OCTOBER 18/19, 2008
With our nation’s general election just fifteen days away, this weekend’s scripture readings provide us with the opportunity to reflect upon how we are called to live as Jesus’ disciples in the midst of the political realities of this world.
In greeting the Thessalonians in today’s epistle reading, St. Paul was making a radical political statement. Each word in this title had a political overtone. The Roman emperor was called “lord”; the name “Jesus” means “savior” evoking memories of God’s conquest and settling the people in the Promised Land through Joshua; and “Christ” is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word for “messiah” the hoped for promised descendant of King David who would usher in the final reign of God’s peace. St. Paul is telling us that while we live in this world and are subject to its rulers and their governance, our primary allegiance is not to country, political party or any earthly ruler, but to God through Jesus his Son whom he has sent for our salvation. God, and God alone, has the right to claim total allegiance in our lives.
So then, how are we to live in this world and what role are we to play in it? In treating the living of a Christian life in the world, Section Three of the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us of the legitimate place and role of civil authority in helping organize, protect and promote society and of our duty of obedience to duly appointed or elected rulers (#s 1897-1904). Building on this fundamental demand of our faith, our nation’s bishops in their pastoral statement for this election year, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, a summary of which was included in the bulletin three weeks ago, flesh out this requirement by noting “the Church’s obligation to participate in shaping the moral character of society is a requirement of our faith. It is a basic part of the mission we have received from Jesus Christ, who offers a vision of life revealed to us in Sacred Scripture and Tradition. … It is appropriate [the Bishops continue] for the Church to play a role in political life…the obligation to teach about moral values that shape our lives, including our public lives, is central to the mission given to the Church by Jesus Christ”. …In the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation. This obligation is rooted in our baptismal commitment to follow Jesus Christ and to bear Christian witness in all we do” (#s 9,11,13). Every political policy or law affects the lives of the people of a particular time and place. As such, every policy or law has a moral dimension. There is no such thing as a “value neutral” society, much less a so-called strict wall of separation between church and state. Government risks chaos and moral degeneration by failing to account for the moral implications of law and in failing to seek and listen to the moral tradition rooted in nature itself as expressed in the great religious of the world.
Finally, government whether by king or some form of democratic republican representation, in the view of the Scriptures, is charged to exercise God-like lordship over the earth. Cyrus, the Persian Emperor in today’s reading from the prophet Isaiah, was hailed as one of Israel’s greatest kings not only because he conquered the Babylonians and ended the great Exile, but because he was a just ruler, looking out for the poor, the orphan and the widows of the land, the biblical way of speaking of caring for all the powerless in society and promoting what the Church terms “the common good.” The Church teaches us that rulers, or those seeking to rule, are to be judged precisely by how their real, or proposed, policies will further the cause not of special interests but of the common good and especially those least able to exercise power. In appointing or electing those who will lead us the Bishops remind us of this fundamental demand of authority in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, as they note “as Catholics we should be guided more by our moral convictions than by our attachment to a political party or interest group…our participation should help transform the party to which we belong; we should not let the party transform us in such a way that we neglect or deny fundamental moral truths” (#14).
As Election Day nears, we pray for the Holy Spirit’s gift of wisdom that we may render rightly to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and to God that which belongs to God.