Stay hungry! Stay foolish!

CEO Steve Jobs -- his wasted form

in his signature worn jeans and black turtleneck

(Feb. 24, 1955 – Oct. 5, 2011) 

R.I.P.

 “Stay hungry! Stay foolish!”

October 16, 2011, 29^th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Isaiah 45:1, 4-6      I Thessalonians 1:1-5    Matthew 22:15-21

Alleluia, alleluia.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 22:15-21

Glory to you, Lord.

Pharisees and Herodians

The Pharisees went off and made plans to trap Jesus by asking Him a tricky question. They decided to send some of their men together with some Herodians[1] to ask Him this question: "Teacher, we know that you are very honest and teach the truth without fear or favor, regardless of the consequences. “Teacher, tell us, is it right or is it not right to pay tax to Caesar?” Knowing they were trying to trap Him, Jesus said to the Pharisees and Herodians, "You hypocrites are trying to snare me with your tricky questions. Show me the coin with which you pay the Roman tax.” They showed him a denarius. He asked them, "Whose image is stamped on it, and whose name is this beneath the image?" They replied, “Caesar's." At that He said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction

The rolling year

Here it is October 16, 2011. The frost is on the pumpkin. The fodder’s in the shock. The leaves of brown are tumbling down. The year is rolling fast towards Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. The new year of 2011 has suddenly grown old on us.

Trying to trap Jesus

Trying to trap Jesus was a favorite pastime of His enemies. One day a certain teacher of the Law asked, “Master, what must I do to gain eternal life?” Luke writes, “The man was trying to trap Jesus.” (Lk 10:25) In today’s gospel from Matthew the Pharisees and Herodians put their heads together and made a plan to trap Jesus by asking Him,  “Teacher, tell us, is it right  or is it not right to pay tax to Caesar?” (Mt. 22:15) Twenty verses later in the same gospel a teacher of the Law asks Jesus, “Which, sir, is the first and most important commandment in the Law?” Matthew says the man was trying to trap Jesus. (Mt 22:35)

Herodians and Pharisees joining forces

In today’s gospel the Pharisees and Herodians join forces to trap Jesus. The Herodians were rich and materialistic Jews whose investments and financial security depended on loyalty to Rome. Naturally they were very well-disposed to Roman rule in their land. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were strict observers of the Law, strongly nationalistic and very anti-Roman. So the Pharisees regarded Herodians as traitors and Roman lackeys. It is hard, therefore, to imagine any two groups more at odds with each other than these two. Yet, today’s gospel presents the Pharisees and Herodians (strange bed-partners that they were) as joining forces to trap Jesus. That the two could overcome their great differences and join their forces against Jesus shows how much they hated Him.

A much debated text

The Pharisees ask Jesus, “Is it right or is it not right to pay tax to Caesar?” Their question was tricky: if Jesus said, “Yes, it is permitted to pay tax to the Romans,” He would get in trouble with the Pharisees. If He said, “No, it is not permitted to pay tax to the Romans,” He would get in trouble with the Herodians. No matter how Jesus answered, He couldn’t win.

Their tricky question deserves a tricky answer. In response, Jesus asks them to show Him the coin with which they pay the Roman tax. They show Him a silver coin of the Roman Empire, which bears the image of Caesar Augustus. “Whose image is this,” He asks. They answer, “Caesar’s.” Then He says to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."  (Mt 22:21) Fewer texts in the four gospels are more debated and more subject to a variety of interpretations than this one.

A very important principle?

Some would contend that when Jesus said “Render-to-Caesar,” He was enunciating a very important principle -- the nation’s sacred principle of `Separation of Church and State.’ In the name of that principle some try to rule out moments of silent prayer in public schools, or they rail against public displays of the menorah[2] at Hanukkah[3]  or the manger at Christmas. In the name of that principle some even launch big crusades against little phrases like “under God” in the pledge of allegiance or “In God we trust” on our currency.


 Charles Chaput is a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe and a Capuchin friar. He also is the ninth and current Archbishop of Philadelphia. He believes that Jesus’ “Render to Caesar” enunciates an important principle. But the Archbishop has a more profound take on it than do those who launch big crusades against little phrases. In his book Render to Caesar the conservative Archbishop writes, "The Church claims no right to dominate the secular realm. But she has every right – in fact an obligation – to engage secular authority and to challenge those wielding it to live the demands of justice. In this sense, the Catholic Church cannot stay, has never stayed, and never will stay out of politics.”

Or nothing more than a tricky answer?

Was Jesus’ “Render-to-Caesar” the statement of an important principle? Or was it not much more than a tricky answer to tricky Pharisees and Herodians who were out to trap Jesus, when they asked Him, ”Is it right or is it not right to pay tax to Caesar?” Some contend that it was not much more than a tricky answer to their tricky question. They contend that "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” doesn’t say all the things which ideologues down through the ages have used it to say. In fact, they contend that it doesn’t seem to say much at all! It seems to be nothing more than a tricky answer to people who were out to trap Jesus.

"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Is that an important principle, or is it nothing more than a tricky answer? No wonder then that fewer texts in the four gospels are more debated and more subject to a variety of interpretations than this one.

CEO Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is best known as the co-founder and mastermind of Apple computers, and also as the inventor of ever-sleeker gadgets such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, which transformed everyday technology. On Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011 Steve died at the young age of 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was an inventor with more than 300 patents to his name. He was a college dropout. He was a billionaire who wore jeans and a black turtleneck to work. Someone wrote of him: ”There are 3 great apples -- one that Adam ate, a second that fell on Newton’s head, and a third Apple which Steve Jobs built.

Though born in California, Jobs had a connection to Green Bay, Wisconsin. His biological mother’s family owned a mink farm on Green Bay's east side. She met Steve’s biological father, a 23-year-old native of Syria, while both were students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  His biological mother (young, unwed and a student) decided to put him up for adoption. Jobs was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs.

Steve Jobs – laying it all out in the open

In a graduation address at Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs unabashedly laid it all out in the open, as he told the graduates,

My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out, the college graduates decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents [Paul and Clara Jobs], who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking, "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They answered, "Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

Steve Jobs under the shadow of death

In the address Jobs, who lived constantly under the shadow of his pancreatic cancer, spoke openly about his situation:

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

Steve Jobs: “Don’t be trapped by dogmas.”

In the gospel the Pharisees and Herodians tried to trap Jesus. In his address to the graduates, Steve spoke about being trapped not by Pharisees and Herodians but by dogmas! He told them,

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogmas — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Conclusion

Stay hungry! Stay foolish!

At the end of his memorable commencement address at Sandford Steve spoke of an “amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation.” On the back cover of the final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

Those were Steve’s final words to the graduates. Stay hungry! Always be looking for your next meal, your next adventure, your next big idea. Stay foolish! Don't always play it safe. Don’t always take the most rational route. Be adventurous like Jobs who became famous like Adam and Newton because of an Apple.

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[1] The Herodians were a Jewish political party who favored one of the descendants of Herod the Great (a Jew) to rule over them, instead of a Roman governor.

[2] A nine-branched ceremonial candelabrum

[3] The Jewish feast of Lights