“Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” A superficial reading of this statement of Jesus is often used to justify the radical “separation of Church and State” espoused by those who would have religious leaders remain silent on the moral implications of many of the issues facing society. They would like to keep religion in the church buildings. However, just as the words “separation of Church and State” does not appear in the US Constitution, “The distinction which Christ made was not intended to relegate religion to the temple – the sacristy – so that temporal realities would develop apart from divine and Christian law” (St. Josemaria Escriva, Letter, January 9, 1959). Rather Jesus was teaching us about the proper relationship between the State and the Church.
Pope John XXIII once said, “Human society can be neither well-ordered no prosperous unless it has some people invested with legitimate authority to preserve its institutions and to devote themselves as far as is necessary to work and care for the good of all” (Pacem in terris #46). Ultimately all authority comes from God, and God has instituted the various authorities of the State for the promotion of the common good. St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment” (Romans 13:1-2). In the Prayer of the Faithful we continue the practice of praying for our civil authorities, a practice encouraged in the Scriptures. As we see in today’s first reading, the Lord often times uses civil authorities to further His Divine will, as when He used the pagan Cyrus to restore the Temple of Jerusalem. It is because civil authority should be a manifestation of the Divine will that the Second Vatican Council taught that Christians have “the obligation of rendering to the state whatever material and personal services are required for the common good” (Gaudium et spes, #75).
A key distinction, however, is that the civil authority must be rooted in God’s will. Civil authority does not derive its moral legitimacy from itself. St. Thomas Aquinas taught, “A human law has the character of law to the extent that it accords with right reason, and thus derives from the eternal law. Insofar as it falls short of right reason it is said to be an unjust law, and thus has not so much the nature of law as of a kind of violence” (STh I-II, 93,3, ad 2). Thus the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Authority is exercised legitimately only when it seeks the common good of the group concerned and if it employs morally licit means to attain it. If rulers were to enact unjust laws or take measures contrary to the moral order, such arrangements would not be binding in conscience” (CCC #1903).
So how do we know if a civil authority is legitimate and thus deserving of our obedience? The key is understanding what the Church teaches about what the “common good” is. The Second Vatican Council taught that the common good was to be understood as “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily” (Gaudium et spes, #26). Therefore the common good is concerned with the life of all, and it consists of three essential elements.
First, the common good presupposes a respect for the human person. Therefore civil authorities are bound to respect the fundamental and inalienable rights of each human person; particularly the right to life and the right for each person to fulfill their vocation, which is their call from God.
Second, the common good requires the social well-being and development of the group itself. “Certainly, it is the proper function of authority to arbitrate, in the name of the common good, between various particular interests; but it should make accessible to each what is needed to lead a truly human life: food, clothing, health, work, education and culture, suitable information, the right to establish a family, and so on” (CCC #1908).
Finally, the common good requires the civil authority to work towards peace, that is, the stability and security of a just order. Of course such security must be achieved and maintained through use of morally acceptable means.
If our civil authorities, no matter what form of government it takes, are working for the common good, then we have the duty to support those authorities through our obedience to them. However, we must also always keep in mind the second part of Jesus’ statement, “repay … to God what belongs to God.”
Cardinal Luciani, who would later become Pope John Paul I, wrote “In this same society there is a terrible moral and religious void. Today all seem frantically directed toward material conquests: make money, invest, surround oneself with new comforts, live the ‘good life’. Few think also of ‘doing good.’ God – who should fill our life – has, on the contrary become a very distant star, to which people look only at certain moments. People believe they are religious because they go to church; but outside of church they want to lead the same life as many others, marked by small or big deceits, acts of injustice, sins against charity; and thus they totally lack coherence” (Illustrissimi, p. 179). This is not repaying to God what belongs to God.
We must all live, boldly, lives of faith. We must live as the children of God that we are in the halls of government, in the marketplaces, in the public square. Jesus calls us to be the light of the world, and His light is so desperately needed to caste out the dark moral and religious void of modern society. We must demand that our civil leaders seek to do the will of God. While sound reason is vitally important in discussing the great issues society is facing, just as vital is the light of Faith. “God is not a distant star out of touch with mankind. He is a most powerful light who gives meaning and significance to all human affairs” (Fernandez, In Conversation with God, Volume 5, p. 266). Through the power of the Holy Spirit, first received in our baptism and brought to perfection in our confirmation, we Christians are called to transform the world. We cannot standby idly when human life is attacked, whether from its beginning in the womb or due to old age or illness.
The American novelist and social critic Edward Dahlberg once said, “My country right or wrong. When right to keep right, and when wrong to make right.” In a nutshell this is the Church’s teaching about the Christian’s personal responsibility in society at large, to use the light of Faith to promote the common good. Let us strive to make right in the Light of Christ.
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