2025-06-30T01:18:37-05:00

Last updated on: June 30, 2025 at 1:18 am   By
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Boston Public Library: Frieze Of Prophets ( Amon, Nahum, Ezekiel, And Daniel) / flickr

When I was young, my primary understanding of the value of the prophets was in the way Christians believed they predicted the coming of the messiah. It was only much later, when I was in college, and then later in my graduate studies, that I gained a greater understanding of who they were and why their texts should be read and engaged. I saw how vital their work was and why it was a terrible disgrace that many Christians only looked to them as proof-texts  concerning the way Jesus fulfilled messianic prophecies. The prophets spoke from and revealed to their audience the pathos of God, or at least, the portion of that pathos which they had themselves apprehended (as the pathos of God, like every quality of God, transcends human comprehension). It was their experience of this pathos which inspired them and provoked them to speak and write. This became especially clear to me after I read Abraham Heschel’s book, The Prophets, while at Xavier, one of many interesting books which were used in a course I took on the Holy Spirit. Heschel showed me that the prophets were moved by injustices in the world because of God’s contention against those injustices; God’s pathos could be seen in God’s wrath at those who exploited the poor, the hurt, the needy and the vulnerable. As the messiah is also a prophet, a prophet like unto Moses, it should not be surprising that Jesus  continues to present to us the pathos of God, indeed, reveals it in a way which completes all former revelation, so that in and through his temporal ministry, we can see him consistently reinforcing the principles of the prophets who came before him: the poor must be helped, not exploited, and the rich, who have gained their wealth on the backs of the poor, whom they have abused, are warned they shall suffer a similar fate as those the previous prophets condemned in their own times. For Christians, the messiah, to be sure, is not just a prophet, but also the incarnate God-man, which is why in and through him, revelation, including the revelation of the heart of God, is complete; he not only continued the prophetic heritage which he inherited, he strengthened and affirmed it, promoting it to one of universal value, and its teachings should be heeded by all Christians.

My appreciation of the prophetic legacy became enhanced when I studied and explored the depths of Catholic social doctrine; one of its main sources is the prophets and their decrees against injustice, decrees which were spoken against religious and secular leaders alike. Catholic social teaching makes it clear that God’s love for humanity is revealed in and through God’s promotion of justice, that those who undermine the dignity of some, especially the most vulnerable in society, fight against God and God’s ways (and so, can be said to be sinner). Once again, the teachings of Christ confirmed the universal validity of this, as he shows us, in a way no others have, the heart of God, the love God had for  humanity, the way God wants all of humanity to be treated and shown with respect and dignity; he was willing to do all he could to lift humanity up and receive every good gift which we need for our salvation and glorification. Jesus wants us to follow suit, making sure we show each other proper respect and love, doing what we can to promote the good of each other, and therefore, for the common good. My initial foray Catholic social teaching came from my study of various patristic sources, like St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom, was reinforced my various readings from scholastic theologians, and was completed by my professional theological studies as I was encouraged to read through its modern developments. To be sure, the Sophiologists, and their friends, like S. L. Frank and Nikolai Berdyaev, served as a bridge between my patristic studies and the concerns of the modern age.

I am quite sure, most Christians take the prophets in a way similar to the way I did before my studies. They view the prophets primarily in respect to their messianic prophecies, secondarily, for the predictions of what was going to happen to Israel, using the way the predictions concerning Israel verified they were authentic prophets so that their messianic prophecies could then be seen as valid. They do not understand, as I did not understand, what tied the prophecies together was the way they all worked to reveal something about the pathos of God, how God’s justice and mercy, wrath and love, are all connected together in the way God judges and saves us all.

This is why, time and time again, I keep thinking about the message of the prophets, the warnings they gave, and the warnings which Jesus continued to give, concerning mistreatment of the poor for the sake of the rich and powerful, when I hear Christians in the United States promoting the rich and powerful, and their pleasures, over the basic needs of the poor and vulnerable. I cannot help but think of what the prophets would say to those who ignore or exploit the vulnerable all the while invoking God in what they do. It certainly comes to mind when I see what Trump and the Republicans desire to do with their so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” because it is all about finding ways to give more and more money and power to those who are wealthy while ignoring and undermining the common good, destroying the livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable. Similarly, I could hear them lament about the way the Supreme Court has undermined the power of the lower courts, so that no court cannot properly stop Trump’s troubling executive orders. Now the people of the United States truly find themselves as unequals, as some states and federal courts will protect the basic rights and privileges guaranteed by the Constitution, while others will not; in some states, the 14th Amendment with its birthright citizenship will remain in force, while in others, it can now be ignored, as federal judges are no longer able to put up universal injunctions against actions Trump takes that go directly against the Constitution itself. The poor are told they have to go to court, one at a time, to validate their rights, but of course, they don’t have the means or resources to do so – universal injunctions helped protect them against grave violations of their rights, but now nothing will stop Trump and his administration from further undermining the rights of the poor and vulnerable, even as they will have no one to put an end to bills sent to Trump by a Congress which is desirous to make sure their friends, and themselves, get richer by taking as much as they can from the poor.

If I were filled with the spirit of God,  like the prophets, if I had the pathos of God speaking through me, I would have better words to use as I warn the United States, its leaders, and the religious authorities who helped such bad leaders come into power, in a way similar to the way the prophets spoke in their respective times. But, as it stands, I can only say:  Beware, you might think you have got what you wanted, you might think you have fooled the people, and for a time, you might have, but you have not fooled God. God will not be mocked. Restore what you have taken away from the poor and vulnerable. Make sure they will have their basic needs, their basic rights, protected along with their human dignity, lest you find one day that you will suffer the fate which you have made for them.

 

 

* This Is Part LXIX Of My Personal (Informal) Reflections And Speculations Series

 

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2025-06-17T03:38:04-05:00

Last updated on: June 17, 2025 at 3:38 am   By
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BastienM: Portrait Of St. Paul VI Who Promoted Christian Pacifism By Telling Us To Say No More War /Wikimedia Commons

One of the things I came to appreciate after I became Catholic was the importance of peace-making, and with it, the way of non-violence and pacifism. Not only did it follow Catholic insistence of the dignity of every person, but it did so in a way that complemented what Christ taught throughout his temporal ministry: Love your neighbor, including your enemy; blessed are the peacemakers; those who live by the sword, shall die by the sword. What Catholic teaching denies is turning pacifism into an absolute – we are to build peace, to counter the cycle of violence, but sometimes, we find ourselves in a situation where a limited defense not only is permissible, but it might be the best option available to us. Such defense must never be done out of hatred or vengeance, but out of a sense of justice, a justice which must always look for the restoration of peace and with that peace, find a way to turn enemies into friends and allies so that the causes of violence can be eliminated. And it is important to see any engagement of violence as a wrong, something to feel sorrow about, especially if it led to someone’s death, because the death of any person is itself an attack on the dignity of the human person (which is why it was traditional for all soldiers to do penance for what they did in war, even if their actions were purely defensive and justifiable).

