The common good is so central to everything in the Church’s social teaching, and yet the term is used loosely and sloppily by most people nowadays. It’s used in a utilitarian sense to mean ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’. It can refer to the ‘will of the majority’ or ‘helping others’ or the narrow interests of a specific group (like a nation, class, or ethnicity). Let’s define our terms and see how it applies to everything we’ve been learning in this series.

    To love God fully, we must love others, but to love them we must understand what they need to flourish, both as individuals and as a whole society. The Church defines the common good as “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily” (Gaudium et spes 26). In plain English, the common good is all the foundational things in society that help people flourish. A common good is 1) universal, 2) indivisible, and 3) essential to individual human flourishing. The common good belongs to the whole community and benefits all. Unlike private goods that are divided into parts and distributed, the common good cannot be divided. A team’s victory over an opponent isn’t divided into 12 equal slices, whereas the pizza at the afterparty can be. Private goods are not evil by any means; private property is not only permitted but praised by the Church. But common goods, when shared, help all people flourish. Finally, the common good must always respect the human person that it’s meant to serve. You can’t serve the common good by stripping a person of their dignity or rights unjustly. Common goods help people by ensuring access to basic rights like food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, and employment. Notice that the common good isn’t these resources themselves, for all of them are inherently limited (not enough homes, jobs, clothing to go around), but access to them in some quantity is essential. Fair labor practices (just wages, safe working conditions, etc.) and care for God’s creation benefit all without disadvantage. A nation that provides security for its citizens through morally acceptable means also enables people to flourish.

    Looking at the topics covered in this series, it’s clear that pursuing the common good requires that we hold to objective truths about the human person and what they need to flourish. It means promoting God as the ultimate Common Good, the origin of all authority and the measure of all justice, the one who enables us to live freely and virtuously in this life so as to enjoy eternal goodness with him in Heaven. Only if we know God and understand human nature rightly can we provide for the conditions that allow society to flourish. The common good should be the goal of every political policy, every social program, every economic endeavor, and yet we know how far away this ideal is from reality. Let us pray that we can do our part to bring the common good into being through our thoughts, words, and actions this Easter season!

    -Fr. Stephen