Thursday, January 30, 2003

In today’s responsorial psalm, we pray: “Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face”.  We are the people who long to see the face of God. Certainly that’s what brings us here to the Mass, but also it’s a reminder that the whole world really longs to see the face of God.

“This is the people that longs to see your face”, this human race, those who were created in the image and likeness of God. But how does the world see God? The world sees God’s face in the way the created order is conducted, in the way temporal affairs are designed. God can be found in the world in which we live, in the society in which we function. And that’s going to come about because you and I try as best as we can to bring our values to bear on the way things are decided and organized in the world we live.

I mentioned in my homily earlier this week about the idea of truth. We have to defend the truth. It’s something that brings light to the world. As we said in the alleluia response: “a lamp to my feet is your word, a light to my path”. The teaching of Christ is a light for us and for the whole world, and we have to defend that light. We have to hold it up for all to see. As we read in the First Letter to the Hebrews: “let us hold unwaveringly to our confession, it gives us hope for he who gives the promise is trustworthy.”  We must be integrated in the way we live our lives and in the way we encourage other people to live theirs.  It is important because we live in a society where there is often no moral distinction between opposing personal beliefs, as if all opinions and values are equal when they may not be.  This distinction is found in issues related to the family, to medical ethics, education, human rights. There are truths which are undeniable and absolute.  The fact that we know the truth about these things because of what the Catholic Church teaches doesn’t make them any more or less true.  These things are true in themselves because they are rooted in human nature, in human dignity. Now the fact is we know a great deal about human dignity and human nature and what’s true and good because the Church reveals it to us. It saves us the difficulty of having to understand it all by ourselves.  But not everyone is graced with revelation as we are. 

Sometimes in our society, people live with the confusion of a double track life, one life reflecting their personal beliefs and the other reflecting how they want to be perceived by others. They can end up saying publicly the opposite of what they believe privately, to such a degree that the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith recently published a document explaining the duties of Catholics in political life. This document was written to overcome this tendency of people to think they can be personally against abortion or personally against things that undermine the family or marriage such as homosexual unions, but because they are public figures – politicians, legislators, professors, or any one of us in conversation with our friends – they do not uphold their beliefs but rather keep silent in the name of tolerance. We can respect those who disagree with us, but we cannot respect views that are not based on the truth. Some views are based on a mistaken notion of human dignity or the created order. So the Church is asking people now to be more firm in defending their beliefs, especially when our personal values are opposed by the society in which we live.

For God’s face to shine, we have to stand up. We have to be the lamp that brings light to the society in which we live. If the lamp is kept under a bushel basket or under a bed,  if I’m not going to reveal the light to anyone because I might offend them or be accused of intolerance, the world will remain in darkness.  If we bring the light into darkness, we’re doing a great service to society.  This is what Christianity is all about; it is the vocation of the lay faithful to bring God’s design to the temporal order of the world in which we live, to the economic, political, and social structures of society.  Not because we’re trying to make everybody Catholic, but because we’re trying to help everybody know and follow the truth. The light is what’s moral, what’s upright, what’s truly good for human dignity and for the common good of society.  So that even if a person firmly holds the opinion that same sex unions are legitimate, we know that they are not and that they undermine the family, marriage, and society. Without being offensive or uncharitable, we have to be the lamp that shines and tell them the truth: “ I don’t think that’s healthy for our society. “ They’ll respond that we’re just saying that because we’re Catholic and we have to uphold the party line. We can reply: “No, that’s what I believe and know to be true. Now it just so happens that I learn a great deal with my Catholic faith, or my Christian faith, or my Jewish faith for that matter.  But it doesn’t mean anything because it’s the truth in itself.  It’s not true because the Church teaches it, it’s true because it’s true. The Church teaches it so that I know the truth, and now I accept it and have faith. I’m not trying to impose my personal beliefs on others, I’m trying to liberate others.  I’m trying to bring light.”

This is very important because so many of us are in the middle of the world;  we have to be united in our personal beliefs and what we express publicly.  We have to hold other Catholics to the same standard, especially our legislators, judges, and public leaders. They can’t live double lives. They must integrate their personal beliefs into their public service,  for the good of the people and the society that they have responsibility for leading. There can’t be two answers to questions having to do with  morality, with the fundamental truth about human dignity.  There can be many different solutions to the same problems in the political, economic or social order. There is only one truth about what is going to enhance human dignity  and foster the common good, but different ways to implement that truth.  We have to remember this because there is much confusion in our society and we want to be lamps, we want to hold unwaveringly to our beliefs, we want people to be able to see the face of God in society because we are God’s truth in the world.

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