It was the spring of 1945. They had met only six weeks before. He was a cocky, happy-go-lucky, freshly-commissioned lieutenant in the US Army, sent to England in preparation for the Allied invasion of Europe. She was a reserved, very proper young lady, from a genteel English family “doing her bit” for her country, by working at the newly-repositioned (and secret) wartime headquarters of the Bank of England, in the tiny town of Whitchurch, far away from blitzed London.

They were total opposites - in backgrounds, but also in personality. He was an absolutely buoyant optimist who never met a stranger and lived his life at an enthusiastic trot. He never seemed to walk anywhere. She, on the other hand was reserved and had experienced tragedy early in her life, when her father, at 55, collapsed on a London street from a massive stroke - and died in her arms. That had been on a Christmas Eve, and she was, at the time, just 15 years old. She’d learned early how unexpectedly and cruelly life can be upended.

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Well, Jesus is really in a pickle now! At least that’s what His accusers are hoping!

As today’s Gospel opens, Jesus is at the Temple during the last week of His earthly life. It’s been a long week … and it’s only Tuesday! He has upended the tables of the money changers, and driven the dealers from the Temple courtyard. The Pharisees and elders have repeatedly tested Him on various religious issues - to no avail - and the Jewish powers-that-be are becoming more and more aggressive (and fearful) of Jesus’ influence. So the Pharisees have now - in today’s Gospel - racketed up the pressure by forming an unlikely alignment with the Herodians, setting another trap for Jesus, this time, over the issue of paying taxes to Caesar.

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