Tricks, traps and snares. The Pharisees join with the Herodians in Matthew’s gospel to try “to entrap Jesus in speech.” (Mt 22,15) However, not being in the light and walking in darkness, they end up falling into a trap themselves. They come together and propose a moral dilemma to Jesus thinking that it will be a perfect trap, but Jesus lives with deeper truths and his adversaries betray themselves with their own speech. “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status.” (Mt 22,16f) Jesus’ adversaries begin with a strategy of false flatteries but in their sardonic statement, they have unwittingly revealed a deep truth about themselves and about Jesus. They profess to “know” the truth about Jesus but they are indeed strangers to the truth and are enmeshed in a web of their own subjective opinions. Speaking of the truth, they betray the fact that they do not really have a belief in the truth and that they rely on status and opinions to make their moral decisions. They are caught up in a web of relativism. Unknowingly, they reveal a truth about Jesus that they should be embracing rather than mocking. Jesus does teach “the way of God” for he himself is “the way and the truth and the life.” (Jn 14,6) He is the way that leads to the truth about God, the Father, and bestows eternal life on those who follow him and believe.

The moral dilemma that the Pharisees and Herodians present concerns the payment of the census tax to Caesar, however, the deeper question at play here is really: is there an objective truth that holds authority and guides us in our decision making, or is there only the subjective opinion of those who claim authority because of their status? In his answer, Jesus leads his adversaries on a journey of discovery of a deeper truth about human persons. “Knowing their malice,” Jesus asks for the coin that is used to pay the tax, an object, to reveal the truth about “the way of God.” The answer to this moral dilemma lies in an objective reality and not in some subjective opinion. The coin was made by Caesar and it is his image that is imprinted on it. Therefore, objectively, Caesar can determine its value, its meaning and purpose, its use and ultimately its final end. “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.”

The journey of truth doesn’t end there, it has only just begun. Now the real revelation and teaching begins. Jesus continues with the heart of the matter: “…and to God what belongs to God.” Just as there is an objective truth that exists between the coin and Caesar, so is there an objective truth that exists between God and human persons. The human person is created in the image and likeness of God: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him.” (Gen 1,27) The Psalmist sings of this great and wondrous mystery: “You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works!” (Ps 139,13-16) The “way of God” begins in “my inmost being.” If we follow the interior path of the soul we come to the truth of our deepest identity and origins. It is like checking our ancestry through a DNA test. We discover that we are children of God. “But to those who did accept him (Jesus), he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name.” (Jn 1,12)

If we have been so wonderfully created by God in his image and likeness then, like the claim of Caesar on the coin, God has a claim on us. It is he who can rightfully determine our value, our meaning and purpose, our use and ultimately our final end. Jesus has come among us to lead us into this truth of God’s sovereignty and the interior way that leads us to know and to act on this truth. There is true authority in the objective truth that is imprinted within us. Jesus in all of his words and works is continuously calling us to a path of life, the path of the truth, that is not distant and unknowable but that is found within our own hearts. It is written on our hearts as surely as the image of Caesar is stamped on a Roman coin. Our journey always is directed within so that we can return to the source and origin of our being. It is here we learn who we are and whose we are and therefore what we must do to be what we are meant to be. The path of this interior truth follows the way of the law, but a law that is written on our hearts, not on stone tablets.

This law dwells within us as the Spirit of truth and as an interior law that guides us is our conscience. Gaudium et spes teaches: “In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged. Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man.” (GS,16) God has made us in his image so that we might discover how to live in his love.