545. June 22, St Thomas More (I)

Meditations no. 476 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Contributing to the building up of society with a Christian spirit.

On the feast of St Thomas More, one of our intercessors, we would like to meditate upon several aspects of the spirit God has wanted for his Work, and which emerge from this saint’s profile.

The first trait we shall consider is his lay spirit, receptive to all the hopes and concerns of his contemporaries. He was a lawyer and a humanist thinker who was fully interested in the problems of his time. He devoted himself to his work with the desire of instilling civil institutions with a Christian sense of values.

By divine vocation, we desire to light up earthly realities with the doctrine of Christ. Through the personal apostolate which is proper to our spirit, we need to bring the light of God to the environment around us. However, our founder used to recall that your apostolic work doesn’t end there. Because it’s important you realise that you are doing a most fruitful apostolate when you make the effort to orientate, with Christian meaning, the professions, institutions and human structures in which you move and work.

Trying to make those institutions and structures conform to the principles governed by a Christian concept of life means carrying out a wide-based apostolate. By personifying the spirit of justice, you assure people the means to live in accord with their dignity. And you help many souls to be able to respond personally to their Christian vocation, with God’s grace.

Everyone should desire to contribute, within the measure of their possibilities, to the building-up of civil society. This concern for temporal affairs can lead some to take up positions of responsibility in social, economic, academic or civic life… As is true of all other professions, one should work in such positions with a spirit of service and not earthly ambition. It is important to work so as to put Christ our Lord at the peak of all honest human activities.

We must win back for Christ every noble human value: all that rings true, all that commands reverence, and all that makes for right; all that is pure, all that is lovely, all that is gracious in the telling (Phil 4: 8). We must discover the divine meaning within any human reality and bring it to God straightaway. That’s why, as I’ve told you so many times, it’s important that you never lose the supernatural point of view. Whatever you are about, in word and action alike, invoke always the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, offering your thanks to God the Father through him (Col 3: 17).

St Thomas More behaved accordingly. He accepted the post of Lord Chancellor of England, although he considered himself unworthy of such an honour. He thought only of serving God and his country. And in spite of the difficulties that soon presented themselves, he loyally persevered in that onerous task.

Awareness of one’s duties as regards temporal matters.

Your love for all mankind should lead you to confront temporal problems with bravery and to follow your Christian conscience. Do not be afraid of sacrifice, or of taking on heavy burdens. No human event can be indifferent to you. On the contrary, all events must become opportunities for doing good to souls and making their way to God easier.

We are apostolically motivated. The desire to impregnate organisations with Christian values leads us to take an active part in the building-up of civil society. Like all Christians, we have the obligation to take an interest in the temporal questions affecting the world. Without doubt a mending of the Christian fabric of society is urgently needed in all parts of the world… At this moment the lay faithful, in virtue of their participation in the prophetic mission of Christ, are fully part of this work of the Church. Their responsibility, in particular, is to testify to how the Christian faith constitutes the only fully valid response - consciously perceived and stated by all in varying degrees - to the problems and hopes that life poses to every person and society. This will be possible if the lay faithful are able to overcome in themselves the separation of the Gospel from life, to take up again in their daily activities in family, work and society, an integrated approach to life that is fully brought about by the inspiration and strength of the Gospel.

Among the human activities that determine a Christian direction in society, politics maintains a high profile. The Church has insistently recalled that, the lay faithful are never to relinquish their participation in ‘public life’, that is, in the many different economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good… the lay faithful must bear witness to those human and gospel values that are intimately connected with political activity itself, such as liberty and justice, solidarity, faithful and unselfish dedication for the good of all, a simple life-style, and a preferential love for the poor and the least.

St Thomas More exercised his personal freedom in dedicated service to civil society. He fulfilled the duties which the virtue of patriotic piety involved in an exemplary way. Yet he never yielded an inch as regards the rights of God.

On today’s feast, we can examine whether we too know how to accept and exercise responsibility combined with initiative. Each one of us takes on the obligation of contributing to society as an ordinary citizen; that is, in one’s own city or country, in one’s professional, social and cultural milieu…

Our Father often insisted on this obligation: as Christians, you cannot abstain from public assemblies, congresses, exhibitions, gatherings for those in science, work seminars, study courses of every conceivable type… in a word, from scientific, cultural, artistic, social, economic, sportive meetings, etc. Such absence would be a criminal omission. At times you yourselves will be the promoters. More often these gatherings will have been organised by others, and you will attend. But in any case, you will make the effort not to assist passively. Rather, on feeling the lovable burden of your responsibility, you will try to become vital participants. By your prestige, initiative and drive, you’ll raise the tone and infuse the Christian spirit into all those organisations.

Acting with personal initiative and responsibility in public life.

The public life of a Christian must always be guided by the clear supernatural sense proper to the children of God. A man who knows that the world - not just the church - is the place of his encounter with Christ, loves that world. He tries to acquire a solid intellectual and professional preparation. With full freedom he forms his own criteria regarding current issues. As a consequence, he makes his own decisions which, because they are the decisions of a Christian, result from personal reflection; humbly, he strives to find the will of God in both the small and great things in life.

However, it never occurs to this Christian to think or say that he has come down in an official capacity to represent the Church. Or that his solutions are the Catholic solutions to those problems. That’s not right, my children! That would be clericalism, official Catholicism, or whatever you want to call it.

St Thomas More’s life was always characterised by a great sense of loyalty to the Church, which led him to take on the consequences of his public office in a personal way. Thus, his example is equally valid today, in a society where ambiguous or irresponsible behaviour is widespread. You must spread a true lay mentality everywhere, cried our Father. This has to lead to three conclusions: to be sufficiently honest, so as to bear one’s own personal responsibility; to be sufficiently Christian in order to respect your brothers in the faith who propose solutions different from our own, in opinable matters; and to be sufficiently Catholic, so as not to use our Mother the Church by mixing her in human factions.

The example of the first Christian is always relevant. They did not have social or humanitarian projects to carry out by virtue of their supernatural vocation. But they were permeated with a spiritual outlook on life and the world that could not but have its consequences in their society.

With a personal apostolate similar to ours, they went about making converts. During his captivity, Paul was already sending greetings to the churches from the Christians who lived in Caesar’s household (cf. Phil 4: 22). Aren’t you moved by that wonderful letter which the Apostle addresses to Philemon, a letter which is a living testimony of how the leaven of Christ, without directly intending it, had given, through the influence of charity, a new meaning to the structures of that pagan society (cf. Philem 8-12)?

On finishing our prayer, we ask our Lady to help us live these fundamental aspects of our spirit with a sense of responsibility.