The Wisdom of Solomon

Sunday’s scripture recounts the story of King Solomon who, when asked by God what he would like, did not want riches or long life, but rather, he asked for an understanding heart.  The wisdom of Solomon’s request characterizes the heart of a man who can distinguish between real and false treasure.  Sunday’s gospel is a continuation from last week as Jesus presents several more parables describing the kingdom of heaven.   In doing so, He is instructing us in the importance of having a heart that understands the value of keeping our priorities straight.  The things of this world are of little consequence in comparison to our ultimate goal, which is heaven.  Last Sunday the parable of the sower and the seeds revealed that people distracted by worldly desires will miss out on the greater prize which is heaven.  The parable about the pearl of great price demonstrates the wisdom of placing the greatest value and focus on seeking the kingdom of God.

In our increasingly secular and cynical world, many people deride Christians for naïvely believing in “pie in the sky” as our reward for living a moral life.  They often view morality as nothing more than superstitious bunk that restricts human freedom.  And yet, they seem to be blind to the many consequences of violating the laws of nature and the laws of God.  When God gave His people the Ten Commandments, it was not to limit their freedom, but to set them free from sin, so they would prosper and be happy, even as they grew closer to God, and to one another in love.  Remember, the people of the Old Testament were spiritually immature, living in an age when most other people believed in multiple gods who controlled destiny and had to be appeased by sacrifices, even human sacrifice.  The Israelites did not have the benefit of the Holy Spirit, who came only after the saving act of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  The first three of the Ten Commandments instruct us in how to love God, and the remaining seven, how to love one another by respecting parents, the dignity of every person, marriage, and property rights.  Observing the Ten Commandments frees us to love and prosper, and be happy.  When we violate these commandments, we put our freedom at risk by becoming enslaved to the sins of pride, lust, and greed.   No society can thrive when driven by immorality because the common good is not being served, and as we have seen throughout the ages, the powerful take what they want at the expense of everyone else. 

With all this in mind, I’ve been wondering how I can pass along the importance of seeking the kingdom of God to my children and grandchildren.  Certainly they can be taught the tenets of faith, so as to guide them while they are spiritually immature, like the Israelites.  But even having been baptized and received the Holy Spirit, free will and the temptations of the world can easily distract them from understanding the importance of seeking the kingdom of God.   We live in a culture that is becoming increasingly immoral, and as a result, choosing a moral life has become counter-cultural.  How can I convince them that real happiness is derived not from seeking the false freedom of libertinism, but rather, it is freedom from sin that promotes both personal happiness and the common good?

So here’s what I’ve come up with: a short list of suggestions to act as a guide for forming attitudes that are both life-affirming and logical in their content and outcomes.

1.      Lead a Moral Life – Do not become a slave to your emotions, doing so will only make you unhappy in the long run and lead to many unpleasant consequences.    Spiritual maturity requires self-discipline which is best learned by following the Ten Commandments.

 

2.      Learn Self-Discipline - You may not be able to control what happens to you, but you can certainly control how you react to things.  Reacting badly only compounds problems and extends the unhappiness.

3.      Adopt an Abundance Mentality – God’s love is infinite, so there is no reason to be envious of others.  What seems “unfair” is only temporary.  God will always find a way to cause good to come from even the most evil act.  Be happy for the success and happiness of others, and generous with your time when others need your help.  Remember that your ultimate destination is eternal life, and everything that happens before death is only temporary.

4.      Form a Moral Conscience – Our conscience has been referred to as the “divine spark of God’s love,” and it enables us to recognize that certain things are intrinsically evil.  However, forming our conscience is a lifelong task that requires study and reflection, it is not something we simply “feel.”  Failure to form your conscience is a sign of spiritual immaturity and leads to moral relativism in which all manner of sinful behavior is rationalized.

5.      Be Grateful – It’s hard to be hateful when you’re grateful.  Never forget the miracle of life that has been given to you, and the love and mercy of God that has been showered on you.  When you’re disappointed, recall all the good things in your life, and put things into perspective.

