28/08/2023

I don't know where St Paul was when he wrote  this letter, but I do know that he was somewhere in the Roman Empire. Caesar's realm made it "easyish" for God's Good News, the Resurrection, to be spread as quickly as it was.

I do know, however, that Paul had not anticipated that this is what he would be doing when first he became a student of the scriptures under Rabbi Hillel. None of the Apostles had any idea of what was going to happen to themselves and to the whole world when first they met Jesus.

Jesus and his Church completely changed how we live our lives as individuals and in communities for ever. He explicitly taught that God cares for each one of his creation. He taught that we are all free in our being and can freely respond to God's Love. He taught that although we are responsible for our own lives, Father Son and Holy Spirit will never forget to strengthen us with Love.  It was he who taught that after our life has been lived we will be judged and continue to be ourselves in a New Life of perfect happiness or pain.

In the Gospel Jesus continues to condemn the hypocrisy that is evident in Temple Worship. The Temple in Jerusalem was no different from the hundreds of other vast structures the remains of which can still be visited around the Middle East. All temples had twin purposes they served a religious cult and they protected wealth. There could never be pure worship of God in the Temple of Jerusalem for that space was shared with Mammon. It was a "Central Bank".

Jesus' radical challenge to each of us is mirrored in his open challenge to the Temple then, and to the Church of our day. "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's". Our Church was already going in a wrong direction that led to Caeseropapism, the Crusades, the Papal States and Holy Russia  by the time St Augustine was converted.

Dear Lord, help me to live with my mind firmly fixed on virtue and with the safeguard of your grace avoid the self congratulations that have disguised sins of my past. Help my picture of the past be close to the reality you knew on earth and let the prayers of Mary and all the Saints bring your free gift of Love into my heart to be shared with all sinful souls on Earth and with the contrite in Purgatory.