18 2, August, 2020 C omment catholicweekly.com.au there’s corruption. But really, theChurch is a She; She is a Person, the Bride of Christ, on her way toher wedding feast. By the time she gets there, Je- suswill have purifiedher of ev- ery spot and stain andwrinkle. This iswhere the cleanwater I wrote about recently is flowing, all the time, and this iswhere you are drawing your strength andperseverance, even if you don’t realise it. TheChurch is a She, and like most females, She canbe pretty terrifying - terrible as an army withbanners.The sight of Her in eternity strikes terror in the hearts of demons. She is also tender, sometimes angry, sometimes unbelievably The Church is a ‘She’ - not an ‘it’ I had a lovely email recently froma reader who toldme something of his sufferings in the Church. So I’ll say heremore or less what I said to him. Goddoesn’tmiss a single thing that we do.We constant- ly underestimateHis interest inour daily lives, and yet He’s right there thewhole time. He sees every bit of it; every bit of hardworkwe did, and every humiliationwe suffered.There are people out therewho are hanging on to theChurchby a thread. All that’s keeping them there is theHoly Spirit. It’s a deephumiliation, like that ex- periencedby StTherese inher desolate final illness. I amso grateful for you, if you are one of these people. I amso glad you’re still here. I’m so glad youhave chosen to stay withGod, andon the side of the angels. But if you’re drowning right now, letme throwyou a life- line. AskGod to remind youof the reality of theChurch - to re- member that She is a She, and not an It. We tend to talk about the Church as an It, like a corpo- ration, and especiallywhen tired, but possessedof a fierce maternal instinct that causes her to loveHer childrendog- gedly and topursue her prodi- gals right until their deathbeds (andbeyond). TheChurchwhowe are nat- urally drawn to, whowe love, is a She in theway a ship is also a She.What we don’t love is the Church-as-It – the corrupt cor- porate barnacles that seems to have attached themselves to the bottomof the barque of Peter. These barnacles have been forming on the hull ever since Judas Iscariot sawa unique in- vestment opportunity for a pro- gressive and forward-thinking disciple.They canoften grow to great size - but then the Ship Injustice is God’s absence A principal reason why the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was so successful both moral- ly and practically was that it was led largely by people with a strong religious sensibili- ty. The most notable of these leaders was, of course, Mar- tin Luther King. To appreci- ate the subtle play between King’s religious commit- ment and his practical work, I would draw your attention to two texts — namely, his Let- ter from the Birmingham City Jail and his “I Have a Dream” speech, both from 1963. While imprisoned in Bir- mingham for leading a nonvi- olent protest, King responded to certain of his fellow Chris- tian ministers who had crit- icised him for going too fast, expecting social change to happen overnight. The Baptist minister an- swered his critics in a perhaps surprising manner, invoking the aid of a medieval Catholic theologian. King drew their attention to the reflections of St Thomas Aquinas on law, specificallyThomas’ theo- ry that positive law finds its justification in relation to the natural law, which finds its justification in relation to the eternal law. Aquinas means that what makes a practical, everyday law righteous is that it some- how gives expression to the principles of the moral law, which in turn are reflective of God’s own mind. There- fore, King concluded, unjust positive laws, such as the Jim Crow regulations that he was contesting, are not just bad Clergymen join hands with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr in 1964 at the Illinois Rally for Civil Rights in Chicago’s Soldier Field. PHOTO; CNS PHOTO/COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME People of strong faith were decisive in the fight for civil rights in the 20th Century laws; they are immoral and fi- nally offensive to God. Here is King’s own lan- guage: “One may well ask: ‘How can you advocate break- ing some laws and obeying others?’ The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obey- ing just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsi- bility to obey just laws.” But then King contrasts this with obedience to an un- just law: “Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’” And in clarifying the dif- ference, he turns to Aquinas: “Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmo- ny with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not root- ed in eternal law and natural law.”This is not pious non- sense; rather, it reveals what gave King’s movement its jus- tification and purpose. The very same dynam- ic was on display six months later, when King addressed the throng who had gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington. He was not giving a sermon. He was making a political speech, advocating in the public place for social change. But attend to some of the language that he used: “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and ev- ery hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; ‘and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.’” He was directly relating the social revolution he was advocating to the mystical vision of the prophet Isaiah. And listen to the magnificent conclusion of the address in which he artfully blends the lyrics of an American patriotic song to the lyrics of a song he and his family sang in church: “And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from ev- ery village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” Once again, on King’s reading, the political nests within the moral, which nests within the sacred. Martin Luther King derived from his religious heritage not only the metaphysics that informed his social activism, but also the nonviolent meth- od that he employed. What Jesus reveals in the rhetoric of the Sermon on the Mount (“Love your enemies”; “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who maltreat you”; “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn and give him the other”; etc.) and even more strikingly in his word of forgiveness from the cross is that God’s way is the way of peace, nonviolence, and compassion. As a Christian, King knew in his bones that reacting to oppression with violence would only exacerbate the tensions within society. He sums up this principle in one of his best-known sermons: “Returning hate for hate mul- tiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness can- not drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Within the confines of this brief article, I cannot begin adequately to address the so- cial upheaval occurring in our culture today. But I will say simply this: it is indisput- ably clear that there are severe moral deficits in our society that must be addressed, but the best way to do so is from within a moral and finally re- ligious framework. May Mar- tin Luther King’s model of leadership in this regard be a lodestar. Bishop Robert Barron is an Auxiliairy Bishop of the Archdiocee of Los An- geles. First published on wordoffire.org and repub- lished with permission. In brief AGod of peace and division T he passage to which you refer is in the Gospel of Matthew (10:34- 36).They are indeed dis- turbing and difficult. However a troublesome passage like thismust be interpreted in light of the whole of Scripture.The Catechismof the Catholic Church gives this as one of three principles for inter- preting the Bible. We should begin then by looking for other pas- sages inwhichChrist speaks of peace. Fortu- nately there are a good number. For example, he says: “Peace I leavewith you; my peace I give to you; not as theworld gives do I give to you” (Jn 14:27). “I have said this to you, that inme youmay have peace” (Jn 16:33). “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Mt 5:9). St Paul too says that Christ came to bring peace (Rom5:1 and Eph 2:14, 17). So it is clear from the whole of theNewTesta- ment that Christ indeed came to bring peace. How- ever in Luke 12:51, as in the other synoptic Gospels, Christ says he has come to set aman against his father, a daughter against hermother and that a man’s foes will be those of his own household (cf. Mt 10:35-36). Jesus does not want di- vision but he knows that it may result when one member of a family takes his word seriously and oth- ers do not. A sonmay tell his father that hewants to followGod’s call to the priesthood, and his father rejects himbecause he wanted him to take over the family business. Threatened by the Jew- ish council and told not to preach in the name of Christ anymore, the apos- tles replied: “Wemust obey God rather thanmen” (Acts 5:29). We toomust be pre- pared to incur the anger or rejection of our family or friends if God is calling us to followhimmore closely.
[email protected] Jesus said he had come not to bring peace but a sword. Can you enlighten me? Father Flader Columnist Bishop Robert Barron has a close encounter with some rocks, and they tend to get scrapedoff, sometimeswith a bit of the hull aswell. And the Ship then rights it- self, we bail out thewater and patch the hole, and the eternal voyage continues. As it turns out, the Ship can sail perfectly well without the corporate bar- nacles. And so can you.Thank you for stayingwithus. Let’s pray for one another. Dr Philippa Martyr is a Perth-based historian, lec- turer and researcher. She can be contacted at: Philippa.
[email protected] Philippa Martyr