Teach Us O'Lord

Sometimes people will ask me, “Father is that God’s commandment or man’s?”  When someone asks this type of question there is either a moral dilemma they are struggling with or sometimes a doctrinal statement and \ or dogma.

With the Healthcare mandate looming and now in the Supreme Court many voices have been heard either defending it or denouncing it.  It has led to many people asking, “Doesn’t a person have a right over their own body, contraceptives really can’t be sinful, and when does human life really begin?”  There are Catholics asking these questions, some of who have already made up their minds.

So, the crux of the argument is, when the Church says abortion is a sinful act – one that is gravely evil, objectively speaking (subjectively the person’s culpability and responsibility can only be judged by God) and that contraceptive use is also evil are not laws made up by men.  Quite the contrary, the laws themselves are from God, which we can deduce and recognize through reason and grace.  These laws are derived from the Divine Law, i.e. God and Scripture, as well as through nature, i.e. The natural law.  In order to keep this simple let us take one example and see how they relate to Scripture and Natural Law.

When two married people come together in the act of sexual union, two things exist or are naturally present, one) the unitive, i.e. two people coming together for happiness, two) for the procreative, i.e. that a possibility exists that new life will arise from the union, if either one of these is missing then the act is not whole, holy.  One may ask, “Who decides that?”  Think for a moment what happens naturally, if anything prevents it then the “naturalness” is removed.  If a non-married couple engages in sexual union they are establishing a covenant in the wrong order.  Words always come first, either vows or oaths, and then the thing exists or is consummated through the act natural to its nature.  No one is a doctor without taking an oath first, the same for a police officer, lawyer, and soldier.  If they told you, I am a cop, but you know I never took my oath, but acted like a cop, you would think me mad or better yet, if I told you I was a priest and never took my vows.  The same applies for marriage, no oath – no marriage.  Yet, many have decided to rewrite the rules concerning marriage.

We can talk about this for days, but the bottom line is that people think they are their own masters, e.g. I decided what is best for me, the Church or institutional religion cannot tell me what to do.  These same persons usually label themselves Christian.  Here is the Divine answer from Divine Law.  St. Paul says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor. 6:19-20)  If I am not my own who do I belong to?  We belong to Jesus, and He clearly defines marriage and what it entails.  Our arguments are not necessarily with the institution, but with Christ Himself.  Let’s be honest, people are afraid to argue with Jesus, even the most cynical atheists, because just in case they are wrong through their own self righteousness (atheists or believers) their disagreements are directed towards the institution and not Christ, a way out – at least subconsciously.

The Natural Law is that law that I can deduce through observing nature, e.g. people are born – people die.  When I observe marriage I know through common sense what it is and its purpose, e.g. unitive and creative and it only exists through a vow taking place first then the act of consummation – not the other way around.  The Divine Law which we receive from God, through Scripture also challenges me in and that I belong to Jesus and if I belong to Him I must at least try to observe His teachings.

Those teachings are preserved, guarded, and interpreted by those Jesus appointed to do so after His Ascension to the Father as we heard in today’s first reading.  The institution does not make up rules, but helps the entire Church to understand the Divine Law and the Natural Law.  Yet, for some reason we are becoming the very thing we are arguing against.  People will argue, “Who are the bishops or some pope to tell me what I can and cannot do?”  What happens is that people become their own pope; they become their own bishops – for we now make up the rules.  A gentle reminder, “Do you know that . . . you are not your own . . . you have been purchased at a price.”  Amen.

Fr. John