I’m still working through C.S. Lewis’ classic Mere Christianity. One would swear I’m reading slower as I get older. Or perhaps it’s that as I get older I’m paying more attention to what I’m reading; I rather like to believe it is the latter rather than the former. But enough of that.
I was making my way the other day through his section on Social Morality and had to re-read his conclusion to the section. Not because, as usual, I was distracted but rather because it really struck me in how utterly relevant it is to us as Catholics as we try to decide in the voting process how we are to balance the different issues. His call is, simply, remember that we are to be Christians first, then political entities. If we are lacking in the fullness of our Christian witness it is likely we will be lacking in our political positions as well.
A Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it: and we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian. I may repeat ‘Do as you would be done by’ till I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbour as myself: and I cannot learn to love my neighbour as myself till I learn to love God: and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him. And so, as I warned you, we are driven on to something more inward – driven on from social matters to religious matters. For the longest way round is the shortest way home.
