Church and State Homily for June 4, 2024

What is the proper relationship between Church and State? Today's gospel actually poses for us, I think, a very interesting question, namely, what is the relationship between our faith and our citizenship? It's not always an easy question to answer, particularly when we think of it universally.

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Just what should our relationship be between Church and State?

Church and State

Today’s gospel actually poses for us, I think, a very interesting question, namely, what is the relationship between our faith and our citizenship? It’s not always an easy question to answer, particularly when we think of it universally.

There are certainly many parts of the world where it is not a case that the citizen has a voice. The leader is either a dictator or an authoritarian figure, but that there’s oppression. And that can be particularly complicated because it can be the case that your faith, standing up for your faith, being a good citizen, could result in your death.

But what about us in the United States? What is the relationship between our being good citizens of this country and being faithful Christians who follow Jesus wherever he leads? You know, I think it was Cardinal George a number of years ago who said that his successors would someday wind up in jail. It’s not that Cardinal George was a paranoid person, and he was quite bright, actually, an Oblate, but his point was that there is going to come a day where we’re going to have to make the stark choice between following the law and following Jesus.

That’s a tough question for us to answer. We know that oftentimes being a good citizen is filled with issues that are complex and difficult. They don’t have one easy solution. We know that sometimes we live in a society where the decisions being made around us are not ones that we find moral or just.

I remember when Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen was Bishop of Seattle. He withheld the portion of his taxes that went to fund the Defense Department because he felt that that was unjust. It was an unjust use of taxes. While there aren’t any easy answers necessarily about what it means to be a good citizen and a good disciple, I think there is something that we always need to keep before us. Namely, in the ways in which we are called to become good citizens, are we first and foremost good disciples?

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