I now consider myself a pacifist, and my pacifism has been formed from money sources: from Scripture and various pacifistic voices coming from the whole of the Christian tradition (especially as it can be found in the works of many saints), to the way modernity has taken and develop that tradition and brought it to its proper conclusion (as as can be seen in the way Pope after Pope has said “No more war!”). I have also been influenced by Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Thich Nhat Hanh, and in the way they have promoted non-violent resistance to evil. I especially have found Vladimir Solovyov complements what learned from Thich Nhat Hanh which is we must not turn pacifism into an absolute: Hanh, as a Buddhist, understood that any extreme, even the extreme of pacifism, ends up leading us astray, while Vladimir Solovyov explored how such an extreme pacifism, such as found in the works of Leo Tolstoy, would ultimately undermine the greater good which pacifists desire (while accepting the principles of pacifism, and using them to point out how and why the death penalty is completely unacceptable).

It is in this spirit, therefore, I read with great sorrow what is taking place in both Ukraine and in the Middle East. Russia unjustly invaded Ukraine, and the Ukrainians are justified in resisting the Russian invasion with an armed response. To be sure, there is a limit to what that response should be, but that limit should be considered in connection with the kind of existential threat not only Ukrainians find themselves under, but the rest of the world if they fall, they must stop Russia. In the Middle East, we find the call to violence coming from many sides, from Hamas, which unjustly attacked Israel and killed, kidnapped, and raped many innocent Israelis, justifying Israel having a limited response in return, to the way Israel has gone beyond reason and been indiscriminate in its attack on Palestinians in return, we must see that both sides have gone beyond what is just. There should be every effort to deescalate the situation, helping innocents from both sides of the conflict, making sure that we understand the evils being done are not done by all Palestinians or Israelis. There is no justification for anyone to say the other side should be completely wiped out. Similarly, the way Israel now has pre-emptively attacked Iran shows Israel continues the cycle of violence, has acted, once again, unjustly, and has made the world a more dangerous place to live in. Iran, in theory, has a right to defend themselves, so long as they do so with a proportional response, and with a desire to bring a just end to the conflict.

The situation in the world today is dire, and there is the need to find a way to put a stop to the various cycles of violence which, if left unchecked, could lead all the way to the use of nuclear arms, and perhaps the end of the world as we know it. Innocents in Gaza, Israel, and Iran are being killed due to what is being done in their name. Israel’s historical treatment of the Palestinians has been deplorable, as more and more of their land is taken by unlawful settlers, Israel defends the settlers over the Palestinians, while keeping the Palestinians in terrible living conditions, which explains why Palestinians (who are not all Muslims, but many are Christians) have nothing but resentment against Israel. The response of many of the Palestinians, sadly, has also been deplorable; their grievances have turned to hate, and hate has turned into justification for unjustifiable actions against Israel. We can and should be critical of the state of Israel but also of Hamas. Seeing critical remarks against the actions of the local governments must not be confused with bigotry, but those who make such critical remarks must make sure they offer them in a way such  bigotry does develop or become supported. Both Anti-Jewish and Anti-Muslim hate is wrong; much of what is done by the state of Israel, or Hamas, or even Iran, is wrong. Jews have criticized the state of Israel, Muslims have criticized Hamas and Iran, and we should listen to and learn from those criticisms to make sure we follow with an honest criticism instead of those made out of anger, by those who slowly fall for some sort of bigotry.

So long as legitimate criticism is confused with bigotry, it will be ignored, and if it is ignored, innocents will suffer, as unjustifiable actions will continue, leading to countless deaths and inconceivable amounts of destruction. Those who survive attacks against their people will likely become bitter and angry, wanting revenge. This is how people become radicalized, and, having learned such actions are not being condemned, will lead them to retaliate in a similar fashion. This is one of the ways the cycle of violence perpetuates itself. The cycle will continue  so long as bigotry is allowed to reign supreme, so long as indiscriminate acts of war are allowed, so long as one side or another is protected from all criticism, allowing them to do anything they want. We need to decry the evil when it is done, whether it is done to innocent Muslims or Jews. We need to denounce the attack on humanitarian aid and large populations of Palestinians barely surviving, even as we need to denounce the attacks on Jews around the world, where a person is attacked or killed because they are a Jew. We must denounce attacks on synagogues, even as we must denounce attacks on mosques. It must all be rejected.

Pope Leo XIV is right, therefore, in denouncing the drums of war. He is right in saying we should all be working for peace in the world. But of course, peace without justice is no peace, and so we must not just work for a temporary cessation of hostilities where war is taking place in the word (Ukraine, Israel, Iran, et. al.), but make sure such a cessation of hostilities does not give unjust aggressors all they wanted out of their  actions. If those who have done grave evil are not expected to pay back or make reparations, they will be encouraged to once again go to war in the future whenever they want to get more (which is why, for example, Russia should not be allowed to keep any of the land it took in its invasion of Ukraine).

Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. Those who live by the way of violence will suffer the effects of violence themselves. No one embracing the way of violence should be surprised when those they attack retaliate. They must not use such retaliation as justification for further actions. Peace must be established, and it can only be established in and with justice. We must acknowledge those who have been  unjustly hurt during war, working for them and their behalf, from the Palestinians in Gaza who are barely surviving, to the Israelis who lost many loved ones when Hamas orchestrated an attack upon Israel, to Iranians who died at the hands of Israel’s raid of Iran. We must do so, lest we find ourselves accepting unjust generalizations and the prejudices which flow from them, the prejudices which have us justify the unjustifiable, fueling the fire of hate and the violence which comes from it.

It is in this spirit I would like to conclude by saying: I stand with the poor and dispossessed of the world, especially those suffering from the ravages of war. I stand with the Palestinians struggling to make it through another day, even as I stand with those Jews who want a just and lasting peace, not just in Israel, but around the world. I stand with the Iranians who have no one speaking on their behalf, as both their government, and the enemies of their government, take little to no care for them and their welfare. I stand with Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists, and anyone else who seeks for a just and lasting peace, anyone who recognizes that there are people suffering from conflicts not of their own making, and that they should not be treated as mere casualties of war. I stand for peace, a just peace, one which rectifies the problems which lead to war and violence. I stand for a critical examination of the problems before us, recognizing the solutions are not going to be easy, but they will never be had if we support the dehumanization and demonization of innocents who suffer at the hands of everyone around them.

 

 

* This Is Part LXVI Of My Personal (Informal) Reflections And Speculations Series

 

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2025-04-04T02:35:40-05:00

Last updated on: April 4, 2025 at 2:35 am   By
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National Gallery of Art: Rembrandt van Rijn– Christ Teaching / Wikimedia Commons

Empathy. Sympathy. Compassion. Kindness. Tolerance. Meekness. Humility. All of these qualities are those which should be associated with Christians. Christians should embrace them as they deal with others. This is because they are qualities which Christ uses to deal with humanity. Thus, Scripture tells us that Jesus is the high priest who is able to have empathy with us, and so sympathize with us and our condition, because he became one of us, and experiences the human condition with us (cf. Heb. 4:14-16). Obviously, some of these qualities, if taken as absolutes, could lead us astray, as any and every virtue, when taken as an absolute and out of its holistic context, ends up undermining the principle itself. That is, just as justice without mercy is not proper justice, so tolerance without justice, likewise, becomes intolerant, undermining its own essence (which is what the paradox of tolerance demonstrates; it is a paradox only because tolerance is treated as an absolute). Jesus, therefore, engages us with these qualities, even as he does so with justice, a true justice which is never apart from mercy, nor justice apart from taking in the proper application of these qualities.

