I was filling in for a pastor at a small parish church a couple
summers ago. The immigration debate had
heated up with Trump’s recent election, and our bishop had recently put out a
statement which was referenced by the local pastor in that week’s bulletin. Being the visiting priest, I did not think it
would be appropriate to wade into such politically charged waters without
knowing the people better, so I did not address the issue in the homily, but
instead gave a short statement after the prayer following communion. I basically said “This is a charged topic. It is tempting to stay out of the
debate. However, the Church does have
something important to contribute to the discussion. This contribution cannot be summed up in a
couple of talking points, because it is nuanced. Please read up on what the Church teaches so
that you can be ambassadors of the full Catholic position in the public square.”
I figured that my words would be acceptable even to the most
partisan, since I had not taken a position other than to say that our faith needed
to dialogue with the issue. I was
mistaken. On the way out of church, I
was confronted first by an angry man who was frustrated that I had not spoken
about the importance of maintaining borders and of the lawlessness that was
happening on the border. Then, almost
immediately after he finished scolding me, I was accosted by a lady who was
very angry that I had not advocated for those who were being victimized at the
border and for the injustice being perpetrated on the poor and vulnerable.
I came away from the Mass feeling a sense of tension but
also of peace, thinking that I must have done a decent job explaining, since I
took hits from both sides of the political spectrum. It seemed to me appropriate and healthy that
the teaching of the Church could not be claimed by either political extreme,
but was unsettling to both. Yet, as I
have reflected on that experience, and on countless other experiences as a
priest teaching the faith over these last years of hyper-partisan politics, I
have become less and less comfortable with our current state of affairs.
For a time, I thought that the lack of a cohesive Catholic
vote in the United States was a good sign: a sign that the Church was not
beholden to any political interest. It
made sense to me that Catholics should not be at home in either political party, since
our teaching is not at home in either party.
Thus, the relatively stable split of the Catholic vote and political
affiliation seemed to me healthy. And, I
think like many bishops, priests, and others teaching the faith, I assumed that
my role as a helpful guide to the Catholic faithful was to alternately make those
of both political leanings uncomfortable, refusing to be pinned down by one
side of the partisan divide or the other.
One week preach on abortion, the next week preach on immigration;
promote the Church's vision of marriage at one table and care for the poor at the next. At the red Mass or the blue Mass make sure
that representatives from both political parties are in attendance. This seemed to be rising above the political
fray: showing the people in the pews that there was a different, non-partisan
criteria informing how the Church came to positions on social teaching. My hope was, as I think it has been for
many priests, that in straddling the political divide we were pointing the way
to the Gospel.
I have come to doubt this approach. Why? Because
straddling the divide is not getting to the root of the problem. It is a band-aid approach, dealing with the
symptoms, rather than the cause of division among Catholics in the pews. Week after week, I am increasingly preaching
to democrats and republicans who are Catholic, rather than Catholics who are
democrats or republicans. Their politics
comes first, and their faith follows. The evidence is overwhelming: how many republican
Catholics dissent from Church teaching on abortion compared to democrats? How many democrat Catholics dissent on the
death penalty compared to republicans? As
a priest, I can tell what part of the Gospel someone will most likely struggle
to embrace as soon as I know their political affiliation, and the more strongly
they hold that political affiliation, the more likely they are to reject Church
teaching that is a challenge to it. More
than any other factor: race, gender, ethnicity, background – the most clear
indicator of how a Catholic will receive the gospel is their political
affiliation – and this is at every point along the political spectrum.
The recognition of this fact makes this next point incredibly
clear: a huge chunk of people in the pews on Sunday are not followers of Christ
first and foremost, but followers of earthly powers and tribes. Whether they realize it or not, they are worldly people who are
looking to the Church to back up their worldly views. They want to justify their three houses? Then the priest should preach on the horror
of abortion and leave out economic justice.
