Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Gospel reading contains a crucial message for every Christian: Jesus clarifies that we possess dual citizenship. We are citizens of two worlds: citizens of earth and citizens of heaven. Because of our dual citizenship, we have responsibilities toward both worlds, toward God and toward Caesar, to use Jesus' term. As citizens of earth and citizens of heaven, we must elect people who promote our ideals and fight for what is just and proper. We are responsible for working with our government leaders to help them fulfill their responsibilities so that justice, peace, and prosperity might be a part of our secular society.

What happens if our dual citizenship leads us into an open conflict between our God and our country? We hope this will never happen, but if it does, we must resolve the conflict in a way that does not compromise our primary responsibility to God. Christians have had to do this throughout history. They did it in Roman times when thousands of Christians accepted death rather than worship the emperor. They did it in the 17th century when thousands of European Christians fled to America to practice their faith, and they're still doing it now.

Franz Jägerstätter was an Austrian peasant, a husband, and father of three young children in the 1930s. He vehemently opposed Adolf Hitler as he rose to power. When Hitler marched into Austria and held a phony vote to show that people backed him, Jägerstätter was the only person in his small village who didn't vote for Hitler. When war broke out in 1939, Jägerstätter refused to fight in Hitler's army. He even refused noncombatant service because his opposition to everything Hitler stood for was so strong. Finally, on August 2, 1943, the military arrested and executed him.

Jägerstätter had two obligations: one to God and one to his country. When they conflicted in his own conscience, he chose to remain faithful to his primary obligation: to God. This is sometimes difficult to do, for following our conscience and God's ways may not be popular and may have consequences in this life that are not to our liking. In faith, however, we know that the life to follow is forever and that the rewards of this life are nothing compared to those in the life to follow.