Sadly, I have seen many Christians seeking to undermine these principles. They tell us tolerance, tolerance, compassion, and with it, kindness are not Christian principles. Once they are denied in this fashion, such Christians then find it easy to treat others with cruelty, and in doing so, encourage other Christians to do so, making Christianity a religion, not of mercy and peace, but of legalism, power, and control. When they are confronted and told that they are to love their neighbor, to promote the common good, to look after and take care of those in need, even if those in need have qualities they do not like (such as they are making their way in the world as a prostitute in order to survive another day), they will find some way to deny what they have been told. One way this can be seen is the way they tell us they do not need to be nice to others, that Christ was not always nice, and that those who expect them to be loving, merciful, empathetic, and compassionate to those in need are expecting them to be nice in a way Jesus was not; they say the church should not be nice, that the “church of nice” is a corruption of the way Christ wanted the church to be like. Once this is accepted, the notion of being nice is demonized so much that the only possible conclusion that people following this can have is that cruelty is a good, which is why governmental cruelty, such as cruelty to migrants and refugees,  the poor and homeless, to cruelty to the elderly or those with various disabilities, becomes not only acceptable but seen as a must. This also is why they embrace an absurd conclusion, one which says that empathy is a sin. While I was initially taken back when I heard people saying this, more I thought about it, the more  I realized that this could be the only result of the moral decline promoted by those Christians who have denied the importance of kindness for the Christian faith.

Of course, the reason why I indicated the notion of empathy being a sin is absurd is because such a claim represents the utter perversion of the Christian faith. Believing  it would tell us Jesus with his compassion, with his empathy for the human condition, is a sinner. For, following what was said in the book of Hebrews, Jesus, God the Word, in assuming human nature, came to know the human condition from within, and this was one of the reasons God became human. Christians, looking to Jesus, should see empathy is a principle intimately connected to the incarnation, and so they should imitate it in their imitation of Christ. Indeed, as Christians are meant to join themselves to Christ so as to join in with his work in the world, becoming his hands and feet in the world, as it were, they must follow Jesus in the embrace of empathy and use it in their relationships with others.

To be empathetic with someone, to understand them, to be sensitive to them and their feelings, does not mean we need to agree with them, just as Jesus, in knowing our condition, did not agree with our sin but rather used his understanding of us as a foundation for helping us overcome sin. For he showed himself to be the good physician, one who took the time to get to know and care for his patients, demonstrating to his patients his care so that they would be able to be confident in his ability to help them and give the them the grace and love they need. His empathy with us, his drawing near to us to come to know us and our situation, is what draws us to him. Jesus, therefore, showed us that in dealing with others, we must do what we can to be empathetic, for that is how he engages us; and, when we are empathetic, we find ourselves becoming compassionate, merciful, tolerant, meek, and humble, just like Jesus. Obviously, our empathy, and the qualities which flow from it, should not be used to undermine justice in the world, but rather, they should all serve as a way to promote justice and have it fulfilled. For those  who are empathetic and compassionate will be far more successful in having those who need to change their ways to do so, even as those who are indifferent, or worse, cruel, will have many people ignore them or do the opposite they are told, because they will want nothing to do with those who treat them with such contempt.

I cannot help but think Paul, in the book of Romans, represents all of this when he wrote:

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.  Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; never be conceited.  Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.  If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”  No, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.”  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.   (Rom 12:15-21 RSV)

Paul was showing us the way we should be when dealing with others; not only should we be empathetic, but sympathetic as well. We should mourn with those who are mourning, such as those who are suffering grave injustices at the hands of the powers that be. We should rejoice, moreover, with the people who find relief. We should look for and care for those in need while seeking justice for them when their needs are unjustly denied them. We should do what we can to produce the greatest good in the world, and to do that, we need to know the situation of everyone. That is, by being empathetic, we will be have insight as to how to make things better.

Sadly, Christianity has become seen as the opposite of what Jesus and Paul preached. Christians are seen as being judgmental instead of compassionate, cruel instead of merciful and loving, intolerant instead of tolerant, prideful and boastful instead of humble. Christians are seen to be rigid and legalistic, incapable of understanding or caring for the ways of others instead of listening to them and trying to understand them. The world is right to reject such a Christianity, because it is also a Christianity I reject. I see behind it, not the spirit of Christ, not the Holy Spirit, but  the spirit of the anti-Christ, a spirit which is trying to supplant the Christian faith from within and use the new, undermined faith as the foundation for dominating and then destroying the world. Christ is empathetic, the false Christ, is not; the way of Christ promotes empathy so that with it we can properly know others and love them, while the spirit of the false Christ will deny not only empathy, but love of neighbor. Christ elevated the poor and needy, the vulnerable and those disenfranchised by society, while the spirit of the anti-Christ will elevate the rich and powerful, reinforcing the disenfranchisement of the poor and vulnerable. It is up to each Christian to determine which they will choose to follow; for me, I will follow Christ, embracing empathy, compassion, mercy, kindness, and love, not, of course, in opposition to justice, but with justice, knowing only in and with them can true justice be embraced.

 

* This Is Part LII Of My Personal (Informal) Reflections And Speculations Series

 

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N.B.:  While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

 

 

2025-04-02T02:06:24-05:00

Last updated on: April 2, 2025 at 2:06 am   By
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Jim Forest: Detail Of Last Judgment Icon / flickr

I often have Christians telling me that I am dealing with insignificant issues when I write on social justice or similar moral concerns (such as on the need to deal with climate change). They say that Christians should prioritize the salvation of souls. It is funny they do not do this when dealing with their own concerns, such as those around the culture wars, or their own theological reflections.  It is only when they are challenged to do and be better that they respond in this fashion, even if much of their own concerns prove to be what is insignificant (and have little to no scriptural warrant).

It doesn’t entirely surprise me when this response is given to me by an adherent of an evangelical Protestant tradition. This is because they are led to believe salvation is had by reciting the so-called sinner’s prayer (out of a sincere faith), and Christian evangelization, Christian work, should be focused on getting people to pray it. However, it surprises me when others, from Catholic, Orthodox, and even many other Protestant traditions, say the same thing to me. All Christians can say salvation is by faith through grace, but faith is not just simply having right ideological beliefs, but rather it is about having faith in God and being faithful to what God wants from them. Faith is meant to be a living faith, one which is transformative, leading people to moral and spiritual perfection (recognizing the two go hand in hand, so that in rejecting one, the  other becomes impossible). If we think we can be faithful while ignoring and rejecting the moral vision which Christ gave us to follow, we greatly err.

