Politicians, Tech Titans & God: You Must Choose

Then repay to Caesar what is Caesar’s,
and to God what is God’s.

As you might remember, a few weeks ago,
I led a pilgrimage to Spain
with about 40 of our parishioners.
We had a wonderful opportunity
to follow in the footsteps of Spanish mystics.

We had the chance to visit Loyola,
where Saint Ignatius was born and lived.
But one of the most important parts of that
was it is where he also returned
to convalesce after being wounded in a war.
It was there that he had his conversion.

Remember, the story was
that Saint Ignatius was fighting
on behalf of the Spanish duke
and he had been hired to fight against the French.
At Pamplona, he was hit by a cannonball
and it shattered his leg.

Because he was so courageous,
the enemies took him back to Loyola
so that he could recover.
It would have been iffy
whether anyone could have recovered from something like that.
But he was strong,
and he was part of a wealthy family,
so he was well taken care of.

But it was in that room that he had his conversion,
and we were able to spend time in that room.
That room was really very special.
But here is what happened
when he returned to convalesce.

Remember, he fought in the army,
and he would have been a courtier.
He loved to philander with women
and hang out in the courts,
and that was his lifestyle.
As he was convalescing,
he was dreaming of those days in the court.
He would feel very good about it,
but he noticed that that feeling dropped off.

The only other thing that he could do was read
books of the lives of the saints,
and the life of Christ, which he started to read.
He started to imagine himself
following Christ as one of those saints.
He noticed that that feeling,
when he started to think about it,
did not taper off after a short period of time.
In fact, it lasted for a long time.

This led to what he called
the discernment of spirits and
how we come to listen to God in our own life.
So, that began what he then designed,
what we today have,
the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius.

In the second week of the exercises,
he has this very dramatic exercise of imagination.
He asks the retreatants to pray,
by imagining themsleves on a Babylonian plain,
like the war we hear of in this first reading.
He said, imagine on one side, you have a king,
and on the other side, you have another king.
It is one army on either side.
Each of them has a standard.
The standard is a flag that they are flying.

He says, on this side,
you have a king who sits on top of
a throne of fire and smoke,
furious looking, terrifying.
He sends out his warriors to go to every city,
to first offer people riches,
then honors, and then pride,
because pride is the root of all evil.

On the other side, you have Christ, the King.
He is humble, not sitting on any crown,
but simply a crown of humility.
He sends out his friends and disciples
with a spirit of poverty and a sense of humility,
as humility is the root of all virtues.

You stand in the middle, and you have a choice.
You have to choose one or the other.
You have to choose.
So, that is the exercise that he puts forward.

It sounds a lot like the gospel today.
Of course, it is deliberate,
because that is what Ignatius was trying to do.
He says that Jesus comes along,
and he says, you have to choose.
You either choose Caesar or God.
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,
and to God what is God’s.

Now look, I want to be careful.
Most things in life are not binary like that.
There is more gray between black and white.
But there are some things in life
that are in fact binary,
and you have to make a choice.
For example, either you are pregnant or you are not.
There is no, “I am sort of pregnant.”
It is one or the other, right?
So it is like that.
Following Christ is that binary.

Now, I am saying this, of course,
you are all here on a Sunday morning at nine o’clock.
So in one sense, you have chosen Christ, and we do that.
But here is what it is.
When you choose Christ,
you are choosing a direction.
When I choose Christ,
I choose to walk this way, facing Christ.
Now, it does not mean
that we are not going to make mistakes.
We do, we falter and we fall,
and we might take a step back,
but we are not changing direction.
We are still walking the way of Christ.

When we choose to follow the evil one,
we turn our back on Christ,
and we walk that way.
Now, there are those in the world
who will have us say, no, no, it is not that way.
You can stand in the middle.
You can have both ways.
I am saying you cannot.
It is not just me saying it,
Christ is saying you cannot.
You have to choose God.

Look, you are all here.
In a sense, I am preaching to the choir, right?
Because you are all here, right?
But here is the challenge.
We make this choice today,
and then tomorrow morning, on Monday,
we will have a cacophony of hundreds of voices
who will tell us, come follow me.
We have to make a choice again.
Those choices are not always so obvious,
because they will have you believe
that they are following the way of Christ.

You have to discern,
are they actually keeping the way of Christ
for you and your life?
Or are they pulling us away from Christ,
turning our back to Christ,
walking away from Christ
and walking towards the evil one?

The loudest of these voices today are politicians.
They convince us that they will do certain things.
But there are certain things that are binary,
and they are obvious.
We need to say out loud what they are sometimes.
Like a public execution that is live streamed
is not the way of Christ.
It is simply not.

If we choose that,
we are choosing to turn our back to Christ,
then we must choose against that, right?
The way we choose to treat our immigrants,
whether they are documented or undocumented,
it is not the way of Christ.
We are turning our back on the stranger.
Sometimes we need to say that
because that is not the way of Christ.

Now, there are times
that those very same politicians will say things
that will keep us on the way to Christ.
Then we should follow it.
But remember, we have to make that decision.

And it is not just politicians.
We have tech titans who are promising the world
a new world for us,
who will tell us how everything is wonderful
and it is just going to be all great.
But let me tell you
that that is not necessarily true.
Because they are just using our time and our attention
to make money.
We have to name that sometimes for what it is.
It is not all good.
Sometimes it can be.
And sometimes it is not.

The question is then,
how can we tell the difference?
This is the discernment of spirits that Ignatius speaks of.
I cannot tell that to you.
There are big issues like the ones I can say.
But in everyday conversation, everyday decisions,
you have got to figure out those decisions for yourself.
That can be hard work.

I do not know any other way to tell you
other than you have to be able to listen to God in your heart
and distinguish between the voices
and discern the spirits for yourself.
I do not know any other way to do that
other than to tell you
you have got to spend time in quiet prayer.

There is no shortcut.
Coming on a Sunday is not going to do it.
It is not enough.
Not in this complex world.
Not anymore.
We cannot rely on it.
We can get a little shot in the arm here.

It is great.
We receive Christ and we receive strength
from one another and from Christ at the table.
But we have to do it each day in our life.
It requires work and commitment.
It is a choice of the way I am going to walk.
I am going to go this way with Christ.
That is the choice.

Now, here is the challenge.
Even Scripture tells us the voice of God
is not a fiery voice or a loud clap of thunder.
Even the Scripture tells us
it is a quiet, whispering voice like a gentle wind.
Therefore, we have to slow down enough
to hear that tiny, whispering voice in our hearts.
That is the commitment that we are making.
That is what we have to do
if we are going to be faithful to Christ
and His way in our life.

These catechumens and candidates
are relying on us for witness to that.
They are relying on us as witnesses
how to do that well. This is a high-stakes game.

We have to understand
our world is relying on us to get it right.
The reason why I say that,
if it is not us who manage to do that,
then who?
The ones who are not here?
Are they going to do it?
Who else?
Are the politicians who have a vested interest
or the tech titans who have a vested interest?
Who is going to help you to do that?
We are the ones who have to make that decision.

And we are the ones inside those companies
and inside those political parties
who will use our voice to say,
no, that is enough.
That is not the way of Christ.
This is the way of Christ.

My friends, that is our role before us.
Jesus makes it really, really clear.
Let us hear those words again.

Then repay to Caesar what is Caesar’s,
and to God what is God’s.