:strip_icc()/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2020/N/O/3fDentSy2ipK2JNFJUYA/2020-10-04t101530z-240623012-rc2mbj9e9peq-rtrmadp-3-pope-encyclical.jpg)
[ad_1]
Pope Francis spoke about paying taxes during the Angelus this Sunday (18).
According to him, just as paying taxes is a citizen duty, so is the affirmation of “the primacy of God in human life and history, respecting God’s right to what belongs to him.”
The pontiff cited the passage from the Gospel of Saint Matthew, in which Jesus fights against the hypocrisy of his adversaries who praise him, and recalled that he knew they wanted to “get him into trouble by asking him the insidious question: ‘Is it lawful, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? ‘”.
However, Jesus knows malice and comes out of the trap. He asks them to show him the tax coin, takes it in their hands, and asks: who is this image printed on? They answer that it is from Caesar, that is, from the Emperor. Then Jesus responds: ‘Give back what is Caesar’s to Caesar and to God what is God’s.’
And then he explained: “With this answer, Jesus puts himself above the controversy. On the one hand, he recognizes that the tax must be paid to Caesar, because the image of the coin is his; but, above all, remember that each one carries within him another image, that of God, and that is why it is to him, and only to him, that each one is in debt to his own existence ”.
Francisco reflected that in this phrase “we find not only the criterion of distinction between the political and religious sphere, but also clear guidelines for the mission of believers of all times, even for us today.”