This is why it is important to point out the moral expectations God has for us, especially those presented to us specifically by Jesus. We are not told in Scripture that we can be saved and then ignore God’s directives for us. How can we truly say Jesus is Lord if  we think his Lordship means nothing, that what he taught means nothing, so that what he told us to do is insignificant? But that is exactly what  I find happening when I am reproached for writing on social justice. Why do they think Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount? Why do they think he spoke in parables, indicating through them (such as the parable of the Good Samaritan) the way they should treat others, especially those in need? Why do they think Jesus said that in the Last Judgment, how they treated the vulnerable, the poor, and the oppressed will be used to determine their eschatological fate? Jesus didn’t preach that all we need to do was say a prayer and be saved. Rather, he said not everyone who says Lord, Lord, is known by him and those who treat the poor and vulnerable in contempt will be told to depart, for they showed contempt upon Jesus himself in doing so. That is, Jesus pointed out the eschatological fate of people, including believers, was connected to the way they treat those in need.

How can anyone say I ignore the salvation of souls when I discuss the implications of Jesus’ words for our lives today? I am telling people what Jesus expects of them, using Scripture and tradition to do so. I challenge them to follow Jesus by applying his words to show how they relate to our contemporary situation. I am  pointing out how Jesus said that to be welcomed into the kingdom of God, and not told to depart, they need to be transformed into people who reflect Jesus and his ways, to wear, as it were, the garment of love. To think we can ignore our responsibility to the world, to the people who are suffering, to the people who are being oppressed by bad governmental policies, and treat that as all insignificant, is to suggest much of Scripture is  insignificant.

Thus, if people complain that I often write on political issues, and in doing so, I ignore the salvation of souls, I would say, they are the ones ignoring the salvation of souls as they are telling people they do not have to repent and change their ways. They are doing the opposite of St. John the Baptist. And, though of course, we must not become integralists, we must engage politics in such a way to promote the common good, and with it, the justice which God said we should put into effect.

We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are to look after them, making sure they do not needlessly suffer. We should not create policies which will make things worse for the poor, the needy, or the vulnerable, especially if we do so to make things easier for the rich and powerful. We should not be malicious. Love, not cruelty, should be the way. When I find many Christians supporting cruelty, defending injustices, and pushing for changes in laws which leads to more cruelty and injustice, it is imperative for me to warn them (as with anyone else) that they risk losing their way, and with it, their salvation. We cannot say we love someone if we do not care for their well-being. It is impossible to be charitable to someone if we first deny them their due justice. Charity transcends justices, yes, but it also presupposes it. Denying justice, saying political concerns which relate to the way the state will deal with people, especially the poor, the needy, the vulnerable, the oppressed, is unimportant, indicates a rejection of the moral character which we need to embrace for the sake of our salvation. Scripture points out that the sins which cry out to heaven relate to the lack of justice and charity, indeed, relate to the way those in positions of power and authority, or are wealthy, use what they have to further harm those who are desperately in need of basics to survive. We cannot embrace or promote such sins and think we are faithful to Christ. Paul said if we do not have such love, we are nothing. If we, therefore, deny the importance of politics as it relates to justice, trying to pit such concerns with those concerning the salvation of souls, it is like saying we should be concerned with hunger, to fix it, while thinking it is not important to help people get the food they need to eat. It is completely and utterly absurd.

Of course, I can understand the way some Protestants think, because I used to think that way. All those who speak out against works, saying works are not necessary, due to a bad understanding of what Paul meant, at least can be seen to be consistent with the lack of concern they show to those in need, or the political involvement which follows. When I became Catholic, I saw the error of that point of view, and the way it misunderstood what Paul meant by faith, works, and grace. I saw, likewise, how other Protestant traditions did not follow with such a simplistic notion of faith. But then I saw, as famous evangelical Protestants became Catholic, this error sometimes was brought over with them (unconsciously if not consciously); they had not fully taken on a Catholic way of thinking, and it is here, I believe, a lot of this rhetoric found in Catholic circles.

I will not stop speaking out against injustices. I will speak about our responsibility to deal with them, including in and through our political engagement. Certainly, it is not the only thing we can and should do. We should do what we can to confront injustices as we find them, but we should remember that to deal with them properly, we must engage the systemic structures of sin which generate them. It is the Christian thing to do. Justice concerns are constantly brought up in Scripture. Often, those in positions of authority, like kings and priests, are called out for the way they ignore the concerns of justice. This would not be the case if it were unimportant, or unrelated to the salvation of souls.

 

* This Is Part LI Of My Personal (Informal) Reflections And Speculations Series

 

 

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N.B.:  While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

2025-03-26T02:21:35-05:00

Last updated on: March 26, 2025 at 2:21 am   By
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Jim Forest: Works Of Mercy Icon From Greek Orthodox Parish In Chicago / flickr

Throughout Scripture, and especially in the works of the prophets, we are told that God stands on the side of the poor, the widow, and the oppressed. Those who not only ignore the plight of those who are vulnerable, but make it worse, stand against God and God’s justice. If they do not repent, if they do not repair the harm they have done, God’s justice will come upon them, and they will experience the full force of the iniquities they have done coming back upon themselves. Such justice can be seen as a kind of karmic reaction, that is, the consequences of their actions come from the actions themselves. Those who would exploit, terrorize, abuse, denigrate, or diminish the poor and needy, be it those who have lost all their wealth and resources (and their homes), or those who come to a new place, searching for compassion, and a new, better way of life for themselves and their families, will eventually experience the fruit of their action, either sometime during their temporal existence, or when they come face to face with Christ at the last judgment. Thus, the Armenian  Oft-Repeated Discourses, following the prophetic tradition in Scripture, warns:

Those who defile sacred things with unholy behavior and despise the law concerning the right of the homeless and mercy to those in need, and falsely hold on to the truth and ignore the tears of the oppressed, refuse to hear the cry of the detainees, and do similar evil things, for these (evils) the righteous Judge will deliver them to famine, to the sword, and to captivity and oblivion. [1]

The prophets knew that just as God had heard the cries of the people of Israel in Egypt, so God hears the cries of the poor and needy in every age.  Many of them, like Jeremiah, warned kings and priests that they risked bringing destruction upon themselves, and to the people of Israel, if they did not change their ways. They also warned against the belief that God would continue to bless them no matter what they did, as many false prophets suggested; instead, they pointed to the way the covenant with God had been made, where God promised blessings only to those who kept to the ways of the covenant, ways which included treating the poor and vulnerable with respect.

We need to keep this in mind so that we realize that no country is so blessed by God that if it is willing to abandon or oppress those in need, that it will not face the consequences of its actions. Those who embrace injustices will find those injustices embracing them in return. Yes, justice often appears to be slow in coming, but that is to give everyone a chance to repent and do better. That is, God not only wants countries, and their leaders, to change their ways, to stop doing the evil which they are doing, but also to fix the harm which has been done. To be a Godly country, they must then become actively seeking those in need, and giving them the proper help they need:

What could be more suited to faith, what more helpful to compassion, than assuaging the poverty of those in need, undertaking care of the sick, succoring needs of the brethren, and recalling our own condition in the distress of others. [2]

