Governance

I've been thinking for more than a month about what excites me in this world. One of the things I've found is a sort of an art that I don't really understand to my own satisfaction. I call it governance because that seems to be the central task for practitioners of this art. It can't reasonably be practiced without anyone else around, and, when practiced with or on at individual it appears to be some sort of care giving. To try to understand it better I'm concidering it's roots and the theory about how it works. I should note that I am Christian and do think about these things at least somewhat theologically. This strongly influences how I talk about the subject.

What are the roots of this art?

The fundamental root is God. This shouldn't be a surprise since the affirmation that Jesus is Lord is perhaps the oldest Christian creed. The most obvious conclusion is that everyone who governs is in a position a little like God's. What is a bit less obvious is that it indicates that no one can govern properly unless they are operating under God. Some see this conclusion and ascribe to kings and other leaders a sort of divine right, but it isn't generally obvious to me when and how God can be said to have deputated authority to them so it seems that the exercise of authority is generally illegitimate. In other words, those who lead in the world step up to fill the apparent vacuum created by God's seeming silence.

There is, however, at least one case where some degree of authority seems to have been delegated. In Matthew 16:17-19 Jesus says that he will give Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven. This particular passage is IIRC one of the important ones for Roman Catholics in establishing the supremacy of the pope. Whatever may be said of the bishop of Rome, this delegation suggests to me that it may be appropriate to view all human authority as essentially petrine. This leads me to focus on another occasion in which Jesus gave Peter a task. John 21:15-18 is during the third time Jesus appears to the disciples after the resurrection. On this occasion Jesus has been having breakfast with the disciples when he turns to Peter and asks if Peter loves him. Jesus asks the question three times and each time Peter says "Yes, I love you" to which Jesus responds "Feed my sheep." This appears to be very much central to the petrine vocation and by extension to the vocation of everyone who holds authority. This also lines up with the many occasions throughout scripture in which Jesus or a prophet describes those in authority as some sort of shepherd, generally a bad shepherd or a hired man who doesn't worry much about the sheep.

This, then, seems to be the root to care for a flock that is not the property of the one in authority and to feed them to the best of one's ability.

With what does a ruler feed the flock? The most obvious answer is bread, not literal bread, but all the food, clothes, shelter and money needed to sustain life. Symbolizing all of that with the term bread, however, calls to mind other passages from scripture. In both Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4 Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 saying "man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." (Deut. 8:3). Since, as the beginning of the Gospel of John makes clear, Jesus is the Word of the Lord one can conclude as Jesus does in some places in scripture that ultimately the bread with which a leader needs to feed his flock is Jesus himself, both through the sacraments and through scripture which is Jesus written down. This requirement highlights both the petrine nature of all priestly ministry and the difficulty for any secular ruler in fulfilling this requirement since the other root of governance is the community one is governing. This is true of priests as well as secular rulers, but it binds secular rulers in ways that priests are not bound.

This leaves us with two sorts of bread wiht which a governor needs to feed his or her sheep, the bread of earth and the bread of heaven so to speak. A secular governor has some power to provide the first, but generally can't provide the second easily, while a priest through the church can provide both although in a different manner than a secular ruler. It is also clear that providing the bread of heaven relies on God's grace rather than the power of any human being, not least because God is that bread.

What are the ways in which both types are given? Both can be given in a direct way by physically giving a person food or through reading the Bible and participating in the sacraments. The bread of earth can also be given in an indirect manner through training and other ways of opening up opportunities. Can the bread of heaven be provided indirectly as well? It isn't clear to me that the water of life, another way to talk about the bread of heaven, can be provided indirectly to the same extent that normal food and drink can be. Still St. Francis famously said that a Christians life might be the only gospel another person ever read, so perhaps it is barely possible to provide the water of life without being explicit about it. Still, I worry that trying to provide that bread without making clear the source could result in either some sort of hero worship or leave the receiver longing for an unknown god.

What does the bread do, or how can we tell when a governor is feeding the flock?

The bread of earth is relatively simple to observe, although it may be difficult to actually provide. If the economy is up, especially if the rise is coming from all wage earners rather than only growth in what the wealthiest are earning, and if the nation or state is secure and safe from both foriegn invaders and home grown criminals, and if the populace is content with the pleasures in can get hold of, then they are feasting on the bread of the earth.

The bread of heaven is harder to pin down in many ways, which is to be expected given that it is carried by the Spirit which goes where it wills. Where it appears there is healing for the wounded, captives are made free, the hungry are fed without necessarily eating more earthly food, the whole of society is thrown about and reordered, the last become first, the failures and nobodies are somehow made very great indeed, and throughout all this upheaval everything remains increadibly grounded and stable. A line from a hymn comes to mind in this context. It describes how the apostles where changed by Jesus and led to painful deaths and says at the end that "the peace of God it is no peace but strife sown in the sod, but let us pray for just one thing, the wonderous peace of God." The sense of upheaval it brings is one of the major reasons I doubt any secular leader can really provide this bread. Another reason is because, as I noted earlier, the authority of earthly leaders isn't entirely legitimate and the bread of heaven points those who eat it towards God which undermines earthly authority.

What in the end can we say about the art of governance? It is a matter of individuals being given authority (somewhat illegitimately) for the purpose of guaranteeing that the people live as comfortably as possible as well as pointing the people towards what is fundamentally good for them (ie. God).

Jon