The Dispatch: More from CWR...

A Talk on the Hill

The summons to serve Justice itself must trump anything else, any other concern, any merely personal project.

Library of Congress, Independence Avenue Southeast, Washington, DC. (Stephen Walker | Unsplash.com)

A couple of weeks ago, I had the distinct privilege of addressing an audience of Senators, Representatives, and Capitol Hill staffers in a beautiful room at the Library of Congress. This event was made possible by two Congressmen, Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York, a Democrat, and Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, a Republican. Both had seen videos of the speeches I had given at Facebook and Google Headquarters and wanted something similar for those who work in government.

At the outset of my talk, I specified that I would not be addressing the hot button issues that so often dominate discussions of religion and politics. I was quick to point out that this is not because I think those questions are unimportant or that they shouldn’t eventually be addressed. But I insisted that the rush to those matters around which there is radical polarization effectively precludes the possibility of finding deep points of contact between the spiritual and political worlds. And it was that common ground that I endeavored to explore in my presentation.

I commenced with the idea of vocation. We’re accustomed to using this term in an explicitly religious context, but I suggested that, with its full spiritual resonance, it applies just as well to other areas of life. I asked my audience to recall the moment when they first felt the summons to pursue a career in public service. I invited them to bracket the anxieties, disappointments, and opportunities of the present moment and to recover that moment, undoubtedly marked by enthusiasm and idealism, when they decided to enter into politics and to work for justice. The passion to pursue righteousness in particular cases, I told them, is a function of something more basic and more mystical—namely, the call from Justice itself, the summons to be a servant of this great transcendental value. In a similar way, an artist is someone who has heard the call—as James Joyce did, for example—to be a knight for Beauty, and a philosopher or journalist or professor is someone who has heard the summons to serve Truth itself. But in Catholic theology, Truth itself, Beauty itself, Justice itself are simply names for God. Therefore, provided they search out the deepest ground for their commitment, all of these participants in the culture can and should understand themselves as having received a vocation with religious implications.

And once that connection has been made, I told my Washington audience, the great biblical texts dealing with vocation from God open up in a fresh way. I drew their attention to the marvelous story of the call of the prophet Samuel. When just a boy, Samuel heard the voice of God, but did not at first recognize it for what it was. It was only after several repetitions—“Samuel, Samuel”—and after the helpful intervention of the high priest Eli, that the young man was ready to listen to God. So, I said, God (under his title Justice itself) called you each by name, most likely called you repeatedly until you listened, and probably employed some elder to interpret the meaning of his voice.

Next, I referenced the strange and illuminating account in the sixth chapter of Isaiah regarding the call of the prophet. Isaiah says that he saw the Lord in the temple surrounded by angels crying “Holy, Holy, Holy.” The Hebrew term here is kadosh, which carries the sense of “other.” God is not one being among many, not one true thing among true thing; rather, he is the source of existence itself, the unconditioned ground of all that is—and this entails that he is greater than all of the particular projects and desires that customarily preoccupy us. His call to us is, accordingly, greater than career, family, personal pleasure, country, or anything else. Isaiah speaks further of how smoke filled the place where he was and how the foundations shook. Both of these symbols indicate the manner in which the experience of God puts anything finite or conditioned into question.

So, I told the Senators, Representatives, and staffers, the summons to serve Justice itself must trump anything else, any other concern, any merely personal project. It properly shakes the foundation of your life and relativizes everything you once considered supremely important.

To make all of this a bit more pointed, I moved to a consideration of Thomas Aquinas’ doctrine of law. For the great medieval Dominican, positive law (the concrete statutes by which a polity is governed) properly nests inside the natural law (that whole range of moral precepts evident to reason), and the natural law nests finally within the eternal law, which is coincident with the divine mind itself. This entails, I argued, that an unjust positive law is not simply a political problem; it is a moral and finally spiritual problem. To legislate unjustly, I concluded, is therefore to stand athwart the God who originally called the legislator to be a servant of Justice.

And lest this analysis seem too abstract and distant, I drew their attention to the extraordinary letter that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote from the Birmingham City Jail in 1963, prompted by a group of white Christian ministers who were questioning King’s methods. In response, the great civil rights activist said that just laws ought always to be obeyed but that unjust laws can and should be opposed—always and despite the cost or inconvenience. And for justification, he reached to the very teaching of Aquinas that I just sketched. King was a political agent to be sure, but he had a keen sense that his activism was but an expression of finally moral and religious convictions.

My hope was (and is) that my presentation would both inspire and discomfit my audience. I wanted them to see both the high spiritual dignity of their call and the rather awful responsibility before God that they bear.


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


About Bishop Robert Barron 205 Articles
Bishop Robert Barron has been the bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota since 2022. He is the founder of www.WordonFire.org, a nonprofit global media apostolate that seeks to draw people into—or back to—the Catholic faith.

7 Comments

  1. Dear Bishop Baron.
    Your analysis indeed was too abstract and distant. You decided not to ‘rush’ into ‘addressing the hot button issues,’ because, in your words, they are polarizing and can be addressed eventually, that is, later. You in stead fiddled a tune about philosophical niceties while the fire rages and souls are consumed.
    I am indeed sorry to say that the credibility of the episcopacy, with a few notable exceptions, has been destroyed. It is ironic that your talk addressed themes of justice and vocation, and yet you did not give your listeners what was due and owing to them by virtue of your vocation. Speaking of hot button issues, I wonder what a baby, who is even this very moment being torn apart and dismembered in a Planned Parenthood clinic, would have to say about your talk – if only he could have heard it and been given a chance to have a say. You owed that baby and those pro-abortion congressmen more.
    God bless you, Bishop Baron.

    • I listened to the talk on YouTube and thought it was excellent. If one is working for Justice – and Justice is ultimately God, one cannot give the excuses that one is personally against abortion but supports it politically. By speaking the way he did, Bishop Baron got to the source of ALL hot button issues – ultimately the congressperson is going to have to answer to God. This is basic to all issues. A person serving in Congress cannot leave God (Justice) outside the doors of Congress.

  2. “I wanted them to see both the high spiritual dignity of their call and the rather awful responsibility before God that they bear.”

    Yes…and starting from the opening prayer…without any direct, “hot button” reference to Jesus Christ as God and Savior. Why offend?

  3. I watched your speech and noted how many were there and how many stayed. How many do you think related to the theme of being called? Blind ambition is more likely the driver than responding to God’s call. Blind ambition and lucrative results, that is. I wish you had spoken to the hot button issues!

  4. Dear Bishop Barron,
    Usually I am impressed by what you have to say, but today I am disappointed. The Church needs to upset some people. It is being attacked on a grand scale by atheists and others. I have so much verified information on this. You must also. Saint Paul and the apostles fought the government so that Christianity could spread. What if they were afraid to offend someone. We wouldn’t have a Christian Church today. Many Catholics are disgusted because it’s priests, pastors, and deacons will not fight the good fight, will not stand up for Jesus Christ. What would Jesus do? He would fight , he would tell his people to see what is happening in their schools and libraries and government. The atheists don’t mind offending the radical contingency of the “Gay ” population are making big inroads getting schools to ban Christmas. Prayers not allowed, attacking Salvation Army with false charges. STAND UP NOW!

Leave a Reply to SOL Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*