by Mike James
In the landmark 1971Pastoral Letter “Justice and Peace in a New Caribbean” quoted in last week’s article, the bishops of the Antilles Episcopal Conference, echoing the consistent teaching of the Church over the centuries in faithful witness to its founder Jesus Christ declared:
“... the work of the Church cannot be confined to the sacristy or the sanctuary. On the contrary it is the Church’s vocation to be present in the heart of the world by proclaiming the Good News to the poor, freedom to the oppressed, and joy to the afflicted. (Luke 4:16-22) Christ clearly proclaimed that this was his own mission. It must therefore also be the mission of the Church He founded.”
And the question was asked, “If Social Justice is such an important aspect of the following of Christ, why does the Church need to keep on repeating ‘It is imperative that no one, out of indifference to the course of events or because of inertia, would indulge in a merely individualistic morality.’” (Vatican Council II, Church in the Modern World (Art 30).
We cannot deny that an individualistic morality does have its attractions. True, it stresses that each of us as individuals is fully responsible for our own actions before God and that in itself is no easy task. Individual sexual morality, for example, is a constant and major challenge.
Maintaining my virginity until marriage or for life if I decide to not marry, total fidelity to my husband or wife even if the other is not faithful or becomes indifferent or even abusive, commitment to living a celibate life should a marriage disintegrate beyond repair, resisting any temptation to enter into any other relationship following divorce, full acceptance of responsibility for any children I have inside or outside marriage with total refusal to pressure a partner to have an abortion, refusal to enter into any kind of homosexual relationship however much I may be tempted.
On the other hand, there are advantages to “indulging in a merely individualistic morality”. If I can, by prayer and effort, live up to those individual moral norms, surely I can feel comfortable that I am pleasing to God. Individualist morality enables me to make a clear distinction between those who are good and those who are not. And this applies not only to sexual morality. If because of my hard work, I can make a good life for myself and my family, what obligation do I have to those who because of laziness or lack of ambition make a mess of their lives, end up in poverty, crime, drug addiction? Did Jesus in the parable not condemn the servant who instead of using his talent given him by his master so as to double its value, instead put in a hole in the ground and did nothing to improve what God had given him? His talent was taken away from him and given to the other who had doubled his talents to ten.
Individualistic morality requires hard, dedicated work, resistance to temptation, but it enables me to measure clearly if I am pleasing or not to God.
The only problem is that Jesus time and again in all that he said and did here on earth, and the Church consistently over the centuries, remind us that individualistic morality is not enough.
In every page of the Gospels Jesus reminds that what really distinguishes his followers includes the norms of individualistic morality but goes far, far further. “Love one another as I have loved you.” “If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples” (John 13:35).
Five whole consecutive chapters of St Matthew’s Gospel (21-25) give myriad examples of what this love and service of each other means, culminating with that clearest of visions of what the final judgement will be for us all. If I must love others as Christ loves me, how can I ever be confident that I am better than the prostitutes and tax collectors with whom Jesus kept company?
If I take his witness seriously, I can take no pride in meeting the requirements of individualistic morality. On the contrary, whenever I accept his invitation to share in his eternal life by eating his Body, I can truly and honestly say, “Lord I not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Only say the word and I, a sinner not a saint, shall be healed.”