They want to feel good about their son or daughter’s gay marriage? The priest should hammer immigration
and leave out any sexual teaching. While they may think that they are are looking to Jesus to be the foundation for their lifestyles, they are actually seeking for him to be their justification. Insofar as the Church channels that justification, they consider it to be channeling
Jesus Christ, because for them Jesus Christ is the
justification and salvation of the lifestyle that they chose, whether it is based
on his teachings and witness and lived in harmony with his Holy Spirit or not.
To these worldly Catholics, bishops and priests
who attempt to straddle the political fence just look weak. Both sides consider such straddling to
be making unnecessary and even dangerous compromises with the other side that
undermine the justification they find in the gospel. That is why they tend to gravitate to bishops
or priests who embrace more partisan positions, considering them to be more faithful
to the “true message of Christ,” which is, of course, the one that aligns with
their political beliefs. Ironically,
from this perspective, bishops and priests who refuse to be pigeon holed or to
take partisan sides are considered weak and political. How often I have heard the sentiment "If only they would 'tell it like it is'." – i.e.,
align the Gospel strictly to a partisan political paradigm.
But the Church is not a worldly endeavor. And it most certainly is not a weak or
passive endeavor. People often point to
Jesus as remaining above the political fray
- not choosing sides, not endorsing any leader. As if he were politically neutral, someone
whose message transcended politics by acknowledging the good on all sides.
But I would submit that on closer study, nothing could be
further from the truth. Jesus
transcended politics by undermining all of it.
He didn’t straddle fences, he destroyed them. He didn’t bridge the partisan divide, he
flooded both banks with a new revelation that washed away every earthly political
structure. He declared war on politics,
on earthly powers, on tribalism, on ideology, on every human endeavor to lord authority over another, every claim to earthly
sovereignty. He undermined it all,
claiming universal authority over all people, every time, and every place. He made clear that his Word was the criteria by
which every other word should be judged, his teaching the foundation of every authentic teaching, his life, the source and summit of every human life. And that is why every political
party of his time rose up against him. Because
of his claim to divine authority.
How can we not conclude, looking at the political divide that has infiltrated our pews, that the overwhelming majority of Catholics do not believe in the divine authority of
Jesus Christ and his Church. If they did,
than how could the greatest predictor of their acceptance of his authority in their lives be their earthly political affiliations?
The reason that there is barely a “Catholic vote” in this
country is because our people are barely aware of what it means to be Catholic:
to acknowledge the universal authority of Jesus Christ over every earthly principality
and power, every lifestyle and ideology.
To acknowledge, in short, that he is the Word made Flesh, light from
light, true God from true God. To look to him for the most fundamental answers about life and death, happiness and tragedy, love and war. To speak to him as much as we would speak to a friend. To know his teaching as it has been handed on to us better than any other area of knowledge and certainly better than we would know trivial things like sports statistics or plot-lines for netflix series. To wake up and go to bed concerned primarily with discerning his will each day and following it as best we can.
So many of us are sick of the political divide. Frustrated with the constant partisan
nonsense. And how many of us have a deep awareness that the tribalism of
our day will lead to social conflict without something inherently new and
different entering the equation.
The Church has been given that source of unity: he is called Jesus
Christ. Catholics need to go to him, learn from
him, follow him. They need to seek his
ways each day in acts of charity and selflessness, giving their lives over to
him, dying to themselves so that he can be alive in them. The Catholic Church must be more and more
able to say with St. Paul “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in
me.” We must be truly converted, placing every
perception, belief, and action before the authority of Jesus Christ and being
obedient to his will. Making of our
hearts a dwelling place for his Holy Spirit to move freely and joyfully,
leading us from one act of love to the next.
We know what that looks like: it means observing the commandments, regular reception of the sacraments, and the living of a holy life. It is not a mystery, but a pattern exhibited in the life of every saint and placed before every Catholic at their baptism. A pattern that undermines politics in the
Church and in our hearts, replacing earthly partisan struggle with a deep love for Christ our sovereign
king, for his creation, and for every person he has made.
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