Matthew 17:22–27
22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men, 23 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.
24 When they came to Caperna-um, the collectors of the half-shekel tax went up to Peter and said, “Does not your teacher pay the tax?” 25 He said, “Yes.” And when he came home, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?” 26 And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. 27 However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel; take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”
Catholic Exegesis:
The Second Vatican Council teaches that if we are to derive the true meaning from the sacred texts, attention must be devoted “not only to their content but to the unity of the whole of Scripture, the living tradition of the entire Church, and the analogy of faith. […] Everything to do with the interpretation of Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church, which exercises the divinely conferred communion and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God” (Dei Verbum, 12).
St. John Paul II, when he promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church, explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum).
Cited in the Catechism:
Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, paragraphs 443, 1821, 1970, 2611 and 2826.
Commentary
Second announcement of the Passion. The temple tax
17:24–27. “Half-shekel”, or didrachma: a coin equal in value to the annual contribution every Jew had to make for the upkeep of the temple—a day’s wage of a labourer. The shekel or stater which our Lord refers to in v. 27 was a Greek coin worth two didrachmas. Jesus uses things great and small to get his teaching across to his disciples. Peter, who is to be the rock on which he will found his Church (Mt 16:18–19), he prepares by letting him see his dramatic transfiguration (17:1–8); now he gives Peter another inkling of his divinity through an apparently unimportant miracle. We should take note of Jesus’ teaching method: after his second announcement of his passion, his disciples are downhearted (Mt 17:22–23); here he lifts Peter’s spirits with this friendly little miracle.
17:26. This shows how conscientiously our Lord fulfilled his civic duties. Although the half-shekel tax had to do with religion, given the theocratic structure of Israel at the time payment of this tax also constituted a civic obligation.
Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
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"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome
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