Mirror of Justice faces the Modern conundrum: "Jesus is Lord" and the Law

What does it mean, I wonder -- for those of us who are lawyers and legal scholars, living in a pluralistic, secular (i.e., not run by the Church), democracy -- that "Jesus is Lord"?

Rick ends his post with this question.

It's a question that others besides lawyers and legal scholars should ask. The answer could determine the fate of our society. Before one can ask it, however, another beckons: If Jesus is Lord, then what type of Lord is he? What role does Authority play in a democratic republic that extolls the virtues and rights of the individual? We need to answer this before we can consider what Jesus' Lordship means for our lives as Christians participating in a secular society.

Authority remains the only legitimate exercise of power left. Authority implies right as well as force. Why should authority enjoy this privilidge in our society? Well, without it, there's be no society. Each of us has within us that rabid tendency to screw everything up. For the baptized, it is that horrid scar tissue of original sin called concupescience. Literally an addiction to evil, this concupescience clutters the right judgement of our truth-formed conscience by making injustice appear just. In those that succumb to it's continuous deceptions, or those that never initiated a relationship with Christ in some way, the results are the catastrophic life of sin. The long and the short of it is we're prone to losing our humanity and becoming those walking shells-of-people more intent on self-destruction that takes others with them. Unfortunately, such people tend to disorder society.

Enter Authority. It is the means by which Society organizes itself so as to minimize the impact of disordered people and maximize the benefits of society for the common good. From Authority comes the law and governing institutions that develop, enforce and interprete it. Authority is the servent of the common good of society. It's from this function that it draws it's right to excerise power. Thus, for any authority to have legitimacy in the eyes of the people, it must secure the common good of those within its scope of responsibility.

Now that we know what order is, what does Jesus have to do with it? Good question. To answer it, we must ask what, in fact, is Jesus mission. Why did the Son of God walk upon this earth, eatting and drinking with clueless fishermen, hording tax collectors, and the rest of the dregs of a Roman provincial backwater? He came to save. His role is the pivitol one that restores us all to our humanity, and our humanity to our Father in Heaven. He came to destroy sin by his act of utterly self-giving love, made in loving obedience to God our Father. Thus, as a savior does he draw upon Authority? Why? Because his gift of his life is our salvation, therefore anything he tells us directly impacts on our salvation. If I became lost in Rocky Mountain National Park, and I found a park ranger, I'd be stupid to give him directions. He has authority to lead me to safety. Jesus Christ is our park ranger, and he leads us out of the treacherous woods of sin.

How does this look like from the perspective of a secular society? One goal of authority is to minimize the negative impact of those anti-social people that dysfunctionally harm the common good. Jesus Christ, by virtue of his saving death and ressurection, transforms those people prone to lives of sin into those that live fully human lives. Thus, he meets one of the goals of authority. Therefore, He is Lord. Another goal of authority is to foster the common good. Christ, by reuniting humanity with God, provides the greatest opportunity for the fostering of Common Good. Thus, again, he is Lord.

That's an easy intellectual exercise. Practically, it becomes more difficult to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and live in such a way that this affirmation makes sense. That's because society still suffers from the disordering effects of concupescience and sin. Thus, many do not want to see their disorders, which they have come to regard as "normal", made right. Christians most honor Jesus' Lordship in society when they order society to: respect each other's inherent dignity, foster everyone's participation in government and civil life, act out a preferential option for the poor, live in subsidiarity and solidarity with one another and act as true stewards of creation. In other words, when Christians in public life put into practice the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, which is a Catholic articulation of a societal way to enact Christ's commandment that we "love one another".

Love is the ultimate authority. Acknowledging Christ as Lord is to cultivate a civilization of Love, a place where we love our neighbor as ourselves both personally and as a member of society. When we order the very fiber of our social lives so that we truly will each other's good, then we have placed Christ on the throne, regardless of whatever government we choose to live under.