That Christ May Be King

by Father John McCloskey

The Feast of Christ the King, recent elections and the crisis in the executive branch, and the NCCB's strong statement on the duty of Catholic legislators to live out their faith integrally all lead naturally to the question of our love for freedom and the Catholic's participation in Public Life. A proper understanding of these two concepts is key to our resolving the societal and cultural problems. We want to renew our country so that it is easy for the person to be virtuous and where laws regarding marriage, the family, and education reflect a world where Christ truly reigns.

Let us look at freedom first. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that "freedom is the power rooted in reason and will, to act or not, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate action's on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life...The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to 'the slavery of sin.'" We are free because we are made in the image and likeness of God and as such the greatest gift that he has given us is to use freedom by the proper use of our intellect and will. We could say that we are the choices we have made throughout our life. The Church today stands as virtually the only defender of the reality of personal human freedom against the whole weight of modern ideologies which are gradually devolving into a return to a barbaric paganism. We learn how to exercise our freedom by our imitation of Jesus Christ who as the Lord of History is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. His Truth sets us free. In this life the Catechism tells us "progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis enhance the mastery of the will over its acts." The ultimate judgement of the use of our freedom will take place in the afterlife, both in the particular and final judgements when we will arrive to our final destination.

Second, what is the role of the Church in terms of helping us to administer our freedom? In the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World the Council Fathers tell us "Christ did not bequeath to the Church a mission in the political, economic or social order: the purpose he assigned to it was a religious one. But this religious mission can be the source of commitment, direction, and vigor to establish and consolidate the community of men, according to the law of God." This may be a surprising statement to some who view the Church in merely human terms. Its divine mission is to lead us to heaven and as a byproduct, by exercising our freedom correctly, we will create an environment in which it is possible for person and families to achieve a relative happiness in this world while preparing for the next.

Well, then who is responsible for those temporal realities? The answer is clear. "It is to the laity, though not properly exclusive to them, that secular activities and activity properly belong...The laity are called to participate actively in the whole life of the Church; not only are they to animate world with the spirit of Christianity, but they are to be witnesses to Christ in all circumstances and at the very heart of the community of mankind." Therefore the Pope and Bishops are our pastors called to transmit down to us Divine Revelation and the sacraments which enable us to live according to it while we are called to be the leaders who evangelize government, society, cultural and all temporal realities by the effective and holy use of our freedom. The proper interpretation then of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and the proper implementation of them by John Paul II during the course of his pontificate all point out that the laity as members of the Church are called to prudentially use their freedom in the middle of the world for God's glory and the good of mankind.

As a great and holy man of this century put it "Your task as Christian citizen is to help see Christ's life and freedom preside over all aspects of modern life: culture and the economy, work, and rest, family life, and social relations." We reply with the words of Sons of Thunder in Sacred Scripture, "We can!"

First published in Catholic Campaign for America Update (Washington, DC) in the April 1999 issue.