Robert Barron - The Use and Abuse of Power
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Peace be with you. Friends, for this 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, I want to focus not on the Gospel. I preached on it many times before, the great Parable of the Unjust Steward, which is very rich. But I want to focus on readings two and one because when read together, I think, they give us a very good sense of Catholic social teaching in regard to the question of power, of political power. The Church’s position is a subtle one, and I think much of the conversation today breaks on either side of it. And the Church typically gives this sort of both-and answer.
I think you see the roots of it in these two texts the Church gives us. Let me first observe this, and I’ve said this]many times before. I think the most influential 19th-century philosopher on the scene today is Friedrich Nietzsche. More than Karl Marx, Nietzsche, who said everything comes down to plays of power. I’m oversimplifying of course. But that the fundamental reality is power and the abuse of power, the use of power. Who has power, who’s benefiting from it, who’s a victim of it? The tendency, especially today, to divide the world into two camps: there’s oppressors who have power and the oppressed who don’t have it, and their ongoing struggle.
That’s a very Nietzschean perspective bequeathed to modern times by figures such as Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Ayn Rand, many others and I think it’s come to dominate the mentality of many so that there’s a tendency to demonize power. When you say, «Well, look, that group has got power. Yeah, because they want to oppress others. That guy’s got power and that’s not right. And these people are powerless and that’s a problem». So power tends to be seen as something almost entirely negative.
Well, let me say this bluntly. The Bible is not in sympathy with this sort of one-sided Nietzschean, Foucaultian demonization of power. The Bible does not see the world as divided simply into two camps of oppressors with power and oppressed who don’t have power. And one of the great texts, I think, is the one that’s proposed now for our second reading. It’s from Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. Here’s what we hear, «Beloved, first of all, I ask that supplications prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone. For kings, and for all in authority. Then we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity».
Well, if Paul thought kings were just corrupt, kings were just the wielders of oppressive power, why would you pray for them? You’d want to overthrow them, you’d want to resist them. No. He’s saying supplications, prayers, petitions for kings and all those in authority. Why? That we may lead a quiet and tranquil life. What’s the purpose of political power? Well, see, don’t demonize it. Because indeed God is described as all-powerful. So power can’t in itself be a problem. If God has power, well, those who are participating in God, who are imitating God in their use of power are doing something that’s really good, and namely we hear it, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.
Not a bad little description of the purpose of government there. There’s a basic purpose of keeping things quiet and peaceful, that we might lead our lives productively. Economically, and in terms of our friendships and relationships, if we’re living in chaos, well, then we can’t flourish as human beings. And so we need people in power that can provide for this tranquility. I like too the focus on, «In all devotion and dignity». One of the cornerstones of Catholic social teaching is the dignity of the individual. What’s the government’s purpose?
Now, I’m going to give it a somewhat American, more modern spin here, but part of the purpose of government is to guarantee the dignity of citizens. We speak of human rights and governments instituted to protect those rights, not creating them, but securing and protecting them. All right, tranquility, peace, dignity. But then listen now as St.Paul goes on, adding another dimension. «This is good and pleasing to God, our Savior, praying for those in authority». Now, why? «Who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth».
Well, now he puts it in a very explicitly theological framework. What’s at least one of the purposes of political authority is to allow for salvation, meaning it seems to me providing the context and conditions for a flourishing religiosity. We’ll speak of religious liberty quite correctly. The free exercise of religion, we say in our American context. Well, quite right. That’s one of the purpose of government is to allow for religion to flourish and so everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth that knowledge might be shared, that there might be the conditions that make real learning possible. Thinking here of Thomas Jefferson who would say one of the purposes of government is to provide for education.
See, beautiful. Don’t demonize power as though it’s just a bad thing. It’s just oppressive. No, no. Pray. Pray for those in authority. For all these reasons, that we might have the basic tranquility we need to flourish, that we might even be free to worship God properly, that we might have our dignity and rights preserved. Those are all beautiful and important things. Which is why in its social teaching, the Church insists that a properly constituted government is participating in the authority of God.
Now, again, it’s not to say, «Oh, they’re flawless and we should never ask questions about them». No, no, no. No, no. I’ll get there. We’ll get there in this very sermon, but it does mean that legitimate political authority participates in the authority by which God governs the universe. And so indeed, look, in the Catholic liturgy, we are positively encouraged, indeed required to pray for those in authority. When we’re putting the petitions together for mass, the Church recommends the first one be for the pope and for the bishops, those who lead us in the spiritual order. But then the second prayer, and I always follow this when I’m saying daily mass, the second prayer should be for those in authority, those in political.
