St Hilary’s Homily on Matthew 22:15-21

Oftentimes the Pharisees had been put to confusion, and could not find any cause to accuse Him of anything that He had hitherto said or done. Though His words and actions were faultless, these men, still from spite, set themselves to seek in every direction for some cause to accuse Him. They knew that He was calling all to turn away from the corruption of the world and the superstitious practices of devotion invented by men, and to fix their thoughts and hopes upon His kingdom of heaven. Therefore the Pharisees arranged a question calculated to entrap Him into an offence against the civil government, namely: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? But since there is nothing in the heart of man that God does not see, Jesus, knowing their wickedness, said: Why do you tempt Me, ye hypocrites ? Show Me the coin of the tribute. And they offered Him a penny. And Jesus said to them:
Whose image and. inscription is this? They said to Him: Caesar’s. Then He saith to them: Render, therefore, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.

How wonderful this answer, and how perfect the fulfilment of the prescribed Divine Law! So beautifully does He here indicate the middle way between not caring for the things of the world, on the one hand, and the offence of injuring Caesar, on the other, that He proves the perfect freedom of minds, however devoted to God, to discharge all human duties by commanding them to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. If we possess nothing that is Caesar’s, we are not bound to render anything to him; but since we are concerned with the things which are his, since we make justly use of his power, and are subject to him as paid servants to take care of property not our own, we cannot question our duty to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. But all of us are always bound to render to God the things that are God’s that is, our body, our soul, and our will. These things we hold from Him, for He is our Creator. It is, therefore, just and meet that those who acknowledge that they owe to Him their being, life, and preservation, should render to Him all that they are and have.