What endures isn’t the external but the internal. What endures is our character, as it is shaped by how we react to life circumstances and by the virtue that we incorporate into our lives. We admire the altruistic person who sacrifices himself for another, who honors the responsibilities he has taken on and whose word can be trusted. On the other hand, our stomach turns at the narcissist, the liar or the opportunist who treats responsibility as a means for self-aggrandizement. This is almost an instinctive reaction because a healthy human being has an active conscience that is attracted by virtue and repelled by the opposite.
Wealth, women, power and fame all represent fleeting benefits of no lasting consequence. Somehow the protagonist thinks that these benefits will make him a better person, bring happiness into his life and make him truly successful. Yet, if we consider those in public life who seem to have made the pursuit of wealth, women, power and fame the focus of their life’s work they seem the most pathetic of all creatures.
Saint Augustine reflected on these insights when he served as Bishop of Hippo. He had served as a professor of rhetoric in Milan and tutor to the Imperial household and had seen the exercise of Imperial power close up. He was also painfully aware of the threats to people that came from invading barbarians, lawlessness, pirates and corrupt leaders. He spent many years wrestling with the question of how a Christian should exercise power, whether that power derived from politics, wealth, fame or military might.
The result of his reflection was compiled in a book he entitled, “The City of God.” In this book he argued that people gave character to their cities by the decisions they made and the actions they took. The result was one of two types of cities. The first type of city he referred to as the “City of Man”. This city was the result of pursuing the traditional goals of wealth, women, power and fame. The other city was called the “City of God”. It was rooted in Christian virtues and the pursuit of the common good. Christian leaders were called to build the City of God and turn away from the corruption and self-seeking that results in the City of Man.
The pursuit of wealth, women, power and fame is a turning away from what endures and what is truly beneficial to the person and allowing one’s life to be wasted in pursuit of things that are not worth the effort in the long run. It is a scam that is worthy of the devil. In the story of Dr. Faustus, the scholar was given great magical and intellectual power, yet he frittered away most of that power on parlor tricks that earned the admiration of the other power players in society but did little of consequence in the long run. He died a disappointed and spiritually broken man.
Faustian stories are always popular because it is the most common of all dilemmas that each of us must face. How are we to order our lives? What are the priorities and values that are the foundation for all of our decisions in life? There are only so many minutes in our lives, how do we spend the minutes, hours, days and years we have been given?
The challenge is magnified for those in public life because they have taken on additional responsibility in the community and have been given the authority needed to meet those responsibilities. In a community that claims to be Christian, it is expected that its leaders will pursue the City of God. This is a noble calling. It produces a society characterized by justice, self-sacrifice, mutual respect, pursuit of the common good and moral sensitivity. When community leaders pursue self-interest and play the power games more characteristic of the City of Man, these leaders fail the people who put them into office, degrade the authority with which they have been entrusted and, by their actions, appear to have sold their souls to the devil.