Image

By Lisa Greey —

When you look in the mirror, who do you see?  What do you see?  You may respond, I see myself.  I see – negative things – a few zits, curly hair even though I would do anything to have straight hair, a few extra pounds.  I see – good things – a beautiful smile, an intelligent 10th grader, a soccer player.  Can you see beyond yourself though?  Can you see you image God?

In today’s gospel, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees who try to trap him.  They want to know if the secular world, which in their time was under the rule of Caesar, was more important or could co-exist with the spiritual world, under the rule of God.  This is a question we face in our own lives.  Does our faith live co-exist with the rest of our life?  Do we feel like we lead double lives, where we act one way with our friends and another way at church?  It is easy to feel that faith has no place in our everyday, ‘secular’ lives because the culture we live in is so anti-christian.  What is balance?  Jesus responds to this test of the Pharisees by asking them to look at the tax money: “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s. At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”  We are not to become completely absorbed into secular life, by ignoring God and morality, nor are we to become so absorbed in our spirituality that we ignore things like paying taxes or obeying traffic signs.

Let’s take this a step further: “Give to God what belongs to God.”  This does not simply mean you give God an hour on Sundays and then go live your life as you please.  YOU belong to God because you are made in his image and likeness.  So our very presence and existence can bring glory to him in the midst of the secular world we live in.  We can also dishonor God, distorting his image in the world today, by committing sin.  Think of the ways God’s image is distorted in our world today – through pornography, violence, lack of care for the poor.  Through Christ’s redemption and the graces the sacraments, we become made new and proclaim God’s goodness through our everyday actions – through helping out a friend, saying a prayer for someone ill, smiling at the cashier, and applying ourselves to do well in school and work.  This is the balance of belonging to God and living in today’s world.  So next time you look in the mirror, remember who’s image you are made in, and pray for your actions to reflect that image in your everyday life.