We pray for the President, for senators and Representatives and our governors, et cetera. Good, good. Power should not be demonized. We should recognize the practical, moral, and indeed spiritual purpose of real power. Okay, there’s part one of Catholic social teaching reflected clearly now in Paul to Timothy. But now let’s look at the other side. And for that, I turn the page back to reading one, which is from the fiery prophet, Amos. Amos is one of the greatest of the minor prophets, just means that his book is shorter than those of the major prophets. But Amos was often cited by the leaders of our civil rights movement in the mid-twentieth century because Amos is one of the great voices for social justice, voice on behalf of the poor.
Listen now. A voice raised in opposition to the abuse of authority. Now, having said all these positive things about political authority and not wishing to gainsay any of it, I also want to echo the prophet Amos. Now, listen, as he speaks. «Hear this you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land. When will the new moon be over? You ask. That we may sell our grain and the Sabbath that we may display the wheat».
Okay, the first part of that is clear enough, you in authority who trample upon the needy, in other words, you’re not securing their dignity, you’re not securing tranquility for them, you’re using your power to trample upon them. And to destroy the poor of the land, not to lift them up, let’s say through a properly managed economy that gives people the opportunity to move out of their poverty. You’re not lifting them up, you’re trampling down the poor. Now, are there political authorities that do this? Yes. Up and down the ages, we can see them. We can see them around us today. And the church raises a prophetic voice against them.
Now, the second part is a little more puzzling to us, but it’s making an important point. «When will the new moon be over? You ask. That we may sell our grain and the Sabbath that we may display the wheat»? What they’re saying there is during times of these formal religious ceremonies and these certain times of the year, they were not allowed to do a business. «Can’t wait for this religion thing to be over so I can get back to my work of exploitation». That’s what he’s saying.
Notice in 1 Timothy, one of the purposes of a well-organized government is to provide for the flourishing of religion. But now here’s people in power who are saying, «Religion. Religion is just getting in the way of my exploitation. Can’t wait for these services to be over». That’s a profound perversion of the purpose of government, of power. Listen to this now. He imagines these wealthy, powerful figures saying, «We will diminish the ifah, add to the shekel and fix our scales for cheating».
Well, what’s that, but economic exploitation? So we’re talking about weighing things and measuring things and what’s this cost? And instead of doing it fairly, no, I’m going to fix the system. I’m going to game the system to get what I want. Now, in ancient times, it was all crude, just a matter of how you’re measuring things. Is it being done today? Yeah, just in a much more sophisticated manner, and probably a somewhat more hidden manner. Are there people today economically who are gaming the system for their own advantage, indifferent to the poor?
In fact, using the poor to get ahead themselves? Yeah, sure. What’s the purpose, everybody, of economic power, not just to aggrandize my own position, but to use my economic power to lift others up. See, there’s Catholic social teaching. Catholic social teaching affirms the market economy. It doesn’t like socialism or socialist forms. It likes the market economy for all kinds of reasons. But it wants more and more people involved in the market economy so they can participate in it in a way that lifts them up. It likes investment that’s not just for the advantage of the investor, but investment that lifts others up and provides more opportunities and jobs, and so on.
How do we think about our economic lives? How do we think about the power that some of us wield economically? Just, «Make me richer». No, no. The focus should be and indeed don’t. The popes tell us this in the Catholic social teaching? «Once the demands of necessity and propriety have been met in your own life, everything else you own belongs to the poor».
That’s Leo XIII, the founder of the modern Catholic social teaching tradition. That’s a hard saying. That’s a hard saying, everybody. How are we using our economic power as well as our political power? See, Catholic social teaching doesn’t demonize power, doesn’t demonize economic power or economic opportunity, but it wants to make sure that both political power and economic power are animated finally by love, so that my power is used for the good of the other.
Now, I’ll close with this. In God, what come together? Precisely power and love. Is God all-powerful. Yes, over all things. Nothing limits God’s capacity. But his power is identical to his love. Now we found it. Now we found the key to Catholic social teaching. May the power you legitimately exercise always be animated by love. And God bless you.