If you are baptized, you are a citizen of heaven — your true home. The saints — the citizens of heaven who have reached there before us — are cheering us on! While the saints reminds us all we could be, most especially they should remind us of all we are.
Regardless of where we are on the earthly political spectrum — Democrat, Republican, independent, or some other political affiliation — we have to stay connected to the primary Gospel truth regarding our Christian citizenship.
By virtue of our Christian Baptism, we are born into the family of God. It is an indelible reality that cannot be washed off our soul. It’s like spiritual DNA; we are born with it and it cannot be reversed.
Holy Baptism is the foundation of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit. … Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission. (CCC, 1213; see CCC, 1272–1274)
What is wrought by Baptism is a constant attachment to the Body of Christ and the Church.
St. Paul writes: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). Note the present tense of Paul’s words. Our citizenship is in heaven. This is not a hypothesis; this is a reality.
Jesus prayed for his disciples (and future followers) before he died, coaching them in this holy dual citizenship between heaven and earth.
[Father,] … I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours. …
I do not ask that you remove them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your Word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth. I pray not only for them, but also for those who will trust in me through their word. (John 17:9, 15–20)
Obviously, “the first calling of the Christian is to follow Jesus” (CCC, 2253). And the Church, for its part, is not to be misled with the political community, yet it “respects and motivates the political freedom and responsibility of the citizen” (CCC, 2245).
Four duties of citizens
1. Be subject and collaborate with authorities. It is a Christian’s responsibility to voice “just criticisms of that which seems harmful to the wellness of persons and to the good of the community” (CCC, 2238).
2. Volunteer “to the good of society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom.” Love and service of one’s country follows the larger duties of gratitude and charity. Good citizens ought “to accomplish their roles in the life of the political community” (CCC, 2239).
3. Take co-responsibility with authorities for the common good. Encouraging the common good includes the moral duties to “pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to uphold one’s country” (CCC, 2240).
4. Welcome immigrants. Prosperous nations have an obligation to welcome foreigners seeking security or jobs that cannot be found in their country of origin. They have a natural right, as guests, to security.
Authorities, for the sake of the common good … may make [immigration] subject to various juridical conditions, particularly with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens. (CCC, 2241).
