Justice and Religious Freedom
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The Bishops of the U.S have declared this Religious Freedom week.
The First Amendment of the Constitution was intended to protect five freedoms: the freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and the right to petition the government. We are at a crossroads in which the freedom of religion is threatened and could be lost.
The world thinks that religion is a source of oppression and superstition. It is no wonder then that the world wants to undermine what it sees as a threat to its good.
Our job is not merely to turn to the constitution for protection. Religious freedom means nothing without religious responsibility. Our jour is to show the world why our Catholic religion is true and good.
When the world sees our religion as good then it will uphold and even promote its rights.
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A government and a people that does not recognize that there is something greater than itself – will turn itself into a god.
The only way a Government can be restrained from thinking it is a god and from becoming an all-consuming monster is by recognizing the rights of religion which is to adore Something greater than itself – the One True God.
Unless there is one true God, every individual becomes his own little god and all the little gods compete with and destroy each other in the effort to get the others to worship and serve them.
The big question for a society – How do we get along if every person and the Government think it is a god to be worshipped and served?
The only way to avoid tearing each other apart is to recognize we are not God and to recognize we all have a common origin – we all come from God. We are all have a common dignity – we share the image of God. We all are called to the same purpose, that is to grow in virtue and to share in God’s divine life as his adopted sons and daughters.
All this is made known to us by religion and our job is to make this known to the world.
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The Government exists to help us achieve our purpose more perfectly and more easily.
The government cannot carry out its function unless it knows what the purpose of the human person is. All law is the practical implementation of what we believe is good or not good for its people. Something is good for us if it helps us achieve our purpose. Well, we know our common design and purpose and therefore can discern what is good for us from what God has revealed to us through religion.
It is the job of religion and religious people to remind the government of what the purpose of life is and what is good and not good for us.
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The purpose of the government is to promote justice.
Without truth there can be no justice because the appeal to truth is the only defense the weak have against those who are stronger.
Religion, that is, the truths about who made us, what the purpose of life is, and our design which is the moral law – this is the ultimate truth.
If we get rid of these truths, then all we are left with to guide us is our desire for personal gratification and those with the greatest ability to gratify their desires will do so at the expense of others and justice will evaporate.
That is why the government needs religion. Otherwise, it cannot know what the human person or society is for. That is why religious freedom means nothing without religious responsibility. It is the responsibility of religious people to share with the world the religious truths on which all of society depends.
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We must stop merely defending the rights of religion and begin to promote the truth and goodness of religion.
Your faith was meant to be personal – it was never meant to be kept private.
We need to spread and share the truth and goodness of the Catholic Religion – at home, with our kids and grandkids, at work, on social media, in books, podcasts, in every form of media – wherever you are and with whomever you are with.
But I bet you are thinking – I can’t do that because you think and maybe it is true that you have never been formed in the truths of Catholicism, you have never seen a good example of someone sharing the faith with others, you have been brainwashed by the culture that you can have faith but you must keep it to yourself or you will be cancelled and you are genuinely fearful of the repercussions. I get all that – I understand.
So here is what we are going to do:
Listen to this Rosary podcast because each day you will receive a bite-sized digestible portion of the Catholic faith so that you and your kids and grandkids and anyone else you share this with can learn the faith. That is precisely why we do the Rosary this way – so you can learn all the truths of the Catholic Religion in little chunks one day a time.
You will also learn how to meditate on your faith in the Rosary with the help of Mary. And when you have the daily habit of meditation then you will know what to think and say and do with your life.
Then gather together a small group of family and friends with whom you share life with regularly and talk about the things that matter most in life – especially God and your faith.
Finally, invite others to share life with you. Invite them to pray the Rosary with you. And invite them to talk about it when you are finished.
The Mission of the Movement of the Holy Family is that everyone has a group of family and friends with whom you share life and integrate your faith so that you can enrich one another by your gifts and stretch each other by your weaknesses. And this is the very place where you invite those who have lost sight of God so that they too may share in your joy.
We need to make the commitment to share life with a small group of people who enrich and annoy us. We need to do this consistently, regularly, that is habitually. We can only habitually do something with the resources habitually available to us. That is the home.
And that is why the Church was born in the home and the Church in crisis today will be reborn in the home. This is how we transform the culture and promote the good of religion and preserve religious freedom.