The greatest test for the freedom of a society is the support it gives to the permanent changes of the heart, which we call conversion. As Cardinal Newman said, in his study of Christian Doctrine: “To grow is to change. To grow perfect is to change often." As Christians, we must not accept the standards of our society as norms, which compromise our spiritual growth. These forces prevent change. They threaten our freedom.
Freedom Threatened by Materialism
The current materialism and commoditisation of our society are only two examples of how we can acquire bad habits, which inhibit spiritual growth. Whether these weaknesses concern ourselves and our ambitions, or sex and our purity of mind, or society and its materialism, or God and our spiritual inhibitions is less important than simple loss of virtue. We walk a wary path in our conscience between passivity that compromises with evil and anger that worsens evil. Those who offend against the precious bond of trust between priest and child, teacher and pupil and other relationships of dependency, do so out of disobedience to that bond. Those who want to injure the church’s reputation and exaggerate its deficiencies do so out of disobedience to its bond between the faithful and those chosen to lead them.
Freedom Protected by Love
The path that avoids both extremes is the path of love. In his recent encyclical, Pope Benedict asks us to consider Agape, the love of God and not Eros, the love between men and women, as the norm of love. Self-sacrifice is the sign of such love. As Jesus tells us in Luke 17.33, “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.” The work of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and of countless other holy men and women gives us an example of the love of God as transmitted to one’s neighbour. Out of charitable love comes a genuine concern for social reform, uncorrupted by political or material bias.
Freedom Sustained by Authority
Society is characterized by authority. Authority is necessary, in order that individuals can accomplish together what each desire, but cannot accomplish on his or her own. In order to exercise authority some must be entrusted with the power to make, give and enforce laws. These laws should be directed to the common good. St Paul teaches us in Romans 13.1-2, “there is no authority except from God.” These are difficult words. In the past they have been used to justify tyrants and for all we know they still are being used to justify today’s dictators.
Freedom Dignifies Law
We do not owe obedience to any regime that so crushes individuality that the nation it controls cannot achieve the common good. Its laws are not binding on our consciences. The common good can be defined as any human concern that accords with the natural law. Tertullian gives a good definition of this in his Against Marcion, 2. 4 “Alone among all animate beings, man can boast of having been counted worthy enough to receive a law from God.” This is how we should understand Paul’s words. Legitimate political authority touches the rationality of God with the rationality of good government.
Freedom Grows in Diversity
There is a real plurality in the political regimes in the world. The church does not promote any particular form of government so long as that government seeks the common good and does not resort to means, which contradict the common good. For this reason the forces of interest within society, pressure groups, social classes, professional and business interests, even the law itself, must be subject to the law. The tragedy of Antigone must not be repeated, the law cannot be an end in itself.
Freedom is Action
We can further define the Common Good as centred upon three aspects of the relationship we have with God as we are drawn into His triune love. The first is respect for the person. Each of us has the inalienable right to follow sound conscience, in spiritual privacy and freedom of worship, as creatures brought into being by God. Secondly in the image of God we have within us the common good requires each of us to foster the development of others. Human life is an active concern, which if it stiffens, dies.
Freedom Is the Key to Peace
This why the late Pope, Blessed John Paul the Great, called Western values the Culture of Death, not just because of the inroads our secular society is making on the dignity of procreation, the embryo, orphans, immigrants, prisoners and old age, but because it has closed us in on ourselves and filled our lives with the torpor of selfish individualism. We must strive that others are clothed, are healthy, have the right to work, be educated, marry and raise children in order that we should develop as human beings. The third principle of the common good is peace. This is the message of the Spirit in communion with our developing consciences. This means society must be secure and under certain conditions have the right to defend itself. Above all, society must have the right to change peacefully.
Sources
- The Bible, The Gospel of Luke, 17.33 St Paul, Epistle to the Romans 13.1-
- Newman, Cardinal John, Henry: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, London, Longmans Green 1909; 47
- Tertullian, Contra Marcion 2.4 Ethereal Classics Chapter 2.4
Duncan McGibbon - By contributing writer, Bath (UK) Institute Convenor and Wells Festival Prize-Winner, Duncan McGibbon
