Dues
Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr
My dear encountered couples:
“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”
Jesus wasn’t merely trying to give a course in our state and church obligations, but he was telling us to give every person in the world his and her due. Give all people the honor, respect, the payment or reward that they deserve. No one is to get a bum rap. No one is to get cheated.
It’s easy to think of our own rights and overlook those of others. It’s easy to step on other people while trying to get what we think we deserve or what we want. We are tempted to cheat others out of their share of happiness in this world while we try to obtain more of it than we can ever possibly use.
Each person is to get his and her rights, his and her share of what God has put here for all of us to use and enjoy, what God has placed in the world so we all can become what we are meant by God to become.
Though it is obvious there are some people who deliberately and consciously deny other people their rights and needs, most of us remain unconscious of the effects of our actions on the lives of others. We are so busy surviving and taking care of life’s many immediate demands that we don’t see whether or not anyone else is harmed or denied something by what we do.
It is always good to take time out to look at what our words and actions are leaving behind. Are we “repaying to Caesar what is Caesar’s, to God what is God’s?” Or do we forget to do that sometimes? Are we leaving anybody out of their due? That’s something else for us to think about.
