TO ENSNARE HIM IN HIS SPEECH

2Pt 3.12-15a.17-18; Ps 89; Mk 12,13-17
5 JUNE
For one word, uttered out of place or out of context, a person in Israel could have been condemned to death. Here is what the Second Book of Samuel tells us. A man is condemned to death for an untrue word pronounced by him.

After the death of Saul, David returned from his defeat of the Amalekites and spent two days in Ziklag. On the third day a man came from Saul’s camp, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. Going to David, he fell to the ground in homage. David asked him, “Where do you come from?” He replied, “I have escaped from the Israelite camp.” “Tell me what happened,” David bade him. He answered that the soldiers had fled the battle and that many of them had fallen and were dead, among them Saul and his son Jonathan. Then David said to the youth who was reporting to him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” The youthful informant replied: “It was by chance that I found myself on Mount Gilboa and saw Saul leaning on his spear, with chariots and horsemen closing in on him. He turned around and, seeing me, called me to him. When I said, ‘Here I am,’ he asked me, ‘Who are you?’ and I replied, ‘An Amalekite.’ Then he said to me, ‘Stand up to me, please, and finish me off, for I am in great suffering, yet fully alive.’ So I stood up to him and dispatched him, for I knew that he could not survive his wound. I removed the crown from his head and the armlet from his arm and brought them here to my lord.” David seized his garments and rent them, and all the men who were with him did likewise. They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the soldiers of the Lord of the clans of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. Then David said to the young man who had brought him the information, “Where are you from?” He replied, “I am the son of an Amalekite immigrant.” David said to him, “How is it that you were not afraid to put forth your hand to desecrate the Lord’s anointed?” David then called one of the attendants and said to him, “Come, strike him down”; and the youth struck him a mortal blow. Meanwhile David said to him, “You are responsible for your own death, for you testified against yourself when you said, ‘I dispatched the Lord’s anointed'” (2Sam 1,1-16).

Since Jesus began his mission he has become a special observed person. His every word is gathered, weighed, x-rayed, analyzed, studied and so are his every gesture. Not being able to find anything that is against the Law of Moses coming directly from Him, they change strategy. They themselves are the ones to provoke him with insidious questions so that he falls into some error. They need little, very little indeed. A pronouncement not in perfect conformity with the Law of the Fathers and the death sentence, even through immediate stoning, is instantly issued. But we know that Jesus is enveloped by the Holy Spirit and the fullness of his gifts. Neither the intelligence of Satan nor that of men might do anything against the Eternal Wisdom of the Spirit of the Lord. The thoughts of men are not yet conceived and the Spirit already knows how to make them vain.

They sent some Pharisees and Herodians to him to ensnare him in his speech. They came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion. You do not regard a person’s status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not pay?” Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at.” They brought one to him and he said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They replied to him, “Caesar’s.” So Jesus said to them, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.’ They were utterly amazed at him.

At the questioned asked, there are neither affirmative nor negative answers. Every answer given by Jesus was an accusation against Him. The Wisdom of the Holy Spirit invests him and He gives an answer that will enlighten the whole of humanity until the advent of the new heavens and the new earth. From today on every man knows that God and Caesar are not in opposition. Every man must serve Caesar and God. However, he must always serve Caesar according to the Law of his Lord. Everything is contemplated in the Law of God and in the Gospel, but read with the eyes of the Holy Spirit and lived with the heart of Jesus.

Immaculate Virgin, Angels and Saints, fill us with all wisdom of the Holy Spirit.