Day 274: Social Duty of Religion (2104-2109)

• It’s Day 274!!

• THE SOCIAL DUTY OF RELIGION AND THE RIGHT TO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

• The first part is that there is a social duty of religion

• The second part is that every individual exercises the right to religious freedom granted by their Creator

• There are some complex ideas

• We might have opinions on how religion is lived out in the public square

• This might confirm your assumptions or challenge your assumptions

• The Church has to be in the same public square 

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we thank you, and we praise your name. Thank you so much for bringing us to this day, for bringing us to this moment. We thank you for bringing us to Day 274. Lord God, as you reveal yourself to us, in your Law, you reveal how we are to live in our private lives. You reveal how we are to live in our public lives, and we ask that you please give us a heart, a heart that can be moved in our public lives, and a heart that can be moved in our private lives. Lord God, let our interior match our exterior, and let our actions match our thoughts. Let our works match our beliefs, and unite all of it by giving us a heart that is like yours. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• There are a lot of big ideas in these paragraphs

• Paragraph 2104 says, “‘All men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and his Church, and to embrace it and hold on to it as they come to know it.’ This duty derives from ‘the very dignity of the human person.’ It does not contradict a ‘sincere respect’ for different religions which frequently ‘reflect a ray of truth which enlightens all men,’ nor the requirement of charity, which urges Christians ‘to treat with love, prudence and patience those who are in error or ignorance with regard to the faith.’”

• Part of being a human being is that we are obligated to seek the truth and embrace it as we come to know it

• What does this mean?

• It does not contradict a sincere respect for different religions which have a degree of truth

• Every religion that exists has some degree of truth

• As Catholics, we get to acknowledge whatever degree of truth exists or subsists in that religion

• At the same time, the FULLNESS OF TRUTH subsists in the Catholic Church

• That does not mean that we no longer respect other religions that do not have the fullness of truth

• We respect them and we treat them with love and we are called to share the fullness of truth that we have all received

• Paragraph 2105 says, “The duty of offering God genuine worship concerns man both individually and socially. This is ‘the traditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals and societies toward the true religion and the one Church of Christ.’ By constantly evangelizing men, the Church works toward enabling them ‘to infuse th Christian spirit into the mentality and mores, laws and structures of the communities in which [they] live.’ The social duty of Christians is to respect and awaken in each man the love of the true and the good. It requires them to make known the worship of the one true religion which subsists in the Catholic and apostolic Church. Christians are called to be the light of the world. Thus, the Church shows forth the kingship of Christ over all creation and in particular over human societies.”

• Even if people don’t get converted to Christianity or don’t become Catholic, the Christian gets to bring the truth that we know into the public square

• This is actually the social duty of religion

• All human beings are created equal and endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights

• This idea comes from Christianity and has its roots in Judaism

• The way in which we view other human persons is one of the many gifts that Christianity brought to this world

• Until Judeo-Christianity brought our faith to the public square, there was no civilization that had a widespread understanding that every human life was worthy of respect in an intrinsic way

• Now, there could be a village that would say, “We respect all of our villagers here, people who belong to this village, but not necessarily the people who belong to the next village.”

• What we have in Christianity is TRUTH

• What we have in Christianity is GOODNESS

• Paragraph 2106 says, “‘Nobody may be forced to act against his convictions, nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience in religious matters in private or in public, alone or in association with others, within due limits.’ This right is based on the very nature of the human person, whose dignity enables him freely to assent to the divine truth which transcends the temporal order. For this reason it ‘continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth and adhering to it.’”

• There are actual limits according to natural law when it comes to the exercise in private or in public of one’s convictions

• If someone says, “Well my convictions are that the person in the house next door to me needs to be sacrificed. I need to kill them and that is what my religious convictions say.”

• That needs to be restrained because there are limits to the exercise of religious freedom

• Some people may say “Error has rights.”

• No, error does not have rights

• People have rights

• So I can defend another person’s right to be wrong 

• I am not defending the wrong, I am defending them

• There is no such thing as a right to do a wrong

• I can follow my conscience as my conscience reveals this to me and I have that religious freedom to be able to do that

• BUT…

• It is not unlimited

• Paragraph 2108 says, “The right to religious liberty is neither a moral license to adhere to error, nor a supposed right to error, but rather a natural right of the human person to civil liberty, i.e., immunity, within just limits, from external constraint in religious matters by political authorities. This natural right ought to be acknowledged in the juridical order of society in such a way that it constitutes a civil right.”

• Paragraph 2109 says, “The right to religious liberty can of itself be neither unlimited nor limited only by a ‘public order’ conceived in a positivist or naturalist manner. The ‘due limits’ which are inherent in it must be determined for each social situation by political prudence, according to the requirements of the common good, and ratified by the civil authority in accordance with ‘legal principles which are in conformity with the objective moral order.’”

• The Church has existed through millenia, and in so many different political climates and context, kingdoms and nations and states

• There is a way in which the common good factors in to the limits that are placed upon religious freedom

• Sometimes, in the course of history, there are nations or kingdoms that have sponsored, endorsed, or embraced a particular religion

• Paragraph 2107 says, “‘If because of the circumstances of a particular people special civil recognition is given to one religious community in the constitutional organization of a state, the right of all citizens and religious communities to religious freedom must be recognized and respected as well.’”

• Even if Canada became Hindu, they would have to still respect the rights of the Buddhists, atheists, Jewish people, and Christians

• Think about Turkey, which is largely Muslim

• The Catechism is saying that while Turkey can be a Muslim country if it wants, at the same time it has to respect the religious freedom of all Christians who live in Turkey or all Jews who live in Turkey

• We have to bring our Catholic Christianity to the public square

• Because Catholicism is God’s gift to the world

• If God Himself established a religion, why would we keep it to ourselves?

• If this is TRUE and this is GOOD and this is BEAUTIFUL then we have to bring it to the public square

• That is the social duty of religion

• The right to religious freedom is good and true and also limited within reason according to the common good and natural law

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you on the morrow!!