Political Preamble
Although people would like to extend the idea of non-competing magisteria to the fields of politics and religion, Christianity cannot comply. From the beginning, Jesus of Nazareth was to be "the fall and rise of many in Israel." He upset political ideologies of his day, not the least of which were upheld by some of his more fervent supporters.
Jesus' disciples could only understand the capital punishment of the cross in one way: the man they thought to be their lord was no messiah. His reign had failed before it had a chance to succeed, and his political associates found themselves under the same judgment with which their master had been pursued.
As the apostles emerged from hiding they knew what would lie ahead. Preaching the resurrection of the dead was always a forcefully political idea. After all, Jesus has been revealed as Lord of all: no one but the Author of life can claim authority. The reign of sin and death has reached its definitive end in Christ's death and resurrection.
If that wasn't enough, God was now seen to be remaking the world. His kingdom, in fact, has come about. The Lord's Church would serve as the vehicle of His all-sustaining love, the beacon of truth to bring about the salvation of all peoples. Having received the saving truths of the faith, the disciples could not rest content. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, the kerygma runs, therefore we have work to do! Christians have become God's agents of His new creation.
In the world, but not of the world, Christian life is necessarily political. Bathed in the truths of God and man, the Church as part of her indissoluble mission must bring about a world permeated with God's love and mercy. A just social order is something towards which all Christians must work.
For whatever reason many of today's Christians resemble the Gnostics of old. Stressing intellectual and spiritual enlightenment, their higher tenets of truth never touched society. The world was to be transcended rather than transformed. The Christian faith is more incarnational than that - stewardship is as serious a task as worship, and the two are never divorced from each other.
A Kingdom Comes
For better or worse, human experience has taught us that there are rulers and subjects in the political realm. Authority, it seems, is an unavoidable aspect of order in society. In the wake of the apostles preaching and practice the Church stands alone in her appeal to Christ's authority. As the vehicle of Christ's saving work in the world, the Church is necessarily the interpreter of the natural law and the Scriptures especially as regards the lives of men: in faith and morals.
Deprived of the Church's wisdom, the secular realm can make little sense of human existence. Although elected officials usually have the backing of popular acclamation, there is no Guarantee or Guarantor of their work in any specific arena. Every doctrine of political life, then, is compromise. The truth is usually not decided, however, by a vote.
One of the great successes of the hopeful generation was to cast out, once and for all, any vestige of authority in the world over which the individual had no ultimate say. It is no coincidence that the death of God movement always takes anarchical forms and ideologies. Whether or not they are based on utopian visions of human hope and grandeur, they have all been doomed to fail, and have borne witness to some of the greatest calamities in human history. Although authority has been shed for brief moments in time's annals, man finds himself again and again with rulers and ruled. Breaking the shackles will not work.
Until enlightenment ideologies fought their decisive battle, rulers all too commonly appealed to God as the source of their power. Although this may have been the source of countless abuses, inasmuch as they acted as God's stewards on earth their theology seems justified. The sweeping changes, at least symbolically, saw kings dethroned. The people, not God, would choose their rulers. Elected governments took form on the common good and the will of the people. These are not bad things.
The Church seems to sustain her hierarchical governance even in the face of new and better ways. She claims authority from Christ, who is her head and her husband. Although, as we have seen, such authority can be wrongly brandished, abuses do not corrupt God's promises to the core. His justice convicts us, but in His mercy He has reconciled us to Himself. His promises stand up to and through human weakness.
Church authority, though fashioned hierarchically, is grounded in service. The most striking image of authority in the Church is given to us by Christ, who in washing the disciples' feet commanded that they go and do likewise. Priests, who share in the ministerial priesthood Jesus conferred that selfsame night, are at the service of the people of God, who are themselves the leaven of the world. Members of the hierarchical Church, then, rule for the common good inasmuch as they are at the service of Christ's people.
Church authority is obviously a multifaceted reality. The hierarchy, governing the people of God as shepherds in the place of Christ, also serves the word of God and lives out Christ's promise of fidelity. Jesus' promise to remain always with the apostles is enfleshed in the Church today and throughout history. The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, which is the Holy Spirit's sure and safe guard of all things that tend to man's salvation. The Church cannot fail to teach without fault in matters of faith and morals. If she could, Christ's promise would be mere wishful thinking and bad counsel for a people who sorely need it.
Authority, then, in the fullest sense of the word, is given by God (no man can or should try to elevate himself over another) for the benefit of all people. Whether secular or sacred, this understanding of what is means to rule and to be ruled should permeate our own perspectives.