6.      Be a Good Listener –This is a variation on the golden rule.  Consciously work on being a good listener and you will earn people’s respect and trust.  Don’t take yourself too seriously because focusing too much on yourself makes you a poor listener as well as unpleasant and unattractive.

7.      Do Not Spend All the Money You Earn – Spending more than you earn is a sure path to anxiety, trouble, and temptation.  Buying on credit only increases the price you’re paying, and if not repaid quickly, can double the cost of everything you buy.  Begin saving 10% of your income from your very first paycheck and you’ll never miss the money you save.  When asked what the most amazing mathematical function was, Einstein replied, “compound interest.”  If you start saving while young, your money will quadruple over time, but if you wait until middle age to begin saving, you will never have enough to retire.  

One final note: The Kingdom of God is already at hand.  This life, here and now on earth, is part of the Kingdom of God.  We have only to recognize that we are immortal souls currently living in human bodies, and the spacetime in which we live is part of the eternal now of God.  So act like it.  Every choice we make matters.

Immigration and the Rule of Law

Sunday’s readings all pertain to nature and nature’s God who created all the earth and made it fertile.   Isaiah uses the analogy of the fertility of earth compared to the fruitfulness of the Word of God, and Jesus gives us the parable of the sower and the seed.  Some of the seed falls on rocky soil or in the thorns, but it is only the seed that falls on good soil that thrives and survives.  It is interesting to note that the word ‘human’ comes from the same root word as ‘humus’ meaning earth, or soil.  Each of us has the capacity to lead productive, full lives, but it depends on whether or not we cultivate the gifts we have been granted, and develop the good habits and discipline that ultimately leads to happiness and success in life.

The same holds true for society as a whole.  If society squanders its resources and human capital, it cannot survive.  If there is one lesson we must learn from history, it is that even the most powerful society will eventually crumble unless it is rooted in culture of morality.  The Roman civilization was destroyed from within when their culture abandoned morality, and family life dissembled, no longer producing honest, productive citizens.   America became the world’s most powerful economy because people were willing to work hard, keep their promises, and obey the rule of law.  Businesses cannot manufacture hard-working, honest people to employ, nor can government create them by force of law.  They must rely on families to produce responsible citizens, assisted by their religious beliefs and taught to be honest and industrious.   For two hundred years, immigrants flooded into America with little but their honesty and willingness to work, and they “made it,” with no government aid or welfare assistance.  The economic freedom and free markets in America enabled our melting pot society to become the economic powerhouse we now take for granted.

European countries, on the other hand, have become welfare states where most immigrants end up dependent on government assistance, in part because the powerful trade unions prevent them from entering the workforce.  This same thing is happening now in California where a study done in 2012 by the Center for Immigration Studies, revealed that 82% of illegal Hispanic immigrants are receiving welfare benefits, compared to 61% of legal immigrants.  More recently, it was reported that California spends $23 Billion a year on illegal immigrants who use state-funded programs.   If California were not running a massive deficit, this expenditure alone would require over $2000/year in state taxes from every citizen, i.e., $8000/year from a tax-paying family of four!  Not only does the availability of welfare benefits attract illegal immigrants, it sets up a situation in which politicians who promote dependence on welfare create a loyal voting base, especially if proof of citizenship is not required at the voting booth.  This is exactly what Democrats are trying to do in Texas, in an effort to turn that state from red to blue.   This couldn’t be more obvious since the federal government refuses to protect the boarder and the Justice Department sued Texas for requiring a free, state-issued ID card in order to vote.

Ironically, many immigrants are attracted to America to escape their homeland where the rule of law has broken down, but they enter this country illegally because legal immigration is nearly impossible and out of their reach.  We sanitize this reality by calling people “undocumented” rather than acknowledging that they have broken the law and immigrated illegally.  Failure to obey the law contributes to lack of respect for the rule of law and strikes at the heart of the common good.  The “Rule of Law” is commonly defined by four measures: 1.) Rules are prospective, not retroactive, and not impossible to comply with; 2.) Rules are clear and coherent; 3.) Rules are stable, allowing people to be guided by their knowledge; 4.) Those charged with authority to make and enforce rules are themselves accountable for their own compliance and must administer the law consistently.   All of this is essential to the common good.  Unfortunately, the “rule of law” with regard to US immigration is practically non-existent.  In recent years, our immigration laws have become reactionary and retrospective, they are a bureaucratic mess that few can understand or comply with, and those in authority have openly refused to enforce the law consistently, even openly defying it.  In the meanwhile, we have refused to secure our boarders, giving an open invitation to illegal immigration, along with the suggestion that people will not be deported, but instead receive welfare assistance.