The more we help the poor, the needy, and the oppressed, the more we show honor and respect to them, the more we honor God through them. We must respect their dignity, knowing that such dignity is both spiritual and material. This is why we must not neglect their material needs by saying the body is worthless and so we should not be so concerned as to what happens to it. It is not worthless. The  Christian faith, with its teaching of the incarnation, and the resurrection of the body, points to the fact that the whole person, including their body, is to be respected and will have a place in the kingdom of God. Since helping people attain their material (and bodily) needs is one way to show them respect, when those needs are neglected, or worse, actively denied to them, their dignity and honor is undermined. If we say the only thing which matters is to help them spiritually as an excuse to ignore their material needs, we show we have not properly understood the incarnation and the value of the material world (and with it, the body). We have embraced, instead, some element of Gnosticism and its rejection of the material world. Thus, when a society undermines the dignity of those in material need, it cannot be said to follow Christian values, as it refuses to acknowledge the value of the body. Origen, on the other hand, shows us what the right Christian spirit should be like when he wrote “If you ever see a poor person being harmed, do something about it. When that person is harmed, stand by him. He is despised because of poverty; the just person is at his side.” [3]

We must, therefore, be careful, and pay attention to what is happening around us. We should pay extra attention to social justice, recognizing that social justice, as it is tied with the body, is tied to the integral good of the whole person. We must be holistic, and not deny the good of the body, or the fact we need to take care of its needs. And we must do this as a society:

A society that allows thousands of homeless people to roam the streets with no protection for their bodies; that spends, on the average, more for the last week of a dying elderly person’s hospital care than for the medical needs of the first ten years of a child’s life; that refuses in international congresses to join other nations in protecting biodiversity and limiting chemicals that contribute to global warming: this society hates the body, human bodies, and all other animal and plant bodies that make up the body of our planet.[4]

No society which shows great contempt to the poor and oppressed can be said to represent Christian values. No matter how much they like to say they are Christian, no matter how much they will true to use the Christian faith, and say they will be blessed by God, they stand against God and resemble the false prophets which the prophets in Scripture criticized time and time again.

[1] Moralia et Ascetica Armeniaca: The Oft-Repeated Discourses. Trans. Abraham Terian (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2021), 124 [Discourse 7].

[2] St Leo the Great, Sermons. Trans. Jane Patricia Freeland CSJB and Agnes Josephine Conway SSJ (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 1996), 43 [Sermon 10].

[3] Origen, Homilies on the Psalms: Codex Monacensis Graecus 314. Trans. Joseph W. Trigg (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2020), 445 [Homily Psalm 81].

[4] Sallie McFague, The Body of God: an Ecological Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 24.

 

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N.B.:  While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

2025-03-24T10:00:30-05:00

Last updated on: March 24, 2025 at 10:00 am   By
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Daniel Torok: The Politics Of The Trump Administration Requires A Christian Response | Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I Wish We Didn’t Need To Talk About Politics Either

I know many people do not want to talk about politics, but it is difficult for me to see all the malevolent actions done by the Trump administration, the way it is treating the poor, seniors, refugees, migrants, women, minorities, LGBQT, and its critics with such contempt, and not wonder how long this can go on. Will the American people, and the media, keep denying what is happening right in front of them? Can they not see the way the Trump administration is trying to erase history, especially by denying the contributions of women and minorities? Can they not see how Trump is making enemies around the world by the way he is mistreating America’s former allies, like Canada, or Europe? Do they not see the malice behind the treatment being given to tourists coming to visit the United States, tourists with visas, tourists who have done nothing wrong, when such tourists are taken in by ICE, put in a cell, and virtually have their rights denied to them? Can they not see the evil behind the way migrants and refugees are being treated, where they are being falsely accused of being criminals, told, because they are criminals (already judged guilty without a trial), they have no right to due process, and then shipped off to places like El Salvador, where they are imprisoned, possibly to be lost and forgotten (if no one speaks for them)?  Is it not obvious that the Trump administration is following the same strategy which was used against the Jews, Gypsies, and the LGBTQ in Nazi Germany? I wonder why all those who have said “never again” are not screaming as loud as they can about the way history is repeating itself.

Parallels Between the U.S and Nazi Germany

Of course, what we see happening today should not be entirely surprising. Those who know history will see the parallels going on between the United States and Nazi Germany and will know the way these things end. Germany wanted a final solution, erasing the Jews from the world. They were taken into concentration camps because they were deemed as criminals causing Germany great harm before they were taken to death camps. The German people were made to support such policies, not care, or be too afraid to resist what was going on. The Trump administration is hoping to make the same happen in the United States, as it seeks to deny the right to free speech on college campuses, and threatens critics, often declaring such criticism to be criminal. This is also why the Trump administration wants to change the way education is done in the United States, why they want to get rid of “woke” or “DEI” programs, using the terms so vaguely they will be able to claim any program which analyzes the history and the evil which was done before as being similar to what is being done by them as being  “woke” and to be eliminated.  They are doing so on governmental websites. They will certainly do so in the schools. They want to create a new, pseudo-history, all the while claiming any other history is revisionism, when they are the ones making such changes.

Trampling On the Basic Rights of the Poor

What the Trump administration is trying to create is not a society that promotes justice with law and order, but on the way it can use its power to create a new order and laws that promote their ideologies instead of justice. Those who want to ignore politics are following the apathy or banality of evil which allowed the Nazis to stay in power. Trump constantly pardons or supports criminals; he himself was found guilty on 34 felony counts. His allies help those charged with rape all the while trampling on the basic rights of the poor, the vulnerable, minorities, and women. .

I know many people are upset that I keep talking about Trump and the Trump administration. They think I should not be concerned about politics, despite the way such politics undermines justice and the common good, principles which Christians should be promoting. To be sure, I am upset that I need to constantly talk about politics and what Trump is doing. I am angry that we are in a situation where the American people are not only allowing, but promoting grave evils. I am upset that the lives of millions can be and will easily by snuffed out by cruel tyrants. I am upset at all the gaslighting being done to help keep many Americans ignorant. I am extremely upset at how much of this is being done by Christians, and not just done by Christians, but being done in the name of Christ. How can someone honestly look at the cruelty being done to foreigners, to those who find themselves arrested, imprisoned, and their human rights violated, because of the color of their skin or the country of their origin, and not see how evil this is? How can a Christian say they must support such actions because Trump is president, when they willfully ignored what Biden and Obama told them to do when they were president? It is clear, they do not believe what they tell others; they do not care about life, when they have no problem ignoring the indignity done to countless innocents. How can they not speak out when they hear a refugee, who fled for their lives to the United States, and at one time found welcome, is abducted and treated in the most contemptible fashion, not because they have done anything wrong, but because authorities did not like the tattoos on their body?

What Is Being Done In Their Name

Christians are to be the salt of the earth. They are to care about human dignity, knowing that what is done to the least of us is done to Christ himself. Why do so many of them, those who call themselves pro-life, do not speak when the value of life is being threatened, when poor people are having their health care taken away from them, when the elderly are being told not to worry if they don’t get the money they need to survive month to month when the money which had been used to help support farmers and the hungry is taken away so that farmers lose their farm and the poor around the world lose their lives, when Russia abducts and abuses Ukrainian children, or when families with children needing cancer treatment are kicked out of the United States so they cannot continue receiving such life-giving care? They do not speak out for life, indeed, many of them seem to support the cruelty that is going on. Who do they think they are fooling? Christians need to take a good look at what is being done in their name and challenge it before it is too late. If they don’t, who will listen to them?

