I must
confess that I am hooked on the Netflix series, House of Cards. In a
way, I knew I would be as I was absolutely enamored of the original 1990 BBC
series of the same name in which an unscrupulous Member of Parliament schemes
his way into being elected Prime Minister.
The American version follows a similar trajectory in which Kevin Spacey,
playing Francis Underwood, the House Majority Whip, plots revenge on his
political enemies in order to position himself - eventually - as a candidate
for President. Both the British and American versions borrow heavily from
Shakespeare - particularly Macbeth - in which the wife mirrors Lady Macbeth, a
co-conspirator, with her husband, in the murder of the king. The American
version of House of Cards, however, differs from its British inspiration
in its characterization of Underwood’s wife, Claire, who heads a non-profit
organization focused on providing clean drinking water in third world
countries. She is, however, no less complicit than her British counterpart in providing
crucial support for her husband’s schemes (there’s a marvelous scene in which
she criticizes her husband not for
using her to attack a political enemy, but for doing so unsuccessfully), but her character is much more highly nuanced in
straddling the good vs. evil divide. There are two scenes in Episode Six, for
example, in which she encounters a homeless person outside her place of
business. In the first scene, she notices him but walks by. In the second, she walks by, stops, turns
around, and gives him money, telling him that there is a Deli around the
corner.
I found
these two scenes fascinating, not just because they illustrated a
highly-nuanced moral depiction of a corrupt politician’s wife; but because they
illustrated - at least for me - the principle of the universal destination of goods which is a cornerstone of Evangelii Gaudium (“The joy of the Gospel”)
Pope Francis’ first apostolic letter to the world’s Catholics.
Now, stay
with me, folks, this will make sense (I hope) momentarily. The “universal
destination of goods” is a uniquely Catholic concept which asserts that God’s
creation is destined for all people
to take advantage of and improve upon so that everyone benefits. The Catholic principle of the “universal
destination of goods” assumes that private ownership is the primary means by
which individuals assist those who struggle with poverty and/or homelessness.
It is the principle upon which the virtue of charity is exercised by those who
have been blessed with abundance on behalf of those who struggle to make ends
meet. In other words, as Catholics, the
Gospel demands that we share our largesse with those for whom life has handed
less than a full plate. The corrupt politician’s wife in House of Cards
is exercising the Catholic principle of the “universal destination of goods” by
giving money to the homeless man.
This scene
impressed me because of her
compromised morality. In other words,
her momentary generosity stood out precisely because it was unconnected to her willing participation in her
husband’s morally questionable political schemes. This is where Evangelii Gaudium becomes relevant.
For me, one of the most remarkable statements in the Pope’s apostolic
exhortation is this one in which he asks why:
"it is not
a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is
news when the stock market loses two points?"
The simple act of giving to a homeless person can be understood
as charity, guilt or noblesse oblige…none of which addresses Pope Francis’
rhetorical question about the newsworthiness of the death of a homeless person. And, I suppose, we know exactly why the
question is rhetorical: a change in the stock market directly affects us in
ways that will never be true for the death of a homeless person. And yet, it is probably the case, that all of
us, at one time or another has given money or food to a homeless individual.
Rarely, however, do we think about why
we do so. In Evangelii Gaudium, the Pope makes clear why we engage in charitable
activities - to advance the universal destination of goods - so that all may
benefit from His creation. For some, this may seem to be a terribly inefficient
method of ameliorating the social costs of inequality; but, as the Prophet
Isaiah reminds us, God’s ways are not our ways.
Every
student at La Salle knows that service is an important
priority in their educational development - it is another method of effecting
the universal destination of goods. And,
just as Claire Underwood stopped to think about assisting the homeless man in House
of Cards, we want our students to be intentional with respect to their acts
of charity now and in the future.
