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"What does our Lord mean by this, my brethren? He seems to say that there are some things which do not belong to God, but to some one else; that God has only partial right in this world which he has created. It would appear to belong partly to Caesar; and who can this Caesar be, who shares the earth with its Creator?

Caesar was the name of the Roman emperor, and our Lord means by Caesar the temporal authority of the state. Now, it must seem absurd to any Catholic, and indeed to any one who believes in God at all, to say that this authority has any right in the world other than that which God has lent to it; so we cannot imagine that our Lord meant anything like that. Nevertheless, there are plenty of people, who do not profess to be atheists, who really maintain not only that the state has rights against him, but even that its right always prevails over his. They say that we must render everything to Caesar, whether God wants it or not; that the law of the state must be obeyed even against the law of God as shown to us by conscience.

These people are really atheists, whether they profess to be or not. The only true God, in whom we believe, will not and cannot resign his right to our obedience or give up his eternal laws. Nay, more, he will and must reserve to himself the right of making new laws if he pleases, and annulling law of the state which are contrary to them. Besides all this, he has also only given to the state a limited sphere in which it can work, and in which only its laws can have any force - that is, he will only allow it to make laws providing for the temporal well-being of its subjects.

This, then, is what belongs to Caesar - that is, to the state. It has the right to claim and enforce our obedience to laws intended for the temporal welfare of its subjects, and to these only, as far as they are not contrary to the eternal law of God, or to others which he may choose to make. And that is all.

When it does not exceed its rights we must give our obedience to it; and we must presume that it does not exceed them unless it is clear that it does. This is what we must render to Caesar.

But how shall we tell that it does exceed its rights? First, by the voice of conscience, when that voice is clear and certain; secondly, by our knowledge of the laws which God himself has made; lastly, by the voice of that other authority which he has put in the world to provide for our spiritual welfare - that is, the Catholic Church. When God speaks to us in either of these ways we must obey him, whether it interferes with Caesar or not; this is what we must render to him.

If the state makes a law commanding us to blaspheme, deny our faith, or commit impurity, we will not obey. Conscience annuls such a law. If the state commands us to do servile work on Sunday its law has no force. We know that God's law is against it. And, lastly, if the state goes outside its sphere, and makes laws regarding things not belonging to its jurisdiction, as the sacraments, we are not bound by such laws. It has no power, for instance, to declare marriage among Christians valid or invalid. The Church has told us this plainly. It is here specially where the state goes out of its province, that it is subject to correction by the church; though it may be in other matters also.

Our Lord, then, means that we should render to Caesar the things that belong to him, not because of any right that he has in himself, but because God has lent it to him; but that we should render to God the things that he has not lent to Caesar, whether Caesar consents or not. Obedience must always be given to God. Give it to him through the state in those things about which he has given the state authority, and in other things without regard to the state; thus shall you render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

Source: Five minute sermons for Low Masses on all Sundays of the year by Paulist Fathers 1886

Tomorrow, Aug. 9, is the feast of St. John Vianney. He was pastor of a remote French village and so he is often known as the Cure of Ars.

A visitor today might see a white-washed priest’s house near a chapel. In the dingy kitchen is a common sauce-pan and a long- handled pan. On the floor is a burnt plank which was used as a bed. In another room is a well-worn cassock, a flat hat with a very wide brim, and a pair of large unblackened peasant shoes.

If we move into the old church we see old benches, pictures, statues, a pulpit. Nearby is a confessional. Not far away in the new church lies the body of the man, who spent 40 years in these surroundings.

This pastor came to Ars in 1818. He had been born John Marie Vianney in Dardllly, near Lyons, on May 8, 1786, during the era of the French Revolution. He knew what It was to live under persecution, for all priests were hunted to death. As a boy John attended Mass and received Holy Communion secretly In his barn.

John was the third of six children; he was 18 years old when he sought consent from his father to become a priest. Because the father was a poor farmer he could not immediately release his helpful son, and John was 20 years old when he finally received permission.

In the seminary at Lyons John did not shine as a brilliant student. He failed in his studies and he had to leave the seminary for the private teaching of a Father Bailey at Ecully. After three months of private tutoring John took an examination and failed miserably.

Then it was that his teacher went privately to one of his examiners. At his request the president of the seminary and one examiner agreed to question Vianney privately. In their report to the Vicar of the Bishop they said that John was “the most unlearned, but the most devoted seminarian in Lyons.”

The Vicar asked a few simple questions, “Is Vianney good? Has he a devotion to Our Lady? Does he say his rosary?'’ The professors replied, “He is a model of goodness.” “Very well,” said the Vicar, “then let him be ordained. The grace of God will do the rest.” It was in 1815, long before I.Q. tests, and a few months after the genius Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, that John was ordained a priest.

A priest is vesting

His time of questing

Dreams is passed, Now at last

A Christ he stands.

  The first appointment of the new priest was to his former teacher, Father Bailey. Each in time reported the other to the Bishop for excessive mortification. Thus are assistants made saints by their pastors.

It was in 1818 that Father Bailey died and the Bishop said to Father John Vianney, “Thirty miles from here, my dear friend, in the district of Trevoux, the village of Ars is without a priest. The church there is a chapel-of-ease. serving about 200 souls. There’s not much love of God in this village. Your job will be to instill it .”

What do we mean by a parish priest, sometimes called a secular, or diocesan priest? The Church is divided like a checker board, into parts called dioceses, ruled by Bishops, all under Peter the Holy Father. The diocese, In turn, is subdivided into parishes marked off in definite boundaries.The parish priest therefore is the keystone of the entire organization of the Church.

Within the territory of certain parishes we sometimes find houses in which a religious community lives. Religious bodies have been started at certain times in the history of the Church for a definite specialized work. They often come into being because of an emergency and cease to exist after a span of years.

This noble example to his sheep he gave.

That flrst he wrought, and afterward he taught.

To draw his fold to heaven by fairness

By good example, was his business.

There were two Frenchmen whose features were somewhat alike; one was John Vianney and the other was Voltaire. The later said, “Throw enough mud and some will stick.” The former set up a means for converting a stubborn parish, “You’ve preached? You’ve prayed? Have you fasted? Have you scourged yourself? Have you slept on bare boards? As long as you haven’t done that you’ve no right to complain.”

Saint John Vianney, the patron of parish priests, spent 16 hours a day in the confessional. The devil, with whom he had physical combat, is said to have revealed that the Cure had taken more than 80,000 souls out of his evil power.

In 1859 St. John Viannev was 73 years old: on July 29 he went to his sick bed, where he died on Aug. 4.

A better priest. I trow that nowhere none is.

He waited for no pomp end reverence.

Nor maked him a spiced conscience.

But Christes lore, and is apostles twelve,

He taught, and first he followed it himself.

Source: Catholic Research Resources Alliance,The Monitor, Volume CI, Number 15, 8 August 1958