Today is the Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church.
ASIDE: I highly recommend reading the the writings of these two great men (and the rest of the fathers of the early Church) at The Fathers of the Church located on the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. The writings are alphabetized by person's name. END ASIDE
Today's Scripture readings include the following:
- Liars, Eternal Life and God's Children in 1st John 2:22-28
- Praise the Judge of the World in Psalm 98:1-4
- John the Baptist’s Testimony to Himself in John 1:19-28
Do not permit your politics to be above your faith.
This title follows the homily which Father Kirby gave at Our Lady of Grace during Daily Mass. I won't bother to reproduce everything Father explained because I am unable to do his homily justice. But I do want to get a few thoughts down.
Father explained that he will be absent for the next two days because he was invited by Mick Mulvaney, a parishioner, to the inauguration of the 115th Congress of the United States on January 3rd. Mick Mulvaney was re-elected to represent South Carolina's 5th District.
Father then led into the main topic. Holiness - the fulfillment of charity (the Latin caritas or the Greek ἀγάπη) must always come first. How can we as Catholics - indeed, as Christians - support or advocate things that are contrary to the Gospel? It is unfathomable that people who claim the title Catholic would support abortion, or oppose immigration, or support the death penalty. Normally, when I hear topics like immigration, death penalty, and others lumped in with intrinsic evils like abortion, I bristle. The reason why is because Pope Benedict XVI already explained that certain matters do not rise to the same level of importance as the five nonnegotiables:
- No abortion
- No homosexual marriage
- No euthanasia
- No embryonic stem cell research
- No human cloning
But does that mean that issues like the death penalty and immigration are completely unimportant? As Father was talking I had to recall what the Catechism of the Catholic Church actually says. Regarding the death penalty, paragraph 2267 states:
Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.
If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically nonexistent."
And regarding immigration paragraph 2241 states:
The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him.
Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants' duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged 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.
So really, what's my problem? Do I place my politics ahead of my Faith? Yes, Romans 13:1-7 does provide justification for the State to have recourse to the death penalty, and the Catechism acknowledges that. But maybe the greater command is Ezekiel 18:32:
For I find no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies—oracle of the Lord GOD. Turn back and live!
I am not a theologian. My field of expertise is nuclear energy. When it comes to nuclear energy issues, I expect that those who know nothing about nuclear science to defer to those who do. So maybe in theological matters I should defer to the experts who point out that mercy should be shown to everyone since I expect mercy for myself. That includes the convicted criminal and the illegal immigrant. Let's face it: I am a sinner too and I know what I deserve. My AA sponsor early on in sobriety would tell me, "Lucius, you should be dead under a rail road bridge with a heroin needle in your veins. The only difference between you and the guy in prison is that he got caught and you didn't." His sponsor, a Franciscan priest and my priest-confessor in early sobriety, always seemed to be standing behind him when he said something like that, smiling ever so beatifically. Then we would go on an outgoing AA meeting to the Fishkill State Penitentiary in downstate NY just so that he could drill the point home. So the thought I had in my head when I left Mass today was this:
Noli Sinere Civilitatem Tuam Esse Supra Fidem Tuam
Being to the right of Attila the Hun, I needed that reminder.
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