Truth Leads to Freedom

If you want real freedom, then accept the Truth.

Pope Benedict XVI, following in the footsteps of his predecessor, has said much about the importance of understanding the relationship between faith and reason. Benedict’s understanding and teaching on this relationship is evident in the address he gave to the U.S. bishops during the recent [March 2012] Ad Limina visit.

With her long tradition of respect for the right relationship between faith and reason, the Church has a critical role to play in countering cultural currents which, on the basis of an extreme individualism, seek to promote notions of freedom detached from moral truth. Our tradition does not speak from blind faith, but from a rational perspective which links our commitment to building an authentically just, humane and prosperous society to our ultimate assurance that the cosmos is possessed of an inner logic accessible to human reasoning.

Here it seems that His Holiness is presenting morality not from a top-down model, which could require “blind faith”, but rather from a within model: the makings of right living are within us and within the universe, like a language of righteous living imprinted on our very being, and we can use our ratio (rational powers) to decode this language. This language is accessible to us, because it is part of our makeup. Furthermore, it is accessible to all people of good will, not only to “religious” people or only to Catholics; although the Church has an indispensible role in teaching some of the more complicated matters in moral theology and ethics. Yet the basics are available to all. Unless one has killed his conscience by repeated and vicious sins, he knows in his heart that murder, stealing, lying, and cheating are morally wrong.

Wisdom to the Simple

Every man can be wise. You don't need a college degree to be wise; some farmers are actually wiser than some professors. God gave us the natural law, which we can know because we are creatures with ratio or reason. The natural law is nonetheless revealed to us by God in the Ten Commandments. The natural law, says St. Thomas Aquinas, is "nothing more than the rational creature's participation in the Eternal Law." Follow this law, which God has given to man, and you will be wise.

The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. -Psalm 19

These Live in the Human Heart

In Veritatis Splendor, Pope John Paul II, quoting St. Paul, discusses how the Gentiles, even though they do not have explicit Divine Revelation or the Law as did the Israelites, often manage to follow the Ten Commandments nonetheless, because they have the benefit of the natural moral law. “When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they … show that what the law requires is written on their hearts …”(1)
Footnote:
1. Romans 2:14-15;cited in Veritatis Splendor, #57

These Live for All Time

In one of Sophocles' greatest works, Creon and his brother, who is King, are involved in mortal combat for the rule of the kingdom. Creon defeats and kills the King, his brother, in the battle, leaving his dead body in the fields for the birds to consume and devour. Now, the King’s sister, Antigone, is a decent maiden who has the natural moral law written in her heart. Therefore, she attempts to remove the King’s body from the field and give him a decent burial. In response, Creon, the usurper king, makes a law that it is a capital crime to bury the King. This is—of course—an unjust law since it violates the natural moral law. Indeed, Saint Thomas Aquinas taught: Mala lex, nulla lex, which translated is rendered: “A bad law is no law.” In other words, no human authority can make a law that contradicts the natural moral law. If such a law is made, it has no binding force whatsoever, and ought to be resisted. This, it seems, is what Sophocles was trying to say when he wrote Antigone. In Sophocles’ marvelous work, Antigone, a courageous and noble maiden, tells Creon that his laws, even if he were a legitimate king, can override neither the eternal law nor the natural law. For "these live, not for today and yesterday but for all time." There is a message here for the elite and politically powerful of our day who legislate in favor of abortion, same-sex unions, and other atrocities that go against the natural law. And naturally there is a message for the humble person who tries to follow the natural law, which is written in his heart. It is the message of Saint Paul to the Corinthians: Do not lose heart, “For God has chosen what the world considers weak and foolish to shame the ‘wise’ and the powerful, that no flesh may glory in God’s sight.” Be of good heart; fight the good fight. Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the natural, eternal, and divine law, is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus is the ultimate Victor. To Him be glory and power and dominion for all ages, world without end. Amen.

