God Reads Our Hearts; Do We?

In today's Gospel, Mark 12:; 13-17, the Pharisees and Herodians set out to trap Jesus. They begin with flattery: "Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with another's opinion." They then ask Him: "Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not pay?" Jesus know that they are trying to trick Him. He sees right through their hypocrisy, so He asks them: "Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at."  They do so and Jesus asks them: 'Whose image and inscription is them?'...'Caesar's'. 'Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.'"

We need not be surprised that we encounter hypocrisy and that on some days we ourselves are hypocritical!  Human nature is a false human nature. No one is perfect except God alone. If we encounter a person being hypocritical, we need to be patient and wise. If we ourselves become hypocritical, we, too, need to be patient with ourselves, repent of our wrongdoing and be gentle with our weaknesses. We need to come to the Lord and honestly admit our need for help to honest and upright.

We need to remember that we have been created in the image of God. We belong to God. God loves us as a parent loves his/her children. God, like a wise parent, knows when we are being dishonest, we we are trying to trick another person.  He does not condemn us. He comes to save us from being a plaything of the Father of Lies.