By FR. MARVIN DEUTSCH
(Editor’s Note: Fr. Marvin Deutsch, a Maryknoll priest, is a retired missionary who spent many years in Tanzania.)
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“Be imitators of God as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma. Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting among the holy ones, no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place, but instead, thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
“Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient. . . . For you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light” (Eph. 4:32-5:8).
St. Paul says in the above reading for Monday, October 27 from Ephesians: “Let no one deceive you with empty arguments.”
This is a very relevant statement for us today because there are empty arguments all around us. It is almost impossible not to hear them. They are on television, on the radio, on the Internet, in the newspapers. Many are centered on so-called rights, which somehow make what is being promoted as the OK thing to do.
President Obama announced the other day that he personally believes in the right of homosexuals to marry. He bases his thinking on the argument that we are all equal under the law. What being equal under the law has to do with the right for homosexuals to marry is one of those empty arguments that St. Paul is talking about in today’s reading. It sounds good and convincing, but it is an unsound argument.
In a recent essay I wrote entitled, “Modernism — The Ousting of the Natural Law,” I explained why such an argument is an empty one. Briefly, our founding fathers taught that all law is based on the natural law. The natural law is the basis for the moral law. If any law passed by any legislature, or made a law by the decision of any judge, is contrary to the natural law, it is not a true law.
That is why our culture is so mixed up and confused. The natural law has been eliminated. It is obvious from the natural law that two men, or two women, having sex together is contrary to the natural law. There is no finality. They will never conceive and have a child. Also, their bodies do not complement each other. But, some say, two men, or two women, need to express their love for each other. This is another empty argument — it’s as if sex were essential to love. There are many ways of expressing love on a level that is not contrary to the natural law.
One of the greatest descriptions of love is found in St. Paul’s 1 Corinthians, chapter 13. This description is so beautiful that it is a very good thing to read it often.
On October 20, 2014, the good Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., of Philadelphia delivered an address in Manhattan; a member of the audience asked him about the recent Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family.
His answer dealt with the “empty arguments” that followed in the synod’s wake. According to a Catholic News Agency report, the archbishop said:
“Well, first of all, I wasn’t there. That’s very significant, because to claim you know what really happened when you weren’t there is foolish. To get your information from the press is a mistake because they don’t know well enough how to understand it so they can tell people what happened. I don’t think the press deliberately distorts, they just don’t have any background to be able to evaluate things. In some cases they’re certainly the enemy and they want to distort the Church.”
He further said: “Now, having said all that, I was very disturbed by what happened. I think confusion is of the Devil, and I think the public image that came across was of confusion. Now, I don’t think that was the real thing there,” he said, and added that he is eager to hear from the U.S. members of the hierarchy who took part in the synod.
“I want to hear from them. Then you can ask me the question and I can give you a better answer.”
The archbishop then stressed that “the Church has a clear position” on matters of marriage and Communion, adding, “I’m not fundamentally worried because I believe the Holy Spirit guides the Church.”
Another very good bishop, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, R.I., posted some thoughts on the recently concluded synod. He offered a warning about capitulating to the dominant culture. He said:
“In trying to accommodate for the needs of the age, as Pope Francis suggests, the Church risks the danger of losing its courageous counterculture, prophetic voice, a voice that the world needs to hear….Have we learned that it is probably not a good idea to publish half-baked minutes of candid discussions about sensitive topics, especially when we know that the secular media will hijack the preliminary discussions for their own agendas?”
About two months ago the number of states allowing homosexual marriage was 19. Today it is 32. Activist judges, one after the other, are negating laws forbidding homosexual marriage. What is especially alarming, Archbishop Chaput stated, is the refusal of the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the appeal of the state legislators who are trying to defend their laws against the same-sex marriage movement.
It seems that the Supreme Court has buckled under the pressure and refuses to support the people’s choices in their legislative bodies — sad indeed. The slippery slope gets even more slippery.
But in spite of all this bad news, there was an Associated Press article in The St. Paul Pioneer Press (October 23, 2014, p. 18A) that was uplifting. It was about a judge in Puerto Rico and is worth quoting:
“A federal court judge has rejected an attempt to end a ban on same-sex marriages in Puerto Rico, saying political order itself depends on traditional marriage and he derided the logic of courts that have overturned such bans. The five gay couples who filed the suit will appeal, their attorney said Wednesday. The couples had challenged the constitutionality of several local laws, including a 1902 code that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
“But in a ruling issued last Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge, Juan Perez-Gimenez, upheld the laws stating, ‘People and legislators, not judges, should debate the issue’.”
As St. Paul says in today’s reading, we must not let ourselves be overwhelmed by empty arguments. Morality doesn’t change. It is people who change morality by their false, empty arguments because they do not want to restrain their unruly desires. As the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us, “Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teaching” (13:8-9). We have the truth because we follow Jesus, the Son of God, who created and sustains all things.
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