Whose Image Do You Bear?
MASS Sacerdótes Dei
LESSON Colossians 1: 12-20
GOSPEL St John 18: 33-37
LAST GOSPEL St Matthew 22:15-21
HOMILIST Mt Revd Jerome Lloyd OSJV
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Beloved in Christ,
Two questions are put to Our Lord in the Gospels appointed for today. Pilate asks, “Art thou a king then?” The Pharisees, hoping to trap Him, ask whether it is lawful to pay tribute to Caesar. One concerns kingship, the other obedience to earthly authority. But together they lead us to a question far more personal: to whom do we belong?
In the Gospel of this feast, Christ stands before Pontius Pilate, bound and apparently powerless. The governor commands soldiers and courts; the prisoner has neither army nor throne. Yet Pilate owes his very existence to the One standing before him. The man whom he presumes to judge is the eternal Son of God, through whom all things were made, and before whom every earthly judge must one day answer.
“My kingdom is not of this world,” Our Lord declares. Notice what He does not say. He does not say His authority has no bearing upon earthly life, or that His commandments cease to apply when we leave church. He means that His kingship does not originate in the world. Christ is King by His divine nature, King in His sacred humanity through its union with the eternal Word, and King also by the redemption He purchased with His Precious Blood. No parliament bestowed that authority; no government can repeal it.
Pilate understands power as the ability to command and punish. Our Lord speaks of truth: “For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth.” Here is the first demand of His kingship. We must hear Him, including when His teaching contradicts our opinions or exposes our faults. A Catholic cannot acknowledge Christ as King while reserving the right to decide which of His commandments deserves obedience.
At the end of Mass, in the proper Last Gospel of the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost, we shall hear the question about paying tribute. Our Lord asks for the coin used to pay the tax. “Whose image and inscription is this?” They answer, “Caesar’s.” He replies, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”
The Fathers recognised the depth of that answer. St Hilary of Poitiers, whose interpretation St Thomas Aquinas preserves in the Catena Aurea, observes that Caesar’s image is stamped upon the coin, but God’s image is impressed upon man. Caesar may receive his money. God must receive the human person who bears His image. Lawful civil authority has real claims upon us, but they are limited. No ruler, however powerful, may command us to sin; nor may we use political loyalty to excuse disobedience to God.
Whose image, then, do you bear? Scripture tells us that man was created in God’s image and likeness. Sin has wounded us, but has not destroyed that natural image. In Baptism we were incorporated into Christ, marked with an indelible sacramental character, and called to live by sanctifying grace. We belong to Him by creation and redemption, and our baptismal promises bind us to His service. Nothing in us is outside His rightful claim.
Yet it is possible to defend Christ’s kingship in public while resisting it in private. We may deplore the unbelief of the world and neglect our own prayers. We may insist upon reverence at Mass, then speak harshly to those who share our home. We may condemn false teaching and still harbour grudges, pride or an unwillingness to forgive. It is easier to notice the rebellion of an age than the little rebellions which have become comfortable within our own souls.
Today the King asks each of us for something definite. Perhaps it is a resentment which we have rehearsed for years, a habit we know must end, an apology we refuse to make, or time for prayer which we continually surrender to lesser things. Perhaps we have treated Sunday Mass as the limit of our duty rather than the source of a Christian life. The decisive question is not simply whether we admire Christ’s reign, but whether we permit Him to govern our decisions tomorrow morning.
Look at the crucifix. This is the King who makes that demand. His crown is woven of thorns; His throne is the Cross; His hands are pierced for those who have rebelled against Him. He seeks our obedience not because He needs our service, but because He loves us and wills our salvation. His law is not an obstacle to happiness. It directs us towards the good for which we were created, while His grace gives us strength that our wounded nature lacks.
The Preface calls His Kingdom one of “truth and life, holiness and grace, justice, love and peace.” That order deserves attention. Peace is not gained by pretending sin does not matter. Charity cannot demand that truth be concealed. The peace of Christ grows where His truth is received, His grace welcomed, and His commandments obeyed. St Augustine tells us that our hearts are restless until they rest in God; no earthly success can quiet a soul determined to remain its own master.
Upon this altar, our sovereign Lord will give us the greatest proof of His love. The Sacrifice of Calvary is made sacramentally present: the same Priest and Victim, offered in an unbloody manner. In Holy Communion, those properly disposed may receive His true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. The King who commands us also feeds us, heals us and strengthens us for His service. We have no cause for despair when we recognise how much remains to be converted.
But so great a gift demands reverence. We must not approach Holy Communion carelessly, as though receiving were an entitlement or proof of our own goodness. If conscious of mortal sin, we must first seek reconciliation in sacramental confession. The Eucharist is the food of supernatural life, not permission to remain unchanged. Our Lord enters the soul to deepen charity and make it more fully His own.
When we make the Act of Consecration to His Sacred Heart today, let the words have consequences. Let Christ reign in our homes: through the daily Rosary, morning and evening prayer, forgiveness promptly offered, speech governed by charity, and duties faithfully performed. The family table, the workplace, the sickroom and the quiet hours when no one sees us are all places in which allegiance to the King is either honoured or denied. Children should learn what Christ’s reign means less from what we condemn outside the home than from the patience, honesty, mercy and prayer they witness within it every single day.
In the Postcommunion the Church prays that those who glory in serving beneath Christ’s standard may reign with Him eternally. Service comes before the crown. We must carry the Cross, resist temptation and persevere, returning to His mercy whenever we fall. Our hope rests not in our strength, but in the victory and grace of the Redeemer.
My dear brethren, Caesar’s coin bore Caesar’s image and could be returned to him. You bear God’s image, and you have been purchased by Christ’s Precious Blood. What will you render to Him? Give Him not merely an hour, a custom, or a profession of faith, but the mind that must believe His truth, the heart that must love His commandments, and the life that must witness to His sovereignty. Then may He recognise His image restored in you, and welcome you to reign with Him for ever.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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