Christ's Resurrection Basis of Social
Doctrine
by
Christopher Dodson
Executive Director, North Dakota Catholic Conference
April 2010
Christ’s resurrection changes everything.
We have heard this before. Every Easter we commemorate
Christ’s resurrection. We acknowledge that He
conquered death and gives everlasting life.
The life of a Christian, however, is not just about
commemorating and acknowledging. A Christian life means
constantly discovering and living the truth that
Christ’s resurrection radically changes everything.
We are accustomed to thinking about what the resurrection
means for us on a personal level, especially the destiny of
our souls. We are less accustomed to thinking about what
the resurrection means to how we relate to the rest of
humanity. Yet Christ’s resurrection has implications
for everything, including politics, economics, business,
and public affairs. For that reason, the
church’s Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the
Church devotes
several foundational paragraphs to explaining why
God’s plan of salvation radically changes
relations among humans and why it is the basis of the
Church’s social teaching.
Christ’ resurrection means hope. This hope is more
than a personal optimism that we will someday escape the
pains of this world. It is an affirmation that God is with
us on our journey and that His plan for salvation was
accomplished by the cross and resurrection.
A life of hope means a politics of hope. The church teaches
that our social life should “flow” from hope.
Politicians, advertisers, and prognosticators of technology
have, unfortunately, appropriated the word
“hope” and diminished its true meaning. True
hope is not found in people, products, or technology, but
in God. Nevertheless, hope must shape how we engage with
people, products, and technology.
This means that fear should not shape politics. Too much
political rhetoric appeals to our fears rather than our
hopes. I have seen, for example, people interpret benign
legislation in the most negative light out of a pervasive
fear of how the law might be used. In a life without hope,
paranoia replaces prudence.
Closely related to politics of fear is politics of
opposition and politics of resignation. There exist times,
of course, when we must oppose something, such as threats
to human life. There exist times when we must acknowledge
our limits, both in human behavior and natural resources.
Politics shaped by hope, however, cannot not begin and end
there.
The resurrection also means that we should not make
politics personal. Christ’s death and resurrection
offered salvation “for all people and the of the
whole person: it is universal and integral
salvation.” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the
Church,
38.) Even creation shares in the resurrection. (Rom 8)
This universality (catholicity) made possible by Christ
lies at the root of the church’s social doctrine.
In some respects, the popular phrase “Jesus as my
personal savior” has had unfortunate implications. It
is true that being Christian means an encounter with
“a person, which gives life a new horizon and a
decisive direction.” (Deus Caritas Est, 1)
The phrase “personal savior,” however, can
have the tendency to reduce Christ’s act of
salvation to a solely personal matter. This, in turn,
fosters a destructive form of individualism.
Rather than individualism, the church teaches solidarity.
The church’s emphasis on solidarity in social
relations does not just come from the recognition that
every human person is bestowed with dignity or the fact
that all lives are interconnected. Although both statements
are true, it is the binding of all humanity, and indeed all
the world, in Christ’s death and resurrection that
provides the foundation of church’s social teaching.
The resurrection means that it will never be “just
about me.”
Christ is risen. Indeed, He is risen.
And nothing is or ever will be the same.
