St. Paul
tells us that all creation shows forth the greatness and glory of God (Romans
1:16-25); but our human eyes, impaired by sin, refuse to accept what is so
evident. Humanity, by enthroning itself in the position belonging to God and
dispossessing Him from our minds and hearts, is suffering dire consequences. To
fill man's inner void, his emptiness caused by God's absence, each age creates
new idols to worship, strange gