In both a political and spiritual sense, we only come to life in the context of community
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Let’s think about the apostle and evangelist St. Matthew, whose feast day we celebrate this week (Sept. 21).
What stands out to me: Jesus did not come down and hand us a written text and say, “Follow this.” Instead, He came and planted the seed of a community. And one of the things that community did — only one, mind you — was to write accounts of His life. Then, the community preserved those accounts. And then, when questions arose, the community selected some of those accounts as thoroughly authentic witnesses to what Jesus said and did. St. Matthew’s Gospel is one of those authentic accounts.
At every stage the Scriptures relied on a living community of faith. The living community of faith existed first. Some of its members — like Matthew — wrote those Scriptures! Then the living community of faith preserved those Scriptures. The Church — that living community of faith — existed before the Scriptures, and has always provided the context within which the Scriptures exist.
As Americans, we want — or think we want — written policies about everything. And don’t get me wrong — written policies have their legitimate place. We do, after all, have the Code of Canon Law!
But we’re tempted to treat written policies and documents as though they provide us access to the truth apart from the living community. The historical fact that the living community came first is also a systematic fact: We don’t have access to the truth of the documents apart from the living community. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) said: “The message of Jesus has never been able to live and mediate life except in this communion. Even the New Testament, as a book, presupposes the Church as its subject. It grew in and from the Church.”
The letters of St. Paul are another great example of this. We would have no St. Paul without the community that received him, healed him, baptized him and instructed him. And what we have from him in the New Testament are letters — letters to a community, a community that existed before the letters were written! The community exists before the writings exist; and the community is the living context within which the letters make sense.
So what?
Well, first, the same is true of our spiritual lives. To think that we can have an isolated spiritual life apart from the living community of the Church is like thinking that we can have the New Testament apart from the living community of the Church. Both historically and systematically, it doesn’t work that way.
Second, the same is true of the formation of our conscience for voting as Catholics. Forming our consciences isn’t something we can do properly in isolation. If we’re going to do it as Catholics, it requires an immersion in the living community of faith. So, I warmly recommend that you read the U.S. Bishops’ document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” as you consider the upcoming election. Just as we need to understand the Scriptures in the context of the Church, and place our spiritual life within the context of the Church, we need to think about our civic duties in the context of our Catholic faith.
To borrow an image from Ezekiel, we’re dry bones when we try to do these things as isolated individuals. We only come to life in the context of community.
