President Biden used his inauguration address to stress that he understood the "fear and trepidation" that many Americans felt in looking to the future. The centrepiece of his message to the nation comprised these words:
But the answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you do, or worship the way you do, or don’t get their news from the same sources you do.
We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal.
We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts.
If we show a little tolerance and humility.
If we’re willing to stand in the other person’s shoes just for a moment.
Because here is the thing about life: There is no accounting for what fate will deal you.
There are some days when we need a hand.
There are other days when we’re called on to lend one.
That is how we must be with one another.
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| President Biden on Inauguration Day. |
That ethos of sharing with those in need, of being a brother or sister to those in need, of regarding the community as one entity and not a collection of individuals, is the spirit of what has been termed "the common good".
The United States, and much of the Western world, which suffers severely from personal alienation in society, and dispossession arising from a reluctance to help social classes that are struggling to cope with the upheaval in jobs and trade, and the burdens of the virus pandemic, need to avoid sinking into the pit of "competing factions" by getting wise about the boon that application of the common good offers policy and political behaviour.
The wisdom of the universal church, infused by the Holy Spirit and painfully gained from its own experience as a governing state from time to time, but especially as a father-mother-advocate living in community with those without influence and power, balances the importance of the individual person with the well-being of the community, so that there is mutually supportive relationship.
I want to draw on the clear exposition of the main features of the common good presented in a key article in an American journal appearing to coincide with the Biden inauguration. The article states:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes well the church's teaching on the purpose of the government: "It is the role of the state to defend and promote the common good of civil society." Period. The government is not intended to prioritize "individual liberties" over communal flourishing, as so many right-leaning Americans wish, nor is the state intended by the church's teaching to be a hegemonic force for sectarian norms and partisan preferences.
According to the documents of the Second Vatican Council, which contains the most authoritative modern teaching on the subject: "It follows also that political authority, both in the community as such and in the representative bodies of the state, must always be exercised within the limits of the moral order and directed toward the common good — with a dynamic concept of that good — according to the juridical order legitimately established or due to be established" (Gaudium et Spes 1965).
What does the common good look like?
Drawing on the papal teaching from the preceding half century, the council explained that the common good is "the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment. Today [this] takes on an increasingly universal complexion and consequently involves rights and duties with respect to the whole human race. Every social group must take account of the needs and legitimate aspirations of other groups, and even of the general welfare of the entire human family" [Pacem in Terris 1963].
The catechism presents a digest of three key elements that combine to shape our understanding of the common good: respect for the human person, prioritization of collective social wellbeing and development, and the pursuit of peace.
The respect for the inherent dignity and value of the human person is not up for personal selection, choosing as one might which population, political party, class or race of people, gender or sexually oriented group one wishes to recognize. The church makes clear in Gaudium et Spes : "In our time a special obligation binds us to make ourselves the neighbor of every person without exception."
The second element of the common good has to do with social well-being and development. The church teaches, in Gaudiem et Spes, that it is the government's responsibility in a healthy nation to make available to all people "everything necessary for leading a life truly human, such as food, clothing, and shelter; the right to choose a state of life freely and to found a family, the right to education, to employment, to a good reputation, to respect, to appropriate information, to activity in accord with the upright norm of one's own conscience, to protection of privacy and rightful freedom even in matters religious."
Despite conservative cries for "smaller government," which is a self-interested red herring disingenuously presented as "fiscal responsibility," the church makes clear that it is precisely the responsibility of governments to attend to these basic needs of its people. And if there is a population whose interests should supersede others, the church has made abundantly clear that it promotes the preferential option for the poor and marginalized, not the wealthy, comfortable or socially ascendant.
Pope Francis's 2020 encyclical letter, Fratelli Tutti (All Brothers), “further builds on the church's rich, if challenging, teaching on the role of government. Critiquing the rise of extremism, false populism and divisive rhetoric, Francis writes: "Political life no longer has to do with healthy debates about long-term plans to improve people's lives and to advance the common good, but only with slick marketing techniques primarily aimed at discrediting others. In this craven exchange of charges and counter-charges, debate degenerates into a permanent state of disagreement and confrontation."
Individualism, the ethos that has taken hold of society or is in the process of capturing the minds of the younger generation worldwide – also presents an obvious challenge to the wider community. The article quotes Pope Francis again from his encyclical on fraternity:
Individualism does not make us more free, more equal, more fraternal. The mere sum of individual interests is not capable of generating a better world for the whole human family. Nor can it save us from the many ills that are now increasingly globalized. Radical individualism is a virus that is extremely difficult to eliminate, for it is clever. It makes us believe that everything consists in giving free rein to our own ambitions, as if by pursuing ever-greater ambitions and creating safety nets we would somehow be serving the common good.
The common good, then, is achieved by addressing the needs of our neighbour. The outcome of peace in society is our reward, to use President Biden's words, if we "open our souls instead of hardening our hearts. If we show a little tolerance and humility. If we’re willing to stand in the other person’s shoes just for a moment."
Further insights into the significance of the concept of the common good can be found on this blog here and here.
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