my will that must be imposed on them, but my love that needs to envelop them so that they can feel safe and secure. The most important thing they need to know is God’s undying love for them and, as parents, we are tasked with making them see that. As fellow humans, we are tasked with making one another see the love of God the Father. This is what responbility looks like. This is what rendering to God what belongs to God looks like. Even if we are unable to refine someone, the least we can do is to not maim them.
Letting go and letting God
We all belong to God; we render ourselves and we help render one another to God. Our lives belong to God. What are we doing with our lives, then? A huge part of rendering ourselves to God lies in trusting in God’s will. Rather than wresting the wheel away, we should be ready to let go of it and let God drive us.
To expound on our responsibilities towards ourselves and other people, it is important for us to let go, because holding on tight will likely lead to us not taking the right steps or doing the right thing. Holding on tight to what we want reveals our reluctance to trust God and, in this instance, what are we rendering to Him? We are rendering our stubbornness, our selfishness, our foolishness to Him. We are risking offering a broken version of ourselves and others, because we do not wish to let go.
Don’t get me wrong. We certainly are called to offer up all our brokenness to God. That is how we can be healed. And the whole point of being healed is so that we do not hurt any more. I also think part of healing is to consciously pick the right thing to do, which could very well be the opposite of our instinctive reactions. It truly is not easy. It is extremely difficult to do this. But the result is growth, both for ourselves and the people we meet.
Render to God what belongs to God
We all belong to God. We therefore have a duty towards one another to will the good of one another. We discern and ask God what He wants from us. Let God guide us in our actions, and let God arm us with the strength and wisdom we need to do what is right. We can then help ourselves and one another to grow in the way God intended. In this way, we can render to God, without any loss of souls, all who belong to Him.
If we need help, or inspiration, I believe St Joseph is the perfect role model. He fully trusted God and did whatever he needed to do for the good and safety of Mary and Jesus. St Joseph is also known as the Terror of Demons. I think it is because no demon could ever bait him — how could they — since St Joseph did not have an over-inflated sense of self importance. St Joseph had full faith in God and with that, came full confidence for the role he played as husband and foster father. He could perfectly render to God what belongs to God. So we should look to St Joseph and seek his intercession as we pick up our responsibility of rendering to God what belongs to Him.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Felicia Zou)
Prayer: O my beloved St Joseph, adopt me as thy child. Take charge of my salvation; watch over me day and night; preserve me from the occasion of sin; obtain for me purity of body. Through the intercession with Jesus, grant me a spirit of sacrifice, humility, self-denial, burning love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and a sweet and tender love for Mary, my mother. Saint Joseph, be with me living, be with me dying, and obtain for me a favourable judgement from Jesus, my merciful Saviour. Amen.
- (Act of Consecration to St Joseph by St Bernardine of Siena)
Thanksgiving: Dear Lord, we thank You for the gift of Your love. We thank you for giving us the grace and strength for us to show this love to others.
OXYGEN 
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