Developing An Abiding Love for God's Law

Happy those who do not follow the counsel of the wicked,

Nor go the way of sinners, nor sit in company with scoffers.

Rather, the law of the LORD is their joy; God's law they study day and night.

They are like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season;

Its leaves never wither; whatever they do prospers.” (Psalm 1:1-3)

I'm sure you're wondering about the title of this meditation. Well, give me a moment to explain. Rest assured, I'm not advocating a return to the practice of the Law of Moses, sacrifices and ritual ablutions — though that certainly sounds interesting! Rather, I'd like to discuss the importance of the moral life and the appropriate lens for understanding the Church's Moral Teachings in an age of lawlessness and pseudo-freedom.

One of the most important insights that my professors imparted to me during my time at the University of Dallas was Dr. Mark Lowery's summary of the secular vision of the moral life as an ebb and flow between autonomy (defining morality for ourselves, literally ‘self-law’) and heteronomy (obeying an imposed and alien code of conduct, literally ‘other-law’).

There are countless examples of this tension between libertinism and puritanism throughout history, but we can also see it in individual lives. For example, many individuals devastated by the emptiness of a life lived according to autonomous morality often seek a strict regimen to which they can simply submit. Then, when they grow weary of the imposing edicts, the pendulum swings back in the other direction — back and forth, back and forth.

With the pendulum ever swinging between these two extremes, Pope John Paul II provides the Catholic answer. Dr. Lowery, echoing John Paul II, terms the Catholic vision of morality as 'Participated Theonomy'. That's a mouthful, I know, so let's break it down a bit.

By 'participated' we mean that the moral vision is something intricately tied up with each of us and, indeed, is written within our very nature; 'theonomy' simply means 'God-law'. So, in the Catholic vision, the moral life is something profoundly human, and yet unchangingly ordered by God from the beginning of creation. Furthermore, since God is all good and all loving, we know that the way that He created us is with our utmost fulfillment and delight in mind.

I realize these ideas are somewhat abstract and the terminology is dense, but bear with me: the pope’s vision is a worthy one to pursue.

John Paul wrote an entire encyclical on the moral life and it’s dependence on Truth entitled Veritatis Splendor, or ‘The Splendor of Truth’. In every page he puts forth the Catholic vision with his characteristic precision and passion. Here is a just one passage that beautifully illustrates that vision:

“Man's genuine moral [freedom] in no way means the rejection but rather the acceptance of the moral law, of God's command: 'The Lord God gave this command to the man...' (Gen 2:16). Human freedom and God's law meet and are called to intersect, in the sense of man's free obedience to God and of God's completely gratuitous benevolence towards man. Hence obedience to God is not, as some would believe, a heteronomy, as if the moral life were subject to the will of something all-powerful, absolute, extraneous to man and intolerant of his freedom. If in fact a heteronomy of morality were to mean a denial of man's self-determination or the imposition of norms unrelated to his good, this would be in contradiction to the Revelation of the Covenant and of the redemptive Incarnation. Such a heteronomy would be nothing but a form of alienation, contrary to divine wisdom and to the dignity of the human person. Others speak, and rightly so, of theonomy, or participated theonomy, since man's free obedience to God's law effectively implies that human reason and human will participate in God's wisdom and providence.” (Veritatis Splendor, 41)

In saying that “human reason and human will participate in God’s wisdom and providence,” the pope concludes that the whole man participates in this divine schema, which is written into our very existence. What does all this abstraction amount to though? Let’s try a concrete example.

Our age is, of course, one in which the pendulum between autonomy and heteronomy has swung wildly toward the 'autonomous' end of the moral life spectrum. This swing is perhaps best typified by the sexual revolution, which featured the introduction of widespread contraception, abortion, fornication, pornography, divorce, and homosexuality.

Many Christians of various traditional stripes, be they Protestant or Catholic, responded to the sexual revolution by simply saying, 'that's bad' — which indeed it was and is, in most respects. But, sadly, most Christians could only point to Revelation in defending their denunciations. Arguing, 'because God said so' to a post-modern, post-Christian culture doesn't tend to get one very far though. Even if the believer personally maintains a 'participated theonomy' vision, his argument from Revelation will certainly be received as heteronomous.

On the other hand, Pope John Paul II, with the weight of the Catholic Tradition behind him, pointed to a much more substantial response. The Polish Pope knew that our generation needed something more than a 'no' in order to be able to turn to and embrace the truth about human sexuality. He also knew that at its very core the Catholic moral life is never a 'no' but always a resounding 'yes'.

“...We must not be content merely to warn the faithful about the errors and dangers of certain ethical theories. We must first of all show the inviting splendor of that truth which is Jesus Christ himself. In him, who is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6), man can understand fully and live perfectly, through his good actions, his vocation to freedom in obedience to the divine law summarized in the commandment of love of God and neighbor.”  (Veritatis Splendor, 83)

In revealing 'the splendor of truth' to the era of the sexual revolution, John Paul had his work cut out for him. He began his papacy in the midst of the scandal of Paul VI's Humanae Vitae, which affirmed the ancient and unquestioned Catholic teaching against contraception. One of the pope's tasks was to demonstrate that the teaching against contraception was not a heteronomous imposition by an out of touch old celibate, but, in fact, a reflection of the truth about the human person.

In addressing this issue — which the pope did beautiful in a number of documents, but most particularly in his Theology of the Body — John Paul at once debunks the revolution's philosophy and defends the natural law position by pointing to the unity of body and soul and the dignity of the human person. He calls us to look at the way God made us and to express our sexuality according to the dignity that it bears; in a word he implores us to take heed of our God-implanted nature and live according to it. In doing so, the pope notes, we become more free, not less.

We’ve spent some time already this Lent distinguishing true freedom from false freedom. An essential part of the process of growing in freedom through conversion is coming to see God's Law, whether that be the Natural Law or the Divine Law contained in Revelation itself, as an enormous gift and not as an artificial restraint. 

John Paul says,

“’Patterned on God's freedom, man's freedom is not negated by his obedience to the divine law; indeed, only through this obedience does it abide in the truth and conform to human dignity… In his journey towards God, the One who "alone is good", man must freely do good and avoid evil. But in order to accomplish this he must be able to distinguish good from evil. And this takes place above all thanks to the light of natural reason, the reflection in man of the splendor of God's countenance. Thus Saint Thomas, commenting on a verse of Psalm 4, writes: "After saying: Offer right sacrifices (Ps 4:5), as if some had then asked him what right works were, the Psalmist adds: There are many who say: Who will make us see good? And in reply to the question he says: The light of your face, Lord, is signed upon us, thereby implying that the light of natural reason whereby we discern good from evil, which is the function of the natural law, is nothing else but an imprint on us of the divine light". It also becomes clear why this law is called the natural law: it receives this name not because it refers to the nature of irrational beings but because the reason which promulgates it is proper to human nature.” (Veritatis Splendor, 42)

In our age of autonomy, the Magisterium is seen as invasive and disruptive of the 'privacy' of individual consciences — to use the terminology of the Church's opponents. But, as a Catholic, to trust your conscience, is to first entrust it to formation by right reason and the guidance of Holy Church, aligning it with the truth.

"Conscience is not an independent and exclusive capacity to decide what is good and what is evil. Rather there is profoundly imprinted upon it a principle of obedience vis-à-vis the objective norm which establishes and conditions the correspondence of its decisions with the commands and prohibitions which are at the basis of human behavior." (John Paul II, Dominum et Vivificantem, 43; as cited in Veritatis Splendor, 60)

For Israel the Law represented the lone path to salvation, a blessing of infinite proportion. Oh, that we might cherish and honor the gift of God's Law the way that the Psalmist does, proclaiming:

How I love your teaching, Lord! I study it all day long.

Your command makes me wiser than my foes, for it is always with me.

I have more understanding than all my teachers, because I ponder your decrees.

I have more insight than my elders, because I observe your precepts.

I keep my steps from every evil path, that I may obey your word.

From your edicts I do not turn, for you have taught them to me.

How sweet to my tongue is your promise, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Through your precepts I gain insight; therefore I hate all false ways.

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path.

I make a solemn vow to keep your just edicts...

Accept my freely offered praise; LORD, teach me your decrees.

My life is always at risk, but I do not forget your teaching.

The wicked have set snares for me, but from your precepts I do not stray.

Your decrees are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.

My heart is set on fulfilling your laws; they are my reward forever...

You are my refuge and shield; in your word I hope.

   (Psalm 119, 97-114)

This Lent may we turn anew to God thanking Him for the grace of the Law and may we plead for both depth of understanding and discipline in living it as we seek to draw closer to Christ the Pantocrator, the ruler of all.

May the grace of ever deeper conversion be yours, in these holy days!

Christ the Pantocrator