A few months ago, I had the opportunity to meet with brother bishops, whose jurisdictions reach the Texas-Mexican border. This group of bishops meets regularly, twice a year. We meet in order to express our fraternal bonds, and also to share ideas with regard to common pastoral issues. Our last meeting was in Nuevo Laredo. It was at that meeting, in fraternal discussions with other Catholic bishops that I felt completely “at home:” I was within the Church community. Yet I was not in my own country. This reality or feeling was not new to me, but it highlighted something that has been intimated in public discussions recently.
How do we as Catholics, members of a church that is universal, live as members of the society that we form a part of? Specifically for us, how does our membership in the Body of Christ and of the Catholic Church relate to our citizenship of and residency in the United States? Can we be good Catholics and good Americans? I think we can be and ought to be both good Catholics and good Americans. The church tells us that we have a moral responsibility to be engaged in the building up of a just society by participating in civil affairs. It is important, then, to clarify what our relationship as Christians is to the world in which we live.
I am distinguishing three realities: society, the state (country), and the church. The three exist together, but are distinct realities. The human person is a social being and thus is naturally born into a family and called to live in community. The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes the following: “The human person needs to live in society. Society is not for him an extraneous addition but a requirement of his nature” (1879). It is in society that the human person develops and gives of himself. The state exists to serve the good of society, to ensure that the dignity of the human person is respected. The church says the following in this regard: “It is the role of the State to defend and promote the common good of civil society, its citizens, and intermediate bodies” (CCC 1910).
The truth of the human person, which can be discerned from the Natural Law, is recognized most clearly in the divine law, namely revelation, given to the church. Thus, the Church exists in the world as a “light to the nations,” helping to provide a moral compass as to the good of society. (It is disconcerting when members of the church, through sin, bring darkness and confusion instead of light, truth and love.) As Catholics, the church encourages us to be actively involved in our civic duties. The Catechism notes the following: “It is necessary that all participate, each according to his position and role, in promoting the common good. This obligation is inherent in the dignity of the human person. Participation is achieved first of all by taking charge of the areas for which one assumes personal responsibility: by the care taken for the education of his family, by conscientious work, and so forth, man participates in the good of others and of society. As far as possible citizens should take an active part in public life (CCC 1913-1915).
Perhaps the following letter of a Second Century anonymous author, from the so-called “Letter to Diognetus,” can give us a clearer idea of what the priorities of the Christian are in the world and what our relationship to the world ought to be.
“Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.
And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country.
They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult.
Christians love those who hate them just as the soul loves the body and all its members despite the body's hatred. The soul, though immortal, has a mortal dwelling place; and Christians also live for a time amidst perishable things, while awaiting the freedom from change and decay that will be theirs in heaven. As the soul benefits from the deprivation of food and drink, so Christians flourish under persecution. Such is the Christian’s lofty and divinely appointed function, from which he is not permitted to excuse himself.”
Whatever our citizenship, this letter reminds us that as Christians our citizenship goes beyond this world. Thus, we are called to live according to its laws -- those of the Gospel.