This article first appeared in Our Sunday Visitor magazine. Subscribe to receive the monthly magazine here.
Can a Catholic love his country? Must a Catholic love his country? It’s illuminating to reframe these questions: Can a Catholic love his family? Must a Catholic love his family?
The first commandment is higher than all the rest: “I am the Lord your God … you shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20:2-3). The apostles revealed that they must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29), and Jesus himself showed that he belonged neither to the polity of his own kin, the Jewish people, nor the dominant Roman forces, but neither did he see his primary mission as tearing down those structures of oppression. St. Peter, in his first epistle, commands us to “Honor the emperor” and accept his authority (2:13-17). And we must keep in mind that this emperor was Nero, an unambiguously evil figure who would bring about the death of that very same Peter.
As Christianity spread and became legal, the cultural realities of ancient societies were accepted or rejected according to how they were compatible with Christian teaching. Sometimes this process moved more slowly and with fits and starts. But a dual allegiance was known even among the political leaders of these newly Christianized nations: They knew they would be judged by Christ the king according to his laws.
Good but damaged hierarchies
God created man in his image, and all of the structures of man were originally designed by God as good. The original man had custody over creation; male and female were united in the bond of matrimony; and children were to be subject to their parents. Hierarchy was built into creation; just read Genesis 1. When Adam fell, all these things were damaged by sin, including governance. Cultures rose up around the world that embodied a mixture of the good things that man was designed by God to do and disordered perversions. Genesis 4 reveals the perversion of family bonds. Genesis 6-9 reveals the perversion of the human community, and the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 reveals the perversion of human governance.
A higher order
Christianity transcends the political order while also attempting to elevate it. We are grateful for the structure that God gave us — family, city, nation — and attempt to use it for good, for justice and for sanctity. We would never expect any of these structures to be perfect, as God has clearly allowed for grace to transform and redeem them slowly on this earth. We pray for his kingdom to come while knowing it will not fully come until Christ returns triumphant. Our families wound us, our nation promotes injustice and we have quarrels with our neighbors.
Nevertheless, this season of patriotism calls us both to see the actual goods transmitted to us by the sacrifice of others and to pray and work for the great potential ever-present in God’s creation of governance.
