It’s Not Just YOUR Stuff

One

Yesterday we learned and meditated on the teaching of Jesus concerning private property. 

Jesus and the Church have always been opposed to utopian dreams of a world without money or a world without ownership.Private property expresses and promotes the essential human realities of ingenuity, freedom, and enterprise which means that private property is an essential human thing. But the Catholic Church continuously declares that there is an additional principle on which all of economics must be based. This principle is just as important as respect for private ownership. In fact, the Church teaches that it is an even more fundamental moral principle.

This principle is sometimes called The Universal Access Principle, sometimes called The Principle of the Universal Destination of Goods, and until we understand this core moral truth we will never have a godly, just, or even a sane economic system.

Two

God made the goods of the world for everyone.

For whom did God make this world, this beautiful planet, with all its resources and opportunities? The answer is: for people. 

And for whom did God bless us with intelligence, and practical reasoning, and hands and muscles, and the ability to perfect our minds, and hone our skills, and coordinate our efforts? The answer is: for people.

That’s right. God gave us all these gifts for the sake of people. But which people? For all people, or just for some people? Are these gifts just for the strong, or the competent, or the smart, or the lucky, or the well-connected? No. These gifts are for everyone. 

The goods of the world, the goods of creation, God has destined these goods to be at the service of the whole human family. This means that the whole human family should be given access to these goods.

And that means that anytime an economic system makes it harder for a group of people to access the goods of the earth, something has gone wrong. The purpose of creation is being thwarted, not fulfilled, because God made the goods of the world for everyone.

Three

The van example

You’ve probably seen those really big passenger vans that hold somewhere between 10 and well, I don’t know, 100 kids. Remember, I grew up in the 70s without seat belt laws and we just all piled in…

Anyway, in families with lots of kids and big vans, the kids will sometimes come up with a system for the acquisition and distribution of seats. One of the most popular systems is the “I called it!” system. For instance, the kid who “calls” the front seat first gets the seat. And different kids come up with different rules for calling the front seat. Maybe you have to be looking at the car to call the front seat, or maybe you can’t call the seat before the day of the car ride. 

Whatever the rules may be, the point is, imagine one morning one of the older kids said, “I call the front seat – and every other seat in the car! No one besides me can sit in any of the seats today!”

At that point, the parents would have to step in. And they’d say, “Whoa, no way. You can’t have all the seats! Everybody needs access to a seat in this car. That’s why we bought this big honking van in the first place – so that everyone could have a seat! And this ‘I called it system’ is not as important as everybody being able to ride in the family car.”

Well, that’s precisely what happens when some people exploit an economic system in such a way that they get much more than they need, and other people don’t get nearly enough. 

It’s missing the larger point of the economy as a whole, which is making sure everyone has access to the goods of the earth.

That is why the Universal Access Principle is a more fundamental truth than the right to private property.

Four

Do you see that the Universal Access Principle is more fundamental than any particular system of private property? 

Just as the need for every kid to have a seat in the family car is more fundamental than the “I called it” system of deciding who gets what seat.

Every economic system is imperfect, it has strengths and weaknesses. But the goal of every economic system is to help facilitate the goods of the earth being made accessible to everyone.

To the extent that we use that system to hoard too much for ourselves while other people can’t get enough – to that extent we are missing the whole point of the economic system in the first place.

In fact, when we do that we have broken the seventh commandment and we are actually guilty of stealing. 

Five

Thou Shalt Not Steal – not just for those who have not – but for those who have already

So let’s prayerfully ask the Lord, “Am I hoarding too many seats in the van for myself? Do I already have plenty for myself and my family, but I keep trying to grab more – even though I know there are other children outside the car who can’t even get in?”

Remember, the seventh commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” isn’t just for those who don’t have someone’s property and are trying to get it. “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” is also for those who already have property that really isn’t for them, because they have plenty already. Which means their property, in God’s eyes, should really go to those who don’t have access to enough of the goods that God has destined should be shared among all His children. 

The Catechism, quoting St. John Chrysostom, vigorously recalls that, “Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.” 2446