"Christianity has not been proved false; it has not yet been tried out." This famous saying is, I think, quite thought provoking, especially when we consider that we are on the eve of the Third Millennium. Numerous articles have been written of late, and they all seem to indicate with a greater or lesser accuracy where we are now or where we should be heading to. Nonetheless, Igino Giordani's [1] Le Due Città (Città Nuova, 1961), though written in the famous sixties which, by hindsight, seem to be so far away from this glorious Jubilee, offers some interesting insights as to the Christian's being in the world. In this article I would like to attempt a synthesis of the main ideas Giordani expounds in this particular book.

The Revolution

Christianity was the revolution. A constructive revolution overcoming evil with goodness, hate with love, it had as its beginning the annunciation to a poor young woman from a little town. Impregnated with the Holy spirit, Mary sang the Magnificat, pre-announcing that through the work of the Incarnation germinating inside her there would be a struggle against the proud [2], putting down the mighty from their thrones and exalting those of low degree. It was an anticipation of what Jesus would say: "But many that are first will be last, and the last first" (Mt. 19:30).

Christ, however, was not yet another myth. He was God-Man and this meant the penetration of the divine law into human society, thus building a city on earth having God in heaven as king. Now man was no longer a servant to Caesar but that Caesar was at the service of God and his people. In fact, the aim of the Incarnation was Redemption, that is, liberating man from all oppression, and preaching love.

According to Giordani, this living of God among men results in three actors: I (thesis), Brother (antithesis), God (synthesis). In this respect, the Incarnation sets in motion a Trinitarian sociology [3] whose aim is to transform human society into an image of the divine society.

"Genera un rapporto fra tre persone: due che sono in terra fate per il cielo, uno che e' in cielo ma è presente in terra e in ogni luogo." [4]

Thus, even as a citizen, the Christian is always in church. [5]

The basis of this Trinitarian sociology is charity. "Chè neppure la sola giustizia basta più!" [6] Charity does not suppress justice but perfects it. "La giustizia dà a ciascuno il suo; la carita' vi aggiunge il nostro." [7] Thus, in an age where riches are/were kept under lock and key, Jesus invites one to sell them, to donate them and to circulate them. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man did not violate justice: he ate and drank from his own granaries and cellars. But if he did not violate the code of laws, he violated charity which is a higher justice, and charity means the circulation of goods. It is the new justice brought about by Christ: [8] "This I command you, to love one another" (Jn 15: 17).[9] And love is immediately an exchange and a communion.[10] In fact, the simultaneous distribution of the Gospel and soup was so essential for the primitive church that with the increase in number of the faithful, they had to elect some people with the special duty of serving at the table: the deacons.[11]

"Non dobbiamo scontare che accanto a noi, con noi, e per noi, solidali per l'eternità, ci sono gli altri."[12] Because of this, even economy has to cooperate with theology. If I love my brother I treat him as myself, thereby establishing an aequitas which gives my brother the same rights that I have.[13] Through this love and communion the superfluous is put in common and those who have much give to those who have less, trying to arrive at a relative equality as that present in a family.[14] If economy were to be animated by charity, goods would be distributed not only in view of the profit of the producers but also in view of the needs of the consumers.[15] Giordani writes thus:

"Se si è potuto attuare in mezzo alla carestia e alla disoccupazione un maltusianesimo economico che gittava[16] al mare o dava alle fiamme prodotti del suolo e armenti intere per rialzare artificialmente i prezzi è avvenuto perché la coscienza di quei produttori non sentiva più il legame con i consumatori; non vedeva che se, il proprio profitto."[17]

Giordani also deals with the question of the right salary in the City of God. In reading the parable of the land owner, he concludes that if the landowner had given the workers of the sixth, ninth and eleventh hour a proportion of the wage according to the time they had worked he would not have given them enough money to live and they and their families would have suffered hunger. Thus, in giving them one denarius each, Jesus did not only look at the work but also at the worker. This is a new evaluation of work, a Christian evaluation which does not look at the produce but at the humanity of the producers and their needs. Love integrates justice. Production is for man and not the contrary.[18]

Work also has a redeeming function which is expressed in the parable of the Prodigal Son. It is only when the son was constricted to work that he had a wish to return to his father and expiate; and returning he asked his father to take him as a labourer.[19] If original sin had added toil to work, the thorn to the rose, redemption gave value also to pain and thus there is no thorn without a rose.[20]

