One Heart and Mind
The Apostles, Solidarity, and Subsidiarity
The community of believers was of one heart and mind,
and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power the Apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the Apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.
— Acts 4:32–35
This passage shows up in the lectionary twice this week, as the first reading both on the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) and on the Tuesday of that week, so it must be worth reading. More than anything, this passage points to two great principles of Catholic Social Teaching: solidarity and subsidiarity. Both principles are ultimately grounded in the dignity of the human person, made for relationship with God and fellow humans.
The principle of solidarity reminds us of the interconnectedness of all people, across nation, race, creed, socioeconomic status, and all other divisions. John Paul II writes,
[Solidarity] is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all.¹
After killing his brother Abel, Cain asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Of course, this is a rhetorical question. The truth is, yes, he is his brother’s keeper, as are we all. Because our lives are gifts to us from God, for God, and not merely our own possessions — the reality that undergirds all Church teaching on life and dignity — we have an obligation to give of ourselves to others. The first Christians understood this, as is demonstrated by their treatment of property. No thing was treated as belonging solely to one person, but as created for the benefit of all people, even if it is possessed by one. This is really a lived example of the Church’s teaching (revisited by Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti, no. 123) on the universal destination of goods — that creation is a gift to us all and that it is to be treated as such, both in our stewardship of natural resources and in its distribution to each by need. In practicing solidarity, we are called to see those around us, both near and far, and recognize them as truly human, just like ourselves. We are all one human family and ought to act like it.
While solidarity is great, it is incomplete without the practice of subsidiarity, the idea that solutions should be as local as possible and as large-scale as necessary. Relationship in society is personal, with real faces, lives, and stories. Subsidiarity reminds us of the importance of personal connection. If my neighbor needs some help with something and I have the knowledge and ability to help, I can’t go run and get someone else with more authority who is further away from the problem —instead, it becomes my responsibility. On the other hand, if I can’t take care of it myself, then that’s where I should look somewhere else, to someone with more resources or expertise, starting locally but going all the way up to the highest level of government if necessary. Different organizations in society have different responsibilities: families, the Church, community clubs, non-profits, school boards, city and county administration, national government, etc. All these are good and important to our human community, and we have a responsibility as members of communities to participate in this web of society. This principle of subsidiarity recognizes the ability of everyone to give in some way to those around them. The Apostles in the Book of Acts understood that by selling their own property they had the ability to help those around them such that there was no one in need. They could give, and so they did, from their own personal belongings.
Alone, solidarity becomes abstract and divorced from concrete reality. Likewise, subsidiarity by itself tends toward individualism and distrust of authority. Catholic teaching requires both — that the local and the universal exist together.
It’s not hard to look around our world today and see that these principles are not practiced as well as they should be. In the Catholic tradition, rights are never separate from responsibilities. We are not free for ourselves, but for others. Insofar as we make freedom the highest value, what we are really doing is making ourselves into gods, subject to no one but ourselves. Additionally, we tend to order ourselves into in-groups and out-groups, often failing to recognize that other people are worthy of love, regardless of their own beliefs or actions, perhaps especially when it comes to politics. We are all aware of the spread of such animosity, and often times, we personally are its creators. We dehumanize and distrust, reject and relegate, all contrary to the spirit of the Gospel.
During this Easter season, let’s seek to do as the Apostles do: to see the human family in all its diversity, in all its brokenness and hurt, from the smallest family to the largest country, and choose to love anyway.
¹John Paul II, Sollicitudo rei Socialis, no. 38.
