Matthew’s Gospel this week offers us a challenge: if you don’t love God first and foremost, even more than you love your parents or children – or anything “earthly” for that matter – then your love of God is less than it should be.  We often carve up our views of the world around us as “secular” or “sacred.”  For some, especially when they feel an attachment to the things of the world, this becomes “secular” versus “sacred.”

If that seems to be your view from time-to-time, be cautious … be very cautious!  Today’s Gospel should be taken as a stern warning from Jesus in this very circumstance.  Let me give an example from Church history.

In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and Napoleon III recalled all the French troops who had been defending the Pope and the Vatican; this allowed the Italian army to easily breach the Vatican defenses, and for 59 years following that, each pope was a prisoner of the Vatican, never leaving for fear of arrest or capture.  The treaty signed in 1929 created the sovereign nation of Vatican City, 44 acres as the smallest sovereign country in the world.

What followed however was a remarkable change in the global role of the Church.  For more than 1,000 years, from 756 AD, the popes had standing armies, had to defend the middle third of Italy, the “Papal States” in wars and attacks, and had all the civil struggles of a secular country … including strikes of workers, and less-than-noble care for their own poor. This political control and responsibility was lost in 1870.

By being freed of these secular demands in 1929, it also freed the Church to offer a more vocal message about the Gospel. Prior to this, when the Church might criticize a foreign government for human rights abuses, they could easily counter with asking what and how the Vatican cared for their own local poor, and not all of that history was positive.

Today, the popes and the Church hierarchy are free of secular responsibilities, by and large, and they have been a significant mediator and voice to improve the conditions of people, especially the poor and immigrants, throughout the world.  The challenge for each of us then becomes: how can we make decisions and act so that we don’t prioritize secular success over authentic witness to the Gospel.  Jesus spoke clearly about this: love the poor, love your enemies, and love your neighbors – otherwise you are not freely and fully loving God.