coin in it. Take the coin and give it to them for you and for me.”

Reflections

“Give the coin to them for you and for me.”Here, the gospel writer once again highlights Peter’s special po­ sition, but this is not to say it is the focus of the passage. The writer lo­ cates the “center of gravity” of the episode in the “teaching on free­ dom balanced by concern to avoid unnecessary scandal” (Brendan Byrne). To Jesus, he is not obliga­ ted to pay the temple tax, but still freely chose to do so out of consi­ deration of the Jewish community, particularly the tax collectors.A seminarian narrated an inci­ dent during an apostolate work at Villa Maria, an indigenous people’s community in a mountainous area in our archdiocese. While walking back to the village, together with a man from the community, he saw ripe bananas still hanging on the plant and asked the man to get the bananas for them to eat and bring to the village. The man climbed up and got only a few bananas. Won­ dering why he did not get them all, he asked him. In reply the man said: “We only get what is enough and leave the rest for others who might come this way and might be hungry.
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