According to the Gospel, work is a peaceful and beneficial construct of private and social existence: a product of goods for oneself and for all. It is an edification of the City of Christ through the Christian acceptance of toil and the solid sharing out of riches which is a distribution of charity, the life of God. Once cannot understand the struggle between classes if not in the manner we conceive of sin; that is, as a suspension of charity and interruption of solidarity. When hate enters in one's life one leaves behind oneself the life of the Gospel. Not for nothing, says Giordani, did the inventors and diffusers of the struggle of classes pose as a primary condition the repudiation of religion considering it as the opium of the people. Thus, this struggle became the cause of revolutions, wars, and repressions. It is "our Father" who gives "our daily bread" to everyone. Without the Father there is no "bread". And Giordani brings the real examples whereby atheistic regimes shot workers who were asking for bread (Milan 1898; Poznam and Bucharest 1956).[21] It is not surprising, therefore, that Péguy had this to say: "misery is in economy what hell is in theology."[22] Thus, says Giordani, "we do not hold another solution apart from that of the Gospel which enriches justice with charity and makes of charity justice."[23]

Giordani finds the climax of this communitarian spirit in the Eucharist whereby the people eat the body and blood of Christ and are therefore christified. Through this sacrament a sort of transubstantiation of man into God occurs, the correlative process of the Incarnation whereby God became man.[24] Being "transubstantiated" into God, the people find themselves unified. The priest's "Ite, missa est" - Go - is then a command of action implying that the Communion which they have received should be shared among others; Christ, having been given to us, should now be given to others.[25] Giordani brings as an example the sign on the door of a church in Cochin on the Arabic Sea which read: "From here one enters to love God: From here one exits to love man."[26] Thus, St. Paul's exhortation: "brethren, do not be weary in well doing" (2 Tes. 3:5) does not finish in the temple, it germinates from the altar but expands outside, in the streets, houses and working environments where it gives rise to the people of God.[27]

"And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them." (Lk 7:22)

The kingdom of God, in fact, integrates the corporeal with the spiritual, action with words.

"Coepit facere et docere: opere e parole".[28]

Giordani sees the gospel as a fire which so many fire-fighters try to extinguish; a fermentation which too many Pharisees neutralise, mummifying it in rhetorical formulae or reducing it only to liturgy: separating faith from works.[29] Yet, the person who fights for his brethren who are exploited is closer to God than those who go in church and kiss the floor and then go home and do not leave any penny get out of there. The publican who stole but is ready to restitute is closer to Christ than the Pharisee who observes the 600 plus norms of the Torah but who has Mammon as his God.[30] Whoever does not do anything is a sleeping Christian. Noi non dobbiamo essere cristiani con la grazia di Dio che dorme in noi.[31] Whoever does not act does not love because love is service and St. John says: "He who does not love abides in death (1 Jn 3:14). Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and truth (1 Jn 3:18). Now truth comes from God; it is up to man to act, transforming Jesus's commandments into deeds. Love produces deeds; deeds produce love.[32]

The Christian social system is based on Trinitarian relationships made of a concatenation of causes and effects between heaven and earth:[33]

"Judge not and you will not be judged condemn not and you will not be condemned forgive and you will be forgiven give and it will be given to you ... " (Lk 6; 37-38)

It is the Christian dialectic process which proposes universal love which remains forever as opposed to the Marxist dialectic process which proposes hate and the struggle of classes as the stimulus for history.[34] The Christian social system is based on love which generates unity, from which comes peace. No peace can exist without unity since "every kingdom divided in itself is laid to waste and no city or house divided in itself will stand."[35] However, the peace generated from love is different from the peace of the world: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives it do I give it to you" (Jn 14:27). The peace of the world is the peace of the tombs. Ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant36, the pagans used to say. "Order reigns in Warsaw"; "Order has been re-established in Budapest", said the atheists. And they meant the order of tanks and weaponry.[37]

Macchiavelli held that in order to rule the Prince had to act against charity. "Assurdo", says Giordani, "come se uno, per vivere, debba procurarsi anche una malattia."[38] This violates the scope of authority which is itself a service, that is love. In fact, for Giordani all authority, especially political authority, has the function and dignity of being a social service, charity in action. The city of God is that in which every citizen serves, taking the example of Mary. And the higher the position, the broader the service.[39] This was recently reiterated by one of the latter Popes, who referred to diplomacy as one of the greatest loves because it produces the broadest effects.

