299. Fifteenth Tuesday of Ordinary Time
Meditations no. 279 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Love for oneās country, without being nationalistic.
The Book of Exodus tells the story of Mosesā birth in Egypt and how God caused him to be rescued from the Nile as a new-born baby by Pharaohās daughter, and brought up as her own son.
The sacred text goes on to describe how divine Providence so arranged things that Moses had to flee from Egypt into the desert, in preparation for his role in freeing the people of Israel from bondage, and welding them into a nation. The Second Vatican Council teaches that God, who has fatherly concern for everyone, has willed that all men should constitute one family and treat one another in a spirit of brotherhood. In his Providence God takes into consideration our social nature, so that in his redemptive plan the Body of Christ, the Church, forms a society, the People of God.
At a purely natural level the individual is in no way isolated from life in community. Every human being is born into a family, and we absorb from our surroundings all the culture and traditions that make for spiritual growth and perfection. The same document from the Second Vatican Council goes on to say: Manās social nature makes it evident that the progress of the human person and the advance of society itself hinge on one another. For the beginning, the subject and the goal of all social institutions is and must be the human person, which for its part and by its very nature stands completely in need of social life. This social life is not something added on to man, but rather, through his dealings with others, through reciprocal duties, and through fraternal dialogue he develops all his gifts and is able to rise to his destiny.
We owe a great deal, therefore, to society, and in particular to our country, and we are naturally obliged to be grateful: we ought to love our country and hold it in high regard. But for a Christian, patriotism must be animated by charity. Nationalism, our Father said, is a sin. It is a lack of justice towards other nations. And what about love for oneās country? That is a virtue, a Christian virtue, and I bless it with both hands. It is important to distinguish well between the two. In order to save a soul I would be willing to take any nationality whatever, and yet I wonāt allow anyone to claim they love my country more than I do. Can you see the difference between love of oneās country, which is a noble sentiment, and nationalism? Nationalism is displeasing in the eyes of God because it makes us sin against our duties towards other nations. It is the height of folly and always ends up doing harm to the Church.
The Church therefore teaches that citizens must cultivate a generous and loyal spirit of patriotism, but without being narrow-minded. This means that they will always direct their attention to the good of the whole human family, united by the different ties which bind together races, people and nations.
Shouldering our civic responsibilities.
How are we to express our love for our country? Jesus explained it for us quite clearly. When asked about the lawfulness of paying tribute to Caesar, his reply was: Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesarās, and to God the things that are Godās.
Our Founder comments: Unfortunately, very often people pay no heed to this very clear precept, and end up getting everything muddled, in one of two extremes, both of which are equally mistaken: on the one hand, secularism, which ignores the rights of the Church; and on the other, clericalism, which enslaves the equally lawful rights of the State. My children, what is needed to combat these two abuses are lay people who really are, and feel themselves to be, children of God and citizens of both Cities.
Politics, in the best sense of the term, is nothing other than the attempt to achieve the common good of the earthly city. This good has extremely wide-ranging repercussions. In the political forum, debates take place and laws of the greatest importance are passed on issues such as marriage, the family, education, private property, the dignity of the human person and the rights and duties of citizens. All these matters, and others besides, are of prime interest to religion, and no apostle can remain indifferent and uncommitted in their regard.
We are obliged, then, to work for the good of the national community to which we belong. Frequently, indeed, one comes across apparently responsible and devout Catholics who think they are only obliged to fulfil their family and religious duties and who donāt want to hear anything about civic duties. It is not a question of selfishness, but simply a lack of formation. No one has ever told them clearly that the virtue of piety, which is part of the cardinal virtue of justice, and the sense of Christian solidarity, are expressed by being involved in, by being informed about and contributing to solve, the problems affecting the whole community.
Render to Caesar the things that are Caesarāsā¦ We should be concerned constantly about how to fulfil this obligation, and get others to see it as part of the Gospel message. The Second Vatican Council teaches: In loyalty to their country and in faithful fulfilment of their civic obligations, Catholics should feel themselves obliged to promote the true common good. Thus they should make the weight of their opinion felt in order that the civil authority may act with justice and that legislation may conform to moral precepts and the common good. The virtue of justice, then, obliges us to have certain standards in this area, in accordance with our circumstances. It would be unreasonable, our Founder remarked, to expect everybody to get professionally involved in politics ā¦
But it is certainly both possible and desirable, in present-day circumstances, to have a basic level of awareness of the specific issues affecting the common good of the society in which one lives.
What is involved, therefore, is a right which is also a duty, something that requires proper preparation and a sense of responsibility. Great care must be taken about civic and political formation, which is of the utmost necessity today for the population as a whole, and especially for youth, so that all citizens can play their part in the life of the political community.
Catholics and political freedom.
One particularly important aspect of all this, and one which our Founder referred to time and time again, is the freedom of Catholics, and specifically members of the Work, in the political arena. The Work, he said, has no political agenda. That is not its purpose. Our purpose is exclusively spiritual and apostolic, and carries a divine stamp: love for the freedom Christ has won for us by dying on the Cross. Thus, the Work of God has not entered, nor will it ever enter, the arena of party politics. For our supernatural Family it is not only praiseworthy, but absolutely necessary, to keep out of the bickering which poisons political life, for the simple reason that the objectives of the Work - let me repeat - are not political, but apostolic.
All Christians have been called to freedom. The Second Vatican Council teaches that the Church, by reason of her role and competence, is not identified in any way with the political community nor bound to any political system. She is at once a sign and a safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person. To assume that everyone should adopt the same political stance goes against this transcendence. Such an attitude would diminish the freedom we all have as human beings.
In the Work we have a further reason for abiding by this teaching. Our total secularity is also seen, our Founder wrote, in the central position in the spirit of the Work of our freedom and autonomy in everything to do with the temporal sphere. The constant exercise of this freedom, in which all the members of the Work are formed, lies at the heart of our asceticism. It is inseparably bound up with the secular status of my children, with what I describe as the hinge of our vocation, and with our specific dedication.
This love for freedom, so much a part of the spirit of Opus Dei, brings with it the duty to help people respect the opinions of others in all those political and professional matters which the Church has left to their free choice. The Church teaches that Christians must recognize the legitimacy of different opinions with regard to temporal solutions, and respect citizens, who, even as a group, defend their points of view by honest methods. By acting in that way we are defending our own freedom as much as other peopleās, and developing the kind of environment in which men and women can follow their human and divine vocations.
The Blessed Virgin Mary has a place in her heart for us all. May she, who aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers ā¦ now intercede before her Son in the fellowship of all the saints, until all families of people, whether they are honoured with the title of Christian or whether they still do not know the Saviour, may be happily gathered together in peace and harmony into one people of God, for the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity.