朋友们，在今天的福音中，法利塞人企图把耶稣逼进死角。耶稣巧妙地以著名的金句摆脱圈套：“那么，凯撒的，就应归还凯撒；天主的，就应归还天主。” 聪明，但不只是聪明。在某些方面，这句话含蓄地解答了这个令人苦恼的问题。

 

我们不应该把这金句理解为世俗的凯撒拥有明确划定的政治领域，而天主则拥有明确划定的精神领域。我们当然也不能以现代方式来理解这句话——公众舞台属于政治，而宗教归入私人范畴。

 

不，这是错的，正因为天主是天主。祂不是身处世间的或凌驾于世上的存在，不是众多实物之一；而是纯粹的存在本身，因此祂必然渗透一切、影响一切、作为一切的基础、与一切有关，纵然祂高于一切受造物。

 

 

Friends, in our Gospel Pharisees try to catch Jesus on the horns of a dilemma. Jesus deftly escapes from the trap with one of his famous one-liners: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Clever, but much more than merely clever. In some ways, it is the implicit resolution of this very vexing problem.

 

We should not read this one-liner as though there is a clearly demarcated political realm that belongs to the Caesars of the world and a clearly demarcated spiritual realm that belongs to God. And we certainly shouldn’t read it in the modern mode—that the public arena belongs to politics, while religion is relegated to the private dimension.

 

No, this won’t do, precisely because God is God. Not a being in or above the world, not one reality among many; God is the sheer act of being itself, which necessarily pervades, influences, grounds, and has to do with everything, even as he transcends everything in creation.

 

God is the deepest source and inspiration for everything in life, from sports to law to the arts to science and medicine. God is love itself. Everything comes from God and returns to God.