The Wisdom of God's Law as Written in our Hearts

Sunday’s first reading explains that God’s law is written in our hearts:

“For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you.
It is not up in the sky, that you should say, ‘Who will go up in the sky to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’ Nor is it across the sea, that you should say,
‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’
No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts;
you have only to carry it out.”    (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)

This law, natural law, is readily accessible to us by the use of human reason.  God has revealed the truths about life and our human nature, in every aspect of the created universe.  We are surrounded by these truths if only we open our eyes and our hearts to observe them.  It is visible to us in the very substance of life, in the way in which our bodies have been created, in the seasons of the year, in the passage of time, and especially in our consciences, which are continually drawing us back to God, despite our apathy and sinfulness.

When Pope Francis addressed world leaders who came to his installation ceremony, he stated that, “There can be no peace without reference to the moral truths imbedded in the world and in us – truths that are accessible to everyone by the use of reason.”  Coincidentally this year is the 50^th anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical, “Pacem in Terris” (Peace on Earth), written just before the Cuban missile crisis.  The power and wisdom of Pacem in Terris is that it laid out a moral vision of a just and peaceful political order at both national international levels, rooted in service to the common good, based on respect for the rights and duties of every person as well as every State.

Most of the countries embroiled in civil war and violent conflict, are those in which natural law is being disregarded.  As Pope Benedict XVI pointed out in is Regensburg address, there can be no peace unless there if respect for human dignity and the right of people to practice their religious beliefs.  Islamic nations that have outlawed all other religions are among the most violent places on earth.  Countries that have outlawed religion and attempted to control population growth through forced abortions and sterilization, are now on the verge of a demographic catastrophe in which there are not nearly enough young people to work and support their economies.  Nations in which socialism removed the incentives for creativity and hard work, have seen their economies falter as more and more people abrogated their personal duties in favor of support from the welfare state.  Now these nations are resorting to simply printing money to keep their economies temporarily afloat, amidst growing massive debt and unfunded liabilities for government welfare and pension plans which they can no longer afford.

Clearly, when God’s law, natural law, is violated, the common good is negatively affected.  Yet, our own nation seems determined to do just that.  The redefinition of marriage is in direct contrast to the nature of our bodies, and the needs of our society to encourage and promote families in which children are raised by a father and mother, living out a permanent commitment to one another, and to their children.  Human reason validates this, if only by noting that the recipe for poverty is to have children out of wedlock, raised by single parents, or without a father.  Moreover, these families become entrapped in the welfare state, wherein their duty and responsibility to get and education, learn a trade, and work for a living, are replaced by benefits that are worth far more than entry level wages.

When freedom of religion is removed, and the State dictates that people violate their conscience by paying for contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs, and surgical sterilization, we are not contributing to the common good, but rather, blithely heading down the path to a demographic disaster.  Under the current HHS rule, just “modified” last week, even Catholic Charities and Catholic Universities will be required to provide these services in their self-funded benefit plans.  Failure to comply is no small matter, since the fine is $100 per employee, per day.  For a college with 1400 employees, that’s nearly $1 million a week in fines.  For a large Catholic University with 10,000 employees, the fine is $1 million a day!

Sunday’s gospel concluded with Jesus telling the parable of the Good Samaritan.  If we are to follow God’s law as written in our hearts, we must find the courage to respect the dignity of every human being, and that includes respecting their right to practice their faith, whether it be Christianity, Islam or Atheism.  This is the moral basis of peace, not the secular morality now being imposed by our government which seems determined to imitate the Islamic countries where only the State-approved morality is allowed.  Let’s pray not only for our first freedom, the freedom to practice our religious beliefs, but also for the greater use of human reason to see the wisdom of God’s law, as written in our hearts.