* This Is Part L Of My Personal Reflections And Speculations Series

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N.B.:  While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

2025-03-04T08:13:16-05:00

Last updated on: March 4, 2025 at 8:13 am   By
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Jim Womack and Anne Richardson: Libra As Justice Holding Scales – Vanderbilt ACT / Wikimedia Commons

Pope St. Leo the Great exhorts Christians to take their Christian faith seriously, to be true children of light. We are expected to follow the ways of love, not only doing what love suggests we should do, but also what it tells us not to do. In this way, we should learn that love and  justice and interdependent with each other, which means, the denial of one leads to the denial of the other:

We encourage you to “abstain” in love, “from every wicked deed” and to pursue chastity and justice. Children of light ought “to cast off the works of darkness.” So turn aside hatred, deflect lies, dispel pride with humility, wipe out avarice through generosity. It becomes the members [of a body] to be compatible with their head, so that we may deserve to share in the blessedness he has promised, through the Lord. [1]

Hatred, lies, pride, and avarice each represents a form of injustice, and so, forms of unlove.  Some might question the way lies are seen as intrinsically evil, saying that the intention behind the lies are important. Indeed, they might suggest people could even lie, not as a way of rejecting the way of love, but to affirm it, as can be seen in the way those who lie in order to save the vulnerable from oppression, or worse, death. St. Augustine, who explained why lies are intrinsically evil, also agreed with this point; but what he suggested is that we distinguish the good intention and the work which it achieves from the lie, pointing out the good is something which we can and should praise. Similarly, he said, the type or quality of evil associated with the lie can differ from person to person, and lie to lie, so that some lies are relatively minor, while other lies can be and should be seen as producing great evil. Thus, when Scripture seems to praise those who have lied, doing some good with the lie, he suggests it is not the lie itself which is praised, but the good which is done, and the intention behind that good, even as the error in the lie itself can be so slight, that it is almost negligible. When we talk about hate, we must also understand what is intended by the word; if we mean the pure malice associated with the denial of love, such hate is indeed a grievous sin; however, we can talk about hating something, like some evil, and in doing so, actually not really embrace unlove but its opposite, and in this way, such hate must not be understood equivocally with the sin which is known as hate.  We should pursue what is right and just, that is, what is good and true, promoting not just any kind of justice, but the justice which is founded upon the revelation of love given to us by Jesus Christ: “Now, justice is faith in God through Christ, and love of God and one’s neighbor.” [2]

Love for our neighbor is important. If we love them, we will do what we can to promote them, their personal dignity, so that they can attain what is good and just for themselves. The more they suffer some injustice, the more they are hurt by the effects of various systemic structures of sin, the more we will work on their behalf, doing what we can to help them obtain the justice they lack:

Justice is something about which we should be passionate, for it is essential to a fulfilled life and social flourishing. In the Bible justice appears again and again as the vindication of the poor and the oppressed. They can turn with confidence for redress to God and to those who seek to follow in the way of God. [3]

Laura Swan gives a good representation what this means in practice:

Justice encompasses the acts, structures and systems that affirm, support and defend human dignity and worth. Justice affirms, rather than diminishes, the worth and dignity of all. Justice encourages the pursuit of one’s fullest potential as well as the potential of those around us. A justice-oriented life pushes forth to pursue that potential. Justice demands a stand of intense interior listening and awareness of the vulnerable who are in need of protection.[4]

It is imperative that we do more than contemplate justice, we  must act upon what we learn. We must do our part, taking the grace we receive from Christ, and the justice it brings to us, and share it  with the world, doing what we can to make the world a better place. We must follow the example of justice revealed to us on the cross, where what is unjust is brought to the open and then cast away into the abyss. That way, what was impeded by sin and injustice can be set free and made new. Divine justice, and so true justice, is not punitive, but restorative. To be sure, in the restoration which comes with true justice, there will need to be the revelation of injustice, where injustice is denounced and rejected. Without metanoia, there will be no restoration, just as without the cross, there is no resurrection from the dead. This is something which we need to understand as we go into the Great Fast, into Lent. We must seek justice within, casting aside all injustice, using the Great Fast as a time to contemplate our failings and to do penance, to begin paying back to the world the restitution it is due as a result of our sin. Then, we should take the grace which is made available to us as we cast aside our own injustice, and the sinful habits it has created in us, and use it, not only to better ourselves, but to better the world around us; if we do not do that, we remain entangled with the kind of selfishness which undermines justice and as such, we find ourselves far away from the justice God intends for us to possess.

[1] St Leo the Great, Sermons. Trans. Jane Patricia Freeland CSJB and Agnes Josephine Conway SSJ (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 1996), 138 [Sermon 32].

[2] John Colet, “On the Sacraments,” trans. John B. Gleason in John B. Gleason, John Colet (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989), 317.

[3] Duncan B. Forrester, “Social justice and welfare”  in The Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics. Ed. Robin Gill (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 198.

[4] Laura Swan, Engaging Benedict: What the Rule Can Teach Us Today (Notre Dame, IN: Christian Classics, 2005), 140.

 

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N.B.:  While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

2025-03-02T03:04:27-05:00

Last updated on: March 2, 2025 at 3:04 am   By
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Nheyob: Saint Aloysius Church (Columbus, Ohio) – Stained glass, The Forgiveness Of Sins / Wikimedia Commons

In the Byzantine tradition, the two Sundays which come right before the Great Fast (Lent) first have us consider our own spiritual status (the Sunday of the Last Judgment, on which we are encouraged to consider who and what we have become), so that we, we will come to realize how far off we are from what  God intended us to be and so accept God’s help to fulfill that potential. Then, on the Sunday which comes the day before the Great Fast begins, Forgiveness Sunday, we not only will have come to accept the need for God’s grace, we will embrace the spirit of forgiveness itself, a spirit which will have us share with others that which we have received ourselves.

Jesus is going to come again to judge the living and the dead. Jesus  told us that the way he will judge us will be upon the way we have made ourselves to known to him, and we make ourselves known to him by embracing the way of love, doing the works which flow from it. Like recognizes like, and we, made in the image and likeness of God, are called to realize the potential we have been given by being granted the image of God in us. God is love, and so we are to reflect that love, and the more we do that, the more Jesus will see himself in us and so welcome us to the kingdom of God. This is why Jesus described the way he will conduct the last judgment will be based upon the way we have dealt with the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.  Have we helped relieve them of their pain and suffering? Have done what we can to overturn systemic injustices? Have we ignored their plight, or made it worse? Insofar are we fail to follow through with the justice (a justice motivated out of love and embraced with mercy) Jesus expects from us, we have failed the expectations of divine love. When we do not properly reflect it, Christ will not see himself in us, and in this way, he will be able to say he does not “know” us.

It is not that he is ignorant, but rather, it is the kind of knowledge which he seeks to have of us which is important. As long as we  put on the mask of unlove over our true person and remain attached to it, we are not someone Jesus knows. The more we reflect upon our lives, the more we will see that we have, at least on some level, failed to follow the expectations of love. What does that mean concerning our relationship with God?  The Sunday before the Great Fast, Forgiveness Sunday, says we do not have to fear that if we have failed the expectations of love, we never be able to attain the kingdom of God. We have the chance to change, to transform, to let grace help us cast off the remnants of unlove and the  defilement it brings upon us and become the person Jesus knows and loves from eternity. We must do our part, but without help, we will not be able to do enough; we need forgiveness and the grace which comes from it.

