Our country has been through a lot this last year. As many people have reacted against the founding and history of the United States, I have found myself drawn towards greater patriotism. By this, I simply mean a deeper appreciation of what I’ve been given by my country and a growing realization of the duty I must work for the common good, here, and now. The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of this duty under the fourth commandment that enjoins honor not only to parents but also to anyone in authority.
It is the duty of citizens to contribute along with the civil authorities to the good of society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom. The love and service of one’s country follow from the duty of gratitude and belong to the order of charity. Submission to legitimate authorities and service of the common good requires citizens to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community (2239).
Catholics, and all people of good will, are called to a love and service of country to work for the common good. The Golden Triangle of Freedom is, when reduced to its most basic form, that freedom requires virtue; virtue requires faith; and faith requires freedom. The three go round and round, supporting one another infinitely. If any one of the three legs of the triangle is removed, the whole structure ceases to exist. John Adams related very clearly, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other”. If you take God and faith and morality out of the equation, everything inevitably falls apart. That may sound extreme, but we have many examples from Communist and Fascist countries and now even from movements within our country that aggressive secularism parallels a collapse of real freedom. As Catholics, we have a lot to offer our country by drawing from our rich intellectual and spiritual heritage. In an age of confusion, Catholics can bring greater clarity in our national discourse on the nature of human life, virtue, and politics. We live in a time of ideological conflicts, in which the citizens of the nations of the modern world seem incapable of agreeing upon even the most basic of moral, economic, or political principles. Civil discourse has been replaced with violent protest, and reasoned dialogue with character assassination. As Catholics, we should be able to look above all of this, literally: “While the Church does not force us to reject political citizenship, she demands that we direct it to the heavenly, and we can do that by heeding her call to engage the world rather than conform to it.
Our ultimate good, however, is God, not the political life. Everything, all our choices, including economic and political ones, must be directed to our goal. There are not two ends to human existence, the earthly and the heavenly, there is only one end, the beatific vision”. In this way the Church informs our citizenship. Human law needs a higher law to truly bring about a just community. Unfortunately, we’re seeing that our society is no longer even trying to prevent serious vice. Catholics have an important role to play, because “the lack of religion in the citizenry leads it down the path of destruction. It Is critical that a people maintain a strong commitment to a transcendent measure of the common good to protect the true flourishing of its members.And that Sir Knights, is YOU.