These Live in the Human Heart

In Veritatis Splendor, Pope John Paul II, quoting St. Paul, discusses how the Gentiles, even though they do not have explicit Divine Revelation or the Law as did the Israelites, often manage to follow the Ten Commandments nonetheless, because they have the benefit of the natural moral law. “When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they … show that what the law requires is written on their hearts …”(1)
Footnote:
1. Romans 2:14-15;cited in Veritatis Splendor, #57

The Most Fundamental Law

You will be My people, and I will be your God.

These are the words of the Covenant, the words of the Covenant of God with his people, the people who came from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel); they are found in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible.
To keep the Covenant means to keep (or obey or observe) the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. But what are the Commandments? The Ten Commandments are the natural moral law expressed explicitly. The natural moral law is written in the heart of each and every man. The ancients (that is, the ancient Greeks and Romans) knew of the natural law. The Romans Cicero and Sophocles wrote about it. Even though they did not know it’s Author, the ancients of the Roman Republic sought to practice the natural moral law. Indeed, in God’s Providence, the Roman Republic defeated the Carthaginians, who were avid practitioners of everything that goes against the natural law, namely ritual child-sacrifice.
Now, the Hebrews were probably the most concrete-thinking people in history. They were not philosophically minded like the ancient Greeks and Romans. Therefore, through Moses, God revealed to them the natural law in the most explicit and concrete way possible: on the Stone Tablets of the Law. They were to teach these Commandments to their children and their children’s children—down through the generations, in other words.
Even so, the Hebrews still managed to break the natural law and the Commandments and the Covenant. Specifically, they did this by joining in the abominable practices of the nations: Baal worship and it’s accompanying demonic ritual of child-sacrifice. The Prophet Hosea bemoans this practice explicitly:

Thus says the Lord, “When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the farther they went from me, sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols.”

Okay, Hosea’s text doesn’t mention that it was child sacrifice; however, the text of the Prophet Jeremiah does. Jeremiah specifically tells us that, when Jericho was being rebuilt, a Hebrew official named Hiel sacrificed his two sons to Baal and buried them underneath the foundations of the city. There are more examples of this, and they will be mentioned in future blog entries of “These Live for All Time.”
So I am always astounded when some people object: “The God of the Old Testament was ‘mean’; he was not a God of Love, because of the battles he commanded and because sometimes had to put pagan civilizations under the ban." Yet God did these things precisely because He is the God of Love. He does not want His People to adopt the ways of demon-worship, which involve sacrificing precious human beings—usually mere children—to Satan. This is why God told His people not to inter-marry and mix with the pagans. He knew that such inter-marriages would only bring down his people to the satanic level of the pagans, which would only multiply the amount of false worship and murder of innocent human beings. God loves life. The Sixth Commandment forbids murder and so does the natural law, the first principle of which is expressed as: “Do good and avoid evil.” And there are immediately knowable secondary precepts that spring from this first principle, such as Love your offspring. Do not murder. Do not lie; do tell the truth.
Today, in much of the world—even in the once God-fearing U.S.A.—the natural law is broken. The United States of America no longer has laws forbidding abortion, the culture encourages the contraceptive mentality, and the Courts are trying to eradicate marriage (a permanent society between one man and one woman for the procreation and education of children) from the face of the earth. Furthermore, we export our abortion-providing technology and our contraceptives to poor developing Third World nations. What makes us think we have the right to tell them to have less children!?
We have become a lawless society that cannot even keep the most basic and fundamental and necessary of all laws: the natural moral law. Furthermore, our massive government bureaucracies seek to spread our lawlessness to the ends of the world. We should not be surprised that “the land of the free and the home of the brave” is falling apart at the seams!

It's very near to you!

This command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. … No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out (Dt. 3:11, 14).

These words of the prophet Moses ring true today as they did for the ancient Israelites. You and I know the Ten Commandments. We know when we have done good and when we have done evil. We don’t need an explanation to know that it is wrong (or evil) to lie, cheat, steal, fornicate, murder, and blaspheme. As soon as one knows the meaning of each of these words, he knows that it is wrong; that it is evil and a very bad sin. Even young children know almost instinctively that it is wrong to disobey or disrespect Mom and Dad and that it is wrong to strike another human being. The natural law is written in the human heart.