IT'S ELECTION SEASON! "Role of the Church" Part 2

Role of the Church - Part 2

 Jesus taught us to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's and so we have a duty to both the civil society and the kingdom of God. We don't choose one over the other. Don't check out of politics because you're a Christian. The idea of rejecting this world for heaven leads to quietism. On the other hand, rejecting heaven for the world leads to secularism. True Christianity says we are not called to choose one or the other; Christians are called to do both because God has made both. God is both creator and redeemer.

     Patriotism is an expression of the two greatest commandments (Matt 22:36-44). If we truly love God, we are going to care about eternity. And if we truly love our neighbor, we are going to care about the civil society our neighbors live in. Particularly we are going to care about the person who is being overly controlled by the government or singled out in some way for abuse. Patriotism is the affection of love turned unselfishly for the good of one's neighbor and ultimately for the glory of God. This is something we need to teach, but more importantly, we need to live it. Let us not be so heavenly minded that we can do no earthly good.

     Here’s a selection of excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s addresses and homilies during his apostolic visit to Mexico and Cuba. The Pope is teaching us how to vote: “Naturally the Church must always ask if enough is being done for social justice on this great continent. This is a question of conscience that we must always ask ourselves: what the Church can and must do what she cannot and should not do. The Church is not a political power, nor a political party, but rather a moral reality, a moral force. Inasmuch as politics should be a moral reality, on this track the Church fundamentally has to do with politics. I repeat what I have already said: the Church’s first thought is to educate consciences and thereby awaken the necessary responsibility; to educate consciences both in individual and public ethics. And here, perhaps something is missing. In Latin America, and elsewhere, among many Catholics a certain schizophrenia exists between individual and public morals. Personally, in the private sphere, they are Catholics and believers but in public life they follow other trends that do not correspond with the great values of the Gospel which are necessary for the foundation of a just society. It is therefore necessary to teach people to overcome this schizophrenia, teaching not only individual morality, but also public morality. We try to do this with the Church’s social teaching because public morality must of course be a reasonable morality, shared and shareable by non-believers too, a morality of reason.” 

     The two swords doctrine in the Catholic middles ages came to mean that the Pope possessed both swords but had granted the temporal sword to rulers; therefore, the Papacy had the right to depose kings and emperors. “Who would deny that the great check on state power throughout the entirety of European history, from the conversion of Constantine until the twentieth century, was the Catholic Church? Think of the Roman Emperor Theodosius, commander of all Rome’s legions, stripping himself of all imperial insignia to do penance before an unarmed cleric, St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan. It was the Catholic Church that brought a moral check to bear on the exercise and prerequisites of power” [ii] In the middle ages the secular authority was the first sword, the second sword is the supernatural authority, the Church. These two swords must stay connected for society to be well ordered, right and just. In the 12th century, Bernard of Clairvaux, in his De consideratione, argued that both the "material sword" (gladius materialis) and the "spiritual sword" (gladius spiritualis) belonged ultimately to the Papacy. Even today, the Church has direct authority over the baptized, and indirect authority over government, the Church must influence government with her moral teachings, not the other way around.