12 August 2024 - Monday of the 19th week ‘B
Ezekiel 1:2-5. 24-28; Matt 17, 22-27
Homily
Today we begin our lectionary reading from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel seems to be making an effort to show that the Word of God was addressed to him at a very special time in the history of Israel, and in a very specific place. It was, he says, in the 5th month of the 5th year of the reign of Jehoiachim, in the land of the Chaldeans, near the river Kebar.
One of the characteristics of the religion of Israel was its awareness of God's personal intervention in its history, at very specific times and places. The same is true of our Christian religious experience. Every grace, every encounter with God, is addressed to us at a precise moment in our history. And so every memory of important events in our personal lives or in our community life is the memory of an intervention by God in our lives, or an encounter with God.
In the same way, the Evangelists know how to place the important events of Jesus' life in their context. The story we have just read, about the tax to be paid or not to be paid to the Temple, is thus directly linked to the announcement of Jesus' Passion and death -- which death will in fact be the destruction of the true Temple.
The curious story of the fish caught with a coin in its mouth should not be seen as some kind of miracle. Jesus never performed miracles either to impress or to prove a point. The purpose of this story is rather to underline the fact that Jesus is master of nature, even if he wants to pay the Temple tax for himself and for Peter so as not to scandalise the weak. In this way, Jesus teaches us to put the good of others before the defence of our personal rights.
There is more, however, in this story. Jesus' dialogue with Peter: ’From whom do the kings of this world exact taxes? From their sons or from strangers?’ indicates that Jesus, by this sign, wanted to show that although he was the Son of God, master of nature, he had made himself a stranger. This is a theme that recurs often enough in the Gospel, though always in a subtle way. The Word of God came as an unrecognised stranger into the world that was his own. The Son of Man has no place to lay his head. By leaving his family, Jesus adopted the lifestyle of the itinerant preacher who is a stranger wherever he goes. It is not surprising, therefore, that ‘The Stranger’ is one of the titles of Christ in a whole section of early Christian literature.
In God there are no strangers, for we are all of God's family; and on the other hand we are all strangers here below, for our true home is above. If we hold these sentiments in our hearts and pass them on to our lives, we will have done much to restore unity and love to a world divided by hatred and tension.
Armand Veilleux