It’s no secret that the state of our union is deeply polarized, our partisan divisions stretched to the breaking point by the long pandemic and vicious political combat.
As President Joe Biden prepares to address our nation Tuesday for his State of the Union speech, it is imperative that he offer more than policy prescriptions. He must seek to unite us as fellow citizens and persuade us to put aside our personal and ideological interests. Our fractured union can be healed only by inspiring our “better angels,” as President Abraham Lincoln once said during another time of deep civil strife.
Fortunately, President Biden’s Catholic faith has a potent idea for calling forth the best in us: the notion of the common good, an idea developed over centuries by his church.
Concern for the common good
As Pope Francis has written, “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 countercharges, debate degenerates into a permanent state of disagreement and confrontation.”
I am not a Catholic, but I direct the new Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University, the country’s first Catholic institution of higher learning, and I couldn’t agree more with Pope Francis.
It has struck me more than once during these days of stark and dangerous polarization that the Catholic tradition of concern for the common good could bring us together even across the hardened and hardening lines of left and right, black and white, rich and poor.
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Catholic theologians have already identified a concern for common good as the invisible thread running through President Biden’s political agendas. Now, it is time for him to make that thread visible, which he can do in a nonpartisan, nonsectarian way – without alienating Americans of other faiths, or no faith at all.
It is well known that Biden is a devout Catholic, a regular attender of Mass, who pastors and prays with people who have known personal suffering and loss, as he has. He is well-versed in Catholic theologians like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. He has not been hesitant to share his personal faith, which shows integrity and authenticity.
Applying Catholic social teaching
But helping the nation to better understand his own church’s social teaching could make an even bigger impact.
Biden campaigned on the idea of repairing “the soul of the nation.” Since then, the president has become ensnared by the usual traps of Washington politics, not only those of his own making but also because of disruptive and egotistic politicians, both Republicans and Democrats. At this pivotal moment for our country – and his presidency – he should now resurrect the values that inspired him to run for president, and the virtues of his church’s social teaching.
Seeing politics through the lens of the common good means broadening our perspective beyond ourselves, to think about what is good for all of us, for our friends, our neighbors, even our political adversaries. The common good is the antithesis of the fierce tribalism taking over – and destroying – our country.
In a recent encyclical, Pope Francis located the common good in the well-known story of the good Samaritan.
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“Jesus tells the story of a man assaulted by thieves and lying injured on the wayside. Several persons passed him by, but failed to stop,” Francis writes. “These were people holding important social positions, yet lacking in real concern for the common good.”
Biden spoke of unity in his inaugural address, saying, “I will give my all in your service thinking not of power, but of possibilities. Not of personal interest, but of the public good.”
But he needs to go further, to develop this idea more.
When I talk to parents across America, they all want the same basic things for their kids’ futures. Don’t we all want and need fair laws, social programs, systems that serve everybody? Don’t we all need a hand once in a while? We can easily spot the hero and villains in the parable of the good Samaritan, but do we recognize the same lessons for our political lives together? The flourishing of the human spirit, says the church, depends on that recognition.
Catholics sometimes joke that Catholic social teaching is “the best kept secret in the Catholic Church.” The idea of the common good may not be known to most Americans, but I believe many would get behind it. Let’s create the social conditions in which all are included and all can thrive.
I’m hoping – and praying – that President Biden can lead us there, by returning to one of his faith’s most fundamental ideas.
The Rev. Jim Wallis is the president and founder of Sojourners. His most recent book is “America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege and the Bridge to a New America.” Follow him on Twitter: @jimwallis
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