All of this flies in the face of common sense and Catholic doctrine which holds that every country has the duty to secure its borders and enforce its immigration laws consistently.   Human freedom demands that people be allowed to migrate for the good of their family and future, but not illegally.  Archbishop Gomez has pointed out that the rule of law has broken down with respect to immigration and this is contributing significantly to the problems we are now encountering.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church stresses that immigrants have an obligation “to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.”  (CCC 2241)  When interviewed last week on Catholic TV (EWTN), the Archbishop of Honduras said that President Obama’s plan to spend $3.8 Billion is a waste of time and money.  He said that if the US really wanted to address the problem, we would close our borders, so that people will stop making the dangerous trip over and over until they get through.  What Honduras really needs, he said, is help overcoming the drug lords, violence, and government corruption that beleaguers their nation.   As Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said recently, during an interview on EWTN, “We currently have little or no fence on our border, but a very narrow gate for legal immigration.  What we really need is impenetrable border protection and a wide gate for legal immigration.”  This sums up the problem.  If we need and want immigrants to enter our country (President Obama recently quipped that they hold the future to the success of America), we should simplify the process of legal immigration and allow honest people and qualified refugees to enter legally.   By re-establishing the rule of law with respect to immigration, we would give people the right incentives to immigrate, while starting them off with respect and appreciation for our laws, and without fear of reprisal for having entered our county illegally.  Not only are they more likely to become honest, hard-working citizens, contributing to our great nation, they will become patriots.

Human life is the most precious gift imaginable, and the people risking their lives and the lives of their children to immigrate illegally, deserve better.  Our country has, until recently, welcomed immigrants and afforded them the opportunity to become full-fledged American citizens.  There’s no reason we cannot return to a policy that simplifies the process of legal immigration.  But first we must secure our borders, not just to protect our sovereignty, but for the safety of those so desperate that they would send their young children on a life-threatening journey to escape their homeland.  Let our country be the “good soil” in which immigrants can flourish and benefit from their honesty and hard work, just the way our immigrant ancestors did.

Indepenence Day 2014: The Importance of Economic and Religious Freedom

Today we celebrate the founding of our country when the brave men and women of the 18^th century British colonies declared independence from England.  They did so for two primary reasons: to attain economic and religious freedom.   The prevailing economic system of their time, referred to as “mercantilism,” was based on the notion that each nation was in competition with every other nation, and that economic success could only be achieved at the expense of other, competing nations.  This resulted in heavy tariffs and the requirement that all goods and services must pass through government agencies or approved nobles and their companies.  Today, we call this “crony capitalism” whereby wealthy and influential companies and individuals are given government support or protection against competition and regulation.   American colonists were not allowed to trade freely with neighboring colonies of Spain or France (Louisiana), but instead had to pay a steep tariff or sell their goods to a British intermediary who in turn would sell their goods at a profit.  Not only did colonists lack representation in the British Parliament, they were hampered economically, and taxed mercilessly. 

On the religious front, many colonists had fled to America to escape religious persecution.  Notably, Catholics were being persecuted in England, as were Protestants in France.   The only colony that briefly enjoyed religious freedom was Maryland, founded by a prominent Catholic, Lord Baltimore in the 1630s.  But by 1649, this freedom was revoked, only to be reinstituted briefly from 1658 to 1688 when it was revoked again.  In 1776, Catholics in Maryland were not only prevented from voting, they had to pay double taxes on their income.  As outrageous as this may sound, the HHS mandate would punish employers for their religious belief with monumental taxes.  Had the Green family lost the Hobby Lobby case, they would have been subject to $450 million a year in taxes.  The most prominent and wealthy businessman in 1776 was Charles Carroll of Maryland.  He was the only Catholic allowed to sign the Declaration of Independence.  Carroll was well-educated and grew his family fortune immensely, then spent most of his wealth to fund the revolution.  His cousin, John Carroll became the first American Catholic Bishop in the archdiocese of Baltimore, and was the founder of Georgetown University.