It is a fact, however, that not all authority is exercised in this way. When politics does not have any moral or spiritual basis, that is, it does not model itself on the City of God, it precipitates in the infra human, transforming itself into the city of Satan, submitting man to tyranny, fear, injustice and war. Yet, the Christian revolution continues. It is continued by the redeemed man who, in order to save his brothers, sheds not their blood but his for their own sake.[40] Jesus does not ask those who would like to follow him to fill in a membership card; he asks them to carry the cross. It is this mystery (of the cross) that, through a "divine alchemy", transforms pain into love. Thus, for Giordani, suffering becomes a gift, a contribution of love.[41] "Non sono forse i partiti, la politica, il nostro cilicio?"[42]

It is only when the City of God and the city of Man coincide that political authority can be translated as divine will. It is only then that politics becomes a sacred and noble moral activity. And it is in this sense that it interests man both when it takes care of the soul and when it takes care of the body. Politics then serves man both as a citizen (directly) and as a Christian indirectly. Reciprocally, religion serves man immediately as a Christian and mediately as a citizen.[43]

Thus, if in antiquity, the City of God used to be equated with the Church and the city of man with the world, today, following the intuition of the Letter to Diognetus[44] and St. Augustine we see the relation between Christians and the world to be analogous to that between soul and body.[45] The Christian, who is at once both citizen of the city of saints and citizen of the world has the duty to redeem the latter with the help of the former. In fact, during their life on earth the sons of God have duties both towards their brethren and towards the country. These are also civil duties which in the ambit of Christian ethics become sacred duties having a say on the outcome of eternity - ("che condiziano anche essi l'eternità"). In the same manner that the individual Christian divinises himself through the power of grace, through faith he socially transforms the city of man making it possible that God reigns even in social structures. Redemption of nature occurs though the redeemed man; likewise the State and the family, work and science are redeemed by men who participate in them as sons of God. The apostle Paul, citizen of heaven, used his title to the roman citizenship when needed. This helped him to fulfil his duties towards the former while the former helped him to give a new dignity to romanity.[46] Even sleeping, or eating or dealing with public money, at that, can be harmonised with the spirit: 'Whether we wake or sleep we live in him" (1 Tes. 5;10-11).[47] It is in this way that virtues such as honesty, purity, love, agreement, hard works, and sacrifice enter into society thereby transforming it into the City of God. This is the correlation of the Incarnation through which the divine was immersed in the human, thus determining the fullness of life which is made of spirit and matter, Church and State, liturgy and work. Because our social nature is always a dialogue between God and Satan, between good and evil it has to be nourished by a supernatural food. This is why Churches are erected in the middle of cities. This is why matter is used even in the sacraments. This is why the natural law - as derived from God - brings about a solidarity of Christians with non-Christians and this is why more than once the Pope has asked the collaboration of men of good will from the city of man to help bring about peace, justice and liberty.[48]

We have heard all too often about the consecration of the world, brought about especially by lay people who work in social structures such as political parties, unions, local councils, organisations, work environments, schools and the family.[49] To consecrate the world is precisely this: to realise in us, individually and socially, the Incarnation, the penetration of the divine in the human; to make out of our life on earth the unique occasion of meriting the life in heaven, to make out of the city of man a hall leading to the City of God. The Church is distinct from politics, yet it teaches Christians the religion of Christ, to practice charity, thus rendering possible the presence of Jesus amongst them, in society, in their working place, and why not, even in Parliament![50] Living as such, they live their Christianity in all spheres of their life, making the will of God in earth as in heaven, and, if there is one will there is one kingdom and therefore earth would be united to heaven, man to God. "It is the Incarnation actuated socially".[51] Thus, Giordani exclaims, "Tell me your theology and I'll tell you your politics".[52]

The Christian is in the civitas to make of the earthly society an image and likeness of the city of God in which, as St Augustine said: "Truth is king, charity is law and eternity is the measure."[53] Society then becomes one family in which God is Father and men brothers because they have a common mother: Mary.[54] "Just think", says Giordani, "about what good the City of God would bring: the city which has as its power the Father, as its mind the Word and as its inspiration the Holy Spirit, adding beauty to wisdom because it has as its heart the Tota Pulchra: Mary."[55]