Once we accept that we can be forgiven, that our past does not have to be destiny, we should see how this is true for everyone. When we embrace forgiveness, we must embrace its spirit in our lives, making it so that we can forgive others. We must do what we can to bridge the rifts sin have created that lead us to be separated and divided from others; however, we must also recognizing this is only possible if both sides of the rift are able to change for the better. If one side is unwilling to change, if one side is unwilling to work for the common good, then sin continues to create divisions and harm the common good. Forgiveness Sunday embraces this point, which is why on it, the faithful in a parish are called to work together, and to forgive each other the trespasses they have experienced over the last year.

Now, to be sure, we must not make forgiveness into a tool of cheap grace, where no real reform, nor real change is needed — those who have been unjust can be forgiven, but they must recognize their injustice, repent, and change for forgiveness to be theirs (from us and from God). Paul, therefore, reminds us that today is the day to take into consideration all that is expected of us, and make sure we cast outside of ourselves all the dark influences which would not only have us ignore the way of Christ’s love, but would have us replace it with the way of selfishness and all the inordinate passions which come out of it:

Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed;  the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;  let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.  (Rom 13:11-14 RSV).

We are to put on Jesus Christ, the just one, and follow him in his work for justice in the world. We are to take into consideration the Sermon on the Mount and what it would mean for society if we followed it out. We are to be in solidarity with all those in whom Jesus said he is to be found, those who are unjustly oppressed by the powers that be. We are to take all those who have been hurt and manhandled and bring them into Christ’s loving embrace. We are to find ourselves becoming one with them in Christ, realizing the same Christ who is found in us is found in them. Jesus is at the center of it all; he is working with those who have suffered injustice, bringing his healing grace to them, even as he is working with those who commit such injustice, seeking to convert them, helping them see the error of their ways so that they can change and partake of Jesus’ justice for themselves. Jesus works to undermine the  ways  of sin; where sin takes accidental or non-essential differences as a basis for division, he creates bridges so that everyone can come together and realize a unity in love. And if we truly find ourselves joined with Christ, we should be doing the same thing, which is why Paul said:

 As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions. One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables.  Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats; for God has welcomed him.  Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Master is able to make him stand (Rom. 14:1-4 RSV).

We are not to pass unjust judgment on others, for when we become judgmental, we end up  subjugating others based upon our own private interests, putting ourselves over and above the common good. Indeed, we end up judging not only those whom Christ has affirmed, but Christ himself, as he is found in those whom we have offended. When we see ourselves doing this, let us quickly put a stop to it and repent. If we do so, we can receive forgiveness – from Christ, but also those whom we have offended, but only if we truly repent and seek to restore that which we have destroyed due to our sin. The more we do this, the more we find ourselves overcoming the structures of sin and the divisions they create, so that in the end, we have nothing but love between us and others, a love which binds as together, allowing us to be truly one in the body of Christ.

 

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2025-02-17T07:42:50-05:00

Last updated on: February 17, 2025 at 7:42 am   By
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Daderot: Law By Frederick Dielman Mosaic At Library Of Congress/ Wikimedia Commons

My father was a law professor, and because of it, I was taught to respect the rule of law. He believed in it. However, as I studied philosophy, theology, and history, I came to understand the limitations with the rule of law. Law is meant to help in the promotion of justice, and with it, the common good. Sadly, that often does not happen. Those who create laws and those who enforce the rule law, often use laws, not for justice, not for the common good, but for their own private interests, private interests which, if enforced, would end up undermining the common good and promoting some form of injustice. Through my studies, I also came to understand when the law is used in this way, that is, when laws are made to promote various evils instead of what is good and just, the rule of law itself can be questioned and resisted. My father, I believe, understood this, though he would not have put it in such terms. He sought justice, and believed the rule of  law was the best way to promote it, but he also experienced its abuse, and when he saw it was being used badly, when people were suffering grave injustices due to the rule of law (or those who enforced it), he would join in and help those in need, though he would try to do so through the system which had been put in place. That is, he believed it was best to work within the system, even when there was the need for the system to be reformed. He saw the need to oppose bad laws, and with it, to fight for the rights of the people, but he believed the way to do so was to show how the rule of law itself, and those enforcing it, was being violated. He gave much of his time, much free advice, to those in need, to those who were abused by the system, and that served as a great example for me.

My father respected the rule of law, and the system in place, in a way which I would eventually find myself questioning. This is not to say I disagree with the principles he was trying uphold, as I agree with him concerning the need for laws, for a system which enforces those laws, but the problem is that we must make sure the laws and the system put in place are just. The more I have explored history, the more I have seen how the rule of law often has been used, not for justice, but injustice (as seen in the way the rule of law in various countries have been used to promote evils such as slavery, racism, sexism, and even genocide). Through my studies, not only did I know this was wrong, I learned a way to explain the problem through a basic principle found throughout Catholic teaching: an unjust law is no law. Once I took this principle seriously, I found the means I needed to explore the legal system and show how and why many laws put in place, or laws people want to put in place, must be rejected.

It is best to have a system in place where law and justice work together, and in such a system, the rule of law should be followed. However, as that often is not the case, and even in the best system,  we find there are unjust laws, we must understand that the rule of law is not an absolute, meaning, its authority over us is not absolute.

Due to their own historical experience, one would think Christians would know and understand that the law is not absolute. Christian history is full of examples when Christians have found themselves resisting the rule of law, and in doing so, finding themselves being declared criminals. A prime example of this is found when Christians were told they must abandon Christ, demonstrating their willingness to do so, by sacrificing to Caesar. Christians knew they could not do so. They rejected Roman authorities telling them to do so, even if it meant they would die. Similarly, Christian missionaries often found themselves not welcomed when they went to foreign lands; when they were told to leave and not come back, not only would they not obey, they often were rounded up and executed. In both of these instances where Christians can be shown violating the rule of law,  those who resisted the law became martyr-saints, showing that  they did right in rejecting unjust laws. Sadly, it seems many Christians have forgotten the lessons of the past, as they now tell each other they must follow the rule of law without question, and they use a few words from St. Paul, words misunderstood and taken out of context, to justify absolute adherence to anyone in a position of power (if Paul really was telling Christians to obey all authorities without question, he would have proven himself to be a hypocrite, when he constantly ignored Roman laws).

What often surprises me is  how many Christians tell other Christians they must treat the rule of law as an absolute and obey it, no matter how bad the law is, when some authoritarian figure (like  Trump) is in power, but they deny it when someone else (like Biden) is in power. The same Christians who demand Christians follow and obey Trump’s every whim, such as his whims concerning immigration, whims which are far from just and indeed, run contrary to basic principles in Scripture, were themselves the same ones who were unwilling to follow the rule of law during the covid pandemic: they ignored the law when it told them to go into lockdown, all because it interfered with their own private desires (despite the fact that the lockdown was helping deal with a pandemic and actually saved lived, showing there was a just cause for it). Those Christians who do this show us how far they are from the basic concerns of justice, let alone the greater justice revealed to them in the teachings of Christ. Christ told us to follow after him, and to do so, we must take up our cross, that is, to deny ourselves and our inordinate desires, especially when they get in the way of justice and the common good, the kind of denial which the lockdown represented. Christ likewise  told us to love our neighbor, to help those who are being oppressed, to resist injustice, and again, these Christians who are trying to tell other Christians to obey Trump and the rule of law now are doing so, not for the sake of justice, not for the sake of following Christ, but because they want what Trump is promoting. They show how little they care for what Christ taught.  They want his approval, they want to use him as a tool for their own benefit, but they are unwilling to follow him themselves.

