Since I delved into civic
responsibility last week, I thought perhaps we could find a few pointers in
Scripture and the Church Fathers to give us help is discerning how to move
forward after our recent election.
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there
is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by
God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed,
and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good
conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his
approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not
bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the
wrongdoer. Therefore one must be
subject, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For
the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God,
attending to this very thing. Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes
are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor
to whom honor is due. (Romans
13:1-7)
Honor all men. Love the
brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1
Peter 2:17)
To
speak in general terms, we may say that the Christian is to the world what the
soul is to the body. As the soul is present in every part of the body, while
remaining distinct from it, so Christians are found in all the cities of the
world, but cannot be identified with the world. As the visible body contains
the invisible soul, so Christians are seen living in the world, but their
religious life remains unseen. The body hates the soul and wars against it, not
because of any injury the soul has done it, but because of the restriction the
soul places on its pleasures. Similarly, the world hates the Christians, not
because they have done it any wrong, but because they are opposed to its
enjoyments. (from the Letter to Diognetus
(from Mathetes) 2nd Century AD)
For we offer prayer for the safety of our princes to
the eternal, the true, the living God, whose favour, beyond all others, they
must themselves desire. They know from whom they have obtained their power;
they know, as they are men, from whom they have received life itself; they are
convinced that He is God alone, on whose power alone they are entirely
dependent, to whom they are second, after whom they occupy the highest places… For
he himself is His to whom heaven and every creature appertains. He gets his sceptre where he first got his
humanity; his power where he got the breath of life. …Without ceasing, for all
our emperors we offer prayer. We pray
for life prolonged; for security to the empire; for protection to the imperial
house; for brave armies, a faithful senate, a virtuous people, the world at
rest, whatever, as man or Cæsar, an emperor would wish. These things I cannot ask from any but the God
from whom I know I shall obtain them, both because He alone bestows them and
because I have claims upon Him for their gift, as being a servant of His,
rendering homage to Him alone, persecuted for His doctrine, offering to Him, at
His own requirement, that costly and noble sacrifice of prayer… (Tertullian: Apologeticus pro Christianis, XXX, AD 197)
There is also another and a greater necessity for our
offering prayer in behalf of the emperors, nay, for the complete stability of
the empire, and for Roman interests in general. For we know that a mighty shock
impending over the whole earth—in fact, the very end of all things threatening
dreadful woes—is only retarded by the continued existence of the Roman empire. We have no desire, then, to be overtaken by
these dire events; and in praying that their coming may be delayed, we are
lending our aid to Rome’s duration. (Tertullian: Apologeticus pro Christianis, XXXII, AD 197)
Praised be Jesus
Christ, now and forever.
Monsignor Smith
