29th Sunday in Ordinary Time October 18, 2026
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
“Taxation is theft.” Certain conservative and libertarian political movements – even some Catholics sometimes say that. And you know what? They’re not always wrong. Some taxation is theft. Sometimes a government is a bully with power to take what they want. Even if that’s true, you should probably still pay taxes. Why?
“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.” Remember, Jesus is God. God. Infinitely powerful, all-knowing, and infinitely good. God says, “repay to Caesar.” For a lot of people, Caesar was a corrupt bully with a military. Rome didn’t inspire nations to join them. They conquered them: beat them in battle, then cold-heartedly humiliated and executed their leaders. They imposed taxes, made Latin the official language, and required most religions to offer sacrifices to the emperor. Their only saving grace was that they allowed Jews to offer sacrifice to God for the emperor instead of to him, but that was always at risk of changing. That is the government Jesus said to pay taxes to.
And it’s not a new thing. In our first reading, the pagan king Cyrus conquered most of the world, slaughtering those who opposed him and practicing slavery. Yet Isaiah the prophet calls him “anointed,” saying how God was the one who granted him success. Cyrus’ successor Artaxerxes, also a pagan, is praised in the book of Nehemiah.
Remember, the reason the Israelites were exiled in first place is God allowed the Assyrians and Babylonians – also pagans – to conquer Israel. The prophets say God gave these pagans to power so he could punish his own people. Then he tells his own people to obey those pagan governments while living in exile. St. Paul tells Christians to obey the emperor while the Emperor was Nero! – like the archetype of a terrible government. But St. Paul said to obey him anyway.
God uses kings and governments to accomplish his plans not because they are good, but because God is just that good. He can use men good and bad, governments good and bad to accomplish his will. In the Old Testament, God sometimes sent a prophet to tell his people “hey, don’t follow them” or “don’t surrender and don’t make an alliance, I’ll win that fight for you.” Usually, though he let the winner stand and expected his people to obey.
That kind of sounds like “might makes right” doesn’t it? But here’s the difference. It’s not that we trust the strength of the government, it’s that we trust God’s providence. We might have to obey laws about taxes and lots of other things, but there are some laws we can never obey, not matter government makes them: we can never worship a false god, we can never agree to commit murder, to steal, to tell lies, or to participate in sexual immorality. We can never let laws stop us from proclaiming the gospel. The times the ancient Israelites did rebel and win were only when it was necessary to protect their ability to worship God and avoid sin. Since Christ, every empire that tried to destroy the Church also fell.
But taxes? For a good government? Pay those. For a corrupt government? Pay those too. Why pay taxes to a bad government? “Repay to Caesar.” I mean, you should use every legal method you can to minimize those taxes – that’s just good sense – but don’t act like being Catholic justifies straight up defiance. Remember, Jesus also says “from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back” in the Gospel of Luke. He does teach that we should sometimes just accept it when people steal from us or hurt us, why are we surprised he applies that to unfair taxes? Christians are expected to tolerate evil done to us, but to never tolerate being required to do evil to others.
Governments collapse, power balances shift, conquest happens. Many greatly evil things take place as part of that. Even when we’re the victims of those great evils, we should never do evil ourselves. How is that not being naïve and foolish? Because we know, we have divine faith that above all, God is still in charge. If God can use pagan Cyrus, pagan Artaxerxes, Pagan Ceaser… Emperor Nero, he can use Biden or Trump, Obama or Bush, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and whoever. If he allows something to happen, it doesn’t mean it’s what he wanted, but it does mean he allowed it and has a plan to pull good out of it anyway.
God wants us to cooperate with government so long as it does not require us to directly commit sin. Some governments are great and we should be excited about the good things they do. Some are terrible and we should do everything we can – without sinning – to change them. Do you what God definitely does not want, though? For us to worship our leaders. I don’t care how good you think Reagan or Kennedy, Biden or Bush, Obama or Trump, or whoever happens to be running next is. You can think they’re good. Still, do not trust them. Any of them. God may very well “anoint” a leader and use them do good things. Even then, do not trust them. Psalm 146 says outright, “Put no trust in princes.”
I don’t mean always assume they’re lying, though a healthy skepticism is good. More importantly, I mean do not put your trust in them. Even if they are perfectly honest, they will fail you. Always. Even King Saint Louis IX of France failed his people in various ways, as he himself would tell you. You might think this is a homily about paying taxes. For those with ears to hear, it’s a homily about trusting God. We cooperate with government not because the government deserves it, but because we trust the God who, for whatever reason, has allowed that government to exist. Because we trust and love God, we try to “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar”
Everyone forgets that second half though: “[repay] to God what belongs to God.” This doesn’t mean “hey some stuff Caesar’s and not God’s.” It does not mean we keep religion out of politics. Think about it for half a second: what doesn’t belong to God? Literally nothing. Everything belongs to God. We repay to Caesar only because it’s part of how we repay God. Repaying to Caesar is not about trusting Caesar, it’s about trusting God who can use Caesar – good or bad – in his ultimate plan. Sometimes we “repay” Caesar by reminding him that his power ultimately depends on God and that opposing God is a sure way to lose that power sooner or later. Thankfully, our government still has mechanisms for us to influence it. So we should do everything we can to influence the government to be better, to protect human rights, to allow our religion to flourish, to be fair and just.
Even while we do that, however, remember not to place your ultimate trust in the government. Repay to God what belongs to God. What belongs to God? Everything. So yeah, pay your taxes because money bears the image of Caesar, but while you pay them, consider what bears the image of God. You. And your neighbor. You think this homily is about what you owe to government? For those with ears to hear, it’s actually about what you owe God. It’s probably a good thing to pay as little tax as you can legally get away with, but with God it’s the opposite – it is best to give the most that you can. How well have you “repaid” your own soul to God? How well have you “repaid” the soul of your neighbor to God by loving your neighbor, by evangelizing your neighbor? Please read my bulletin article about evangelization this week.
Maybe taxation is theft, maybe not. But to withhold from God what belongs to him is always theft. Whether the government is right or not, tax evasion might get you sent to jail – not worth it. Unlike government, God is never wrong and he rewards those who repay him. So, how about we don’t find out the penalty for the soul evasion.