I have no problem standing for the rule of law. There is the need to accept the law has some level of authority, and it can  and will often tell us to do things we would rather not do. However, the rule of law, the rule of positive law, is not absolute. The rule of law is meant to be a tool for the sake of justice and the promotion of the common good. When it is used for the opposite, it no longer has any authoritative claim upon us. Christians must not support tyranny, must not support ideologies which run against the teachings of Christ. Christians must be concerned with justice, and with it, the way of love taught by Christ. They must stand against oppression, not reinforce it. If and when Christians find other Christians telling them they must obey the rule of law, even if what the rule of law demands is evil, the only Christian response is to point to Christ and the early Christians and show how they were unwilling to embrace such evil. Christians must take a stand, to follow Christ and his ways, ways which promote liberation and helping those in need. If it means Christians will find themselves opposing the rule of law and be deemed as criminals, so be it; after all, what should they expect when Christ himself was once declared to be a criminal as well?

 

* This Is Part XLIII Of My Personal Reflections And Speculations Series

 

 

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2025-02-14T03:17:40-05:00

Last updated on: February 14, 2025 at 3:17 am   By
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The William Blake Archive: Mercy And Truth Are Met Together / Wikimedia Commons

Mercy and justice go together. Mercy makes no sense without justice, because it is through justice and its expectations we understand why various actions need to be rejected and punished, while such punishment tells us where the potential for mercy will be needed. Without mercy, without an ability to help those who have done wrong to change and be forgiven, and even helped they seek to make restitution,  justice becomes legalistic and brutal, allowing no transformation, that is, it allow no possibility for someone to change for the better. Justice should be about the promotion not only of the good, but the greatest good, and the greatest good is found in the transformation of those who have done bad into those do good so that they can then add to the good found in the world. This is why pardons can make sense: if those who are being pardoned prove they have changed for the better, society would be better off welcoming them back so they can then contribute to the common good. Similarly, pardons are necessary when the  punishment is excessive, that is, they help rectify the harm done by an unjust judgment. Mercy, therefore, has a role in the justice process; justice is not executed merely at the time of judgment, but all that happens afterward. William of Auvergne used the way mercy works in relation to secular justice to help us better understand God’s mercy:

Now if someone were to say that for someone who confessed to one or more crimes there is no longer any room to say something in justification of his case; rather, he should only await the sentence of condemnation, I reply that even in secular courts for those who have confessed their guilt there is room for clemency, by which the punishments are lessened, or even for forgiveness or mercy, by which someone is at times completely pardoned. For it is not possible that it is true mercy which completely does away with justice or that it is true justice which totally excludes mercy.[1]

For, as William said in one of his many prayers to God, God’s judgments and punishments are given, not to be cruel, but to help those being judged:

“Moreover, such punishments can do nothing else in those whom they are except torment and torture them, but this by itself never pleases your goodness, Lord of mercy. For you do not take delight in the perdition of the living; it is, in fact, a mark of diabolic malice, namely, to love the punishments and torments of human beings.”[2]

God is love, but we can also say God is justice and God is mercy. All that God does, God is. However, when examining God’s activity some actions are far more fundamental than others. We can see that behind everything God does, God’s love is found, which is why it is far more appropriate to understand God under the mantle of love than any other action. When we represent God in the world, therefore, we should take love as the foundation of our actions, doing so in a way similar to God, working, therefore, for a just mercy applied to everyone.

Love, and the mercy which comes from it, serves hope, because it shows us that God’s response to us is able to change as a result of our own personal change. We can transcend all the evil we have done, and therefore, what we have done, thanks to grace. When we transcend the evil we have done, we will be able to look back and reflect upon those evils and look at them not as something we should despair, thinking they make it impossible for us to be saved, but rather, as proof that we can become better, leaving us hope that we can continue to transcend ourselves and become all that God wants us to be. This is why Fr. George Maloney says: “Were it not for our hope that God’s eternal mercy and love will help us to transform them, it would not be a healthy thing for us to dwell on our past sins.” [3] For, if  we were not offered mercy, if  there were no way for us to transcend what we have currently made ourselves out to be, what we have done will only lead us to despair.  We should, likewise, following the way God works with us, offer such mercy and grace to others. If we don’t do so, our own lack of mercy can adversely impact the transformation of those who need to become better,  which is what Tolkien mentioned in a letter to C.S. Lewis:

What happens when the culprit is genuinely repentant, but the sufferer is deeply resentful and withholds all ‘forgiveness’? It is a terrible thought, to deter anyone from running the risk of needlessly causing such an ‘evil’. Of course, the power of mercy is only delegated and is always exercised with or without cooperation by Higher Authority. But the joys and healing of cooperation must be lost?[4]

There is a sense of this in the interplay between Samwise and Gollum in the Lord of the Rings; Sam was right to question Gollum and Gollum’s loyalty but he did so in such a way that was, for most of his time with Gollum, quite unmerciful. Sam’s lack of mercy undermined Frodo’s work with Gollum, for Frodo, with his mercy, was having a positive influence on Gollum.  Nonetheless, Frodo’s mercy to Gollum helped Frodo when he needed a similar mercy, for the fact that he had failed in his mission and had begun to become like Gollum could have made it so that he would suffer the same fate of Gollum. But because of his embrace of mercy, he was able to understand mercy can be given to him, to accept it when it was offered, and not let despair destroy him (even if he would have to deal with his own failure throughout the  rest of his life).

Without mercy, reformation is impossible, and so, without mercy, we often make self-fulfilling prophecies concerning those we deny mercy. But if we look to ourselves, and the way we need mercy, we should see how it is mercy which, more than anything else, which gives us not only the hope, but the ability to become better. When we offer it to others, we are offering them   the chance to become better. Yes, we must exercise caution and not expect or accept instant transformation. What is important is that we should seek the kind of justice which is rehabilative and not punitive, for by doing so, we seek the greatest good, the kind which justice is meant to establish in the world. This is exactly how God acts with us, and it is how God acts, then it is how we should act, for by doing so, we live out the nature God gave us, one which is meant to reflect God’s ways in the world.

[1] William of Auvergne, Rhetorica divinia, seu ars oratoria eloquentiae divinae. Trans. Roland J Teske SJ (Walpole, MA: Peeters, 2013), 63.

[2] William of Auvergne, Rhetorica divinia, seu ars oratoria eloquentiae divinae, 89 [From an example of a prayer to God in the text].

[3] George A. Maloney, SJ, Your Sins Are Forgiven: Rediscovering the Sacrament of Reconciliation (New York: Alba House, 1994), 22.

[4] J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Revised and Expanded Edition. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien (Broadway, NY: William Morrow, 2023), 182 [Letter 113 to C.S. Lewis].

 

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N.B.:  While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

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