We Carry God’s Image

"Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." Mark 12:17

Here Jesus points out that the coin of Caesar has Caesar’s face on it. That's why the people should pay their taxes to Caesar. But WE are made in the image and likeness of God! So we belong to Him.

We are each one, very important to God. Like God, we are CREATORS. Only man has the ability to create and use his imagination. None of the animals have this. Only we have the potential to be TRANSFORMED, to be RENEWED. We have a destiny beyond our wildest dreams! If only we partner with our Father, the one who put those dreams in our heart!

What Pope Francis had to say about this passage in October 2020 is well noting: “With this reply, Jesus places himself above the controversy. Jesus, always above. On the one hand, he acknowledges that the tribute to Caesar must be paid — for all of us too, taxes must be paid — because the image on the coin is his; but above all he recalls that each person carries within him another image — we carry it in the heart, in the soul — that of God, and therefore it is to him, and to him alone, that each person owes his own existence, his own life.

“Hence the mission of the Church and of Christians: to speak of God and bear witness to him to the men and women of our time. Every one of us, by Baptism, is called to be a living presence in society, inspiring it with the Gospel and with the lifeblood of the Holy Spirit. It is a question of committing oneself with humility, and at the same time with courage, making one’s own contribution to building the civilization of love, where justice and fraternity reign.”