The City of God
Today's Mass Readings
Today’s readings are a firm reminder that the nation most pleasing to God is the just nation. In addition to the Ancient Jews, we hear echoes of this understanding of the relationship between justice and God in the ancient Greek philosophers, particularly in the Republic of Plato. However, in the Christian context it is St. Augustine (354 – 430 AD) who formally systematizes the notion that the just nation is the one which offers proper worship to the Lord. Augustine’s most famous work on the topic is the City of God. The City of God is a monstrous theological work, and it can be daunting reading for the uninitiated. A retelling of history through the lens of Christianity from the time of creation through the collapse of the Roman Empire, the work is famous for being the first systematic treatise in the West which deals with the relationship between the Church and the State. It is therefore a landmark work and one with which all educated Christians should at least be nominally familiar.
The collapse of the Roman Empire was viewed by those living through it as an event equivalent to the end of the world. Roma Aeterna, the people of the thousand-year old Empire said, Rome Eternal! When Rome finally collapsed, people were shocked, even terrified. How could such a thing happen, they asked? Augustine’s answer is quite simple. In the City of God he argues that God’s justice is not directly bound to any one political system. Kingdoms and political systems come and go, Augustine argues, because the City of Man is temporal and it passes away. Further, the City of Man, because it is corrupted by sin, will never be perfect; it is unable, of its own accord, to produce justice. The City of Man must therefore rely on the City of God. Only insofar as the earthly city is penetrated and informed by the heavenly city, will justice prevail. Even so, the earthly city will eventually pass away. In other words, the City of Man depends on the City of God, but the City of God can never be confined to the City of Man.
Several lessons emerge from Augustine’s City of God which are as relevant today as they were nearly 1,600 years ago. For the sake of brevity, I will highlight two. First, the way to effect justice in the world is to offer God proper worship. For Augustine, as for the Church throughout history, proper worship is Eucharistic worship. The Eucharist is not something reserved for Sundays and holy days, but rather it is a way of life. Without the Eucharist, there can be no true peace and justice in the world. Second, all political systems are part of the temporal order and will eventually pass away. As the Second Vatican Council teaches in Gaudium et Spes, political systems are not, nor should they ever be considered, eternal. God’s kingdom alone is eternal. Rome’s collapse may have been tragic, but it was not, as some had feared, the end of the world. The world survived without the Roman Empire, just as it has survived without any of the myriad other empires which have vanished from history.
We Christians living in America today should consider these two points carefully when approaching our own nation’s place in world affairs. Those of us who put faith in American institutions before faith in Christ’s Church should realize that there can be no lasting peace and justice without proper worship of Christ in the Eucharist. In a pluralistic society such as America, this truth presents necessary tension with the broader non-Christian society. However, any strict attempts at religious privatization are, from the Christian theological perspective, ultimately doomed to failure. Nor should we Christians in America imagine that our country’s role in world affairs is somehow an exception to the rule of history. If the City of God and the experience of history make one thing clear, it is that God does not need America to achieve his plan for salvation. As part of the temporal order, America, too, will someday pass away. However, if America intends to be a source of justice in the world today, then America needs God.
Michael Lombardo