Coincidentally, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776.  His case for economic freedom was studied and well-understood by our founding fathers.   Not only did Smith advocate for free trade, he described how free markets served the common good by making products and services competitively priced and readily available, thus growing the economy, creating jobs, and encouraging innovation, as well as the virtues of industriousness, self-discipline, thrift, and support for the common good.  Smith outlined all this in another, lesser known book, Theory of Moral Sentiments, which discusses the importance of virtue and the moral life, as the basis for civil society.  For the most part, the Catholic Church agrees.  In Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, we find this statement: “A truly competitive market is an effective instrument for attaining important objectives of justice: moderating the excessive profits of individual businesses, responding to consumer demand, bringing about more efficient use and conservation of resources, rewarding entrepreneurship and innovation… and an atmosphere of healthy competition.”  In his first encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI said, “In and of itself, the market is not the place where the strong subdue the weak.  Society does not have to protect itself from the market… any society that commits itself to human flourishing must allow market-oriented relationship if it is to be authentically human.”  More recently, the Catholic bishops have observed that, “In place of virtue, we’ve seen an expansion in government regulation.  A society that is held together just by compliance to rules is inherently fragile, and open to abuses which are met with further expansion of regulations.”

In the year or so leading up to this week’s Supreme Court decision on Hobby Lobby, the Catholic church has been a leader in opposing the government’s blatant violations of religious freedom.  Not only has religious freedom been a theme of weekly “Prayers of the Faithful” in parishes across the country, hundreds of Catholic dioceses, hospitals, social service agencies, and charitable organizations have filed lawsuits opposing the HHS mandate.  In the process, the church has taken the opportunity to explain the importance of authentic freedom which is so commonly misunderstood.

Increasingly, the secular worlds understanding of freedom means exemption from any moral precepts, especially those held by religious belief, in particular, Christian belief about abortion and marriage.  From the very beginning of Christianity, freedom has been thought of as Jesus taught it: liberation from sin.  St. Paul proclaims, “Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.”  (Gal 5:1).  In the fourth century when St. Augustine penned The City of God, he wrote, “the good man, although he may be a slave, is free; but the bad man, even if he reigns, is a slave.”  In contrast, pagan philosophers such as Cicero, described freedom as the ability to live as one wishes, essentially ruled by feelings.  In response to the Enlightenment philosophers who picked up this theme, Pope Leo XIII published an encyclical in 1888 entitled, The Nature of Liberty, in which he emphasized that God created man free, and the church is no enemy of freedom.  He explained that there is a difference between liberty and license to do as one pleases, and human reason makes it possible to know the truth that there are evils which must be avoided if human society is to flourish.  When God gave us the 10 Commandments, He was giving us a guide to freedom, happiness, and common good, not limits on our freedom.  Violating God’s commands harms individuals and society at large.  Freedom detached from man’s natural capacity for reason, is harmful to human flourishing and the common good. Even civil law recognizes as much, although in recent years our legislators and courts have overturned God’s commands about adultery and the murder of innocent (unborn) life.

The question at hand is how to define the common good.  The Church teaches that whatever supports and upholds marriage and the family, whatever is beautiful and respects the dignity of every human life, is good.  Whatever hurts marriage and family, diminishes human dignity, and is ugly, most likely harms the common good.  Our founding fathers knew that our liberty would depend on the morality of our society, and that religious liberty was foundational to our republic, hence they passed the First Amendment immediately after the Constitution.  The day after the Hobby Lobby decision, the White House press secretary said, “We do not believe that employers should be able to ignore federal mandates on the basis of religious belief.”  In other words, our president wants to dictate what we should believe, and force everyone to accept his definition of freedom, even if it violates our deepest religious beliefs.   In his cabinet meeting the same day he said he would be looking at Executive Orders in response to the recent high court decisions, and he urged his cabinet heads to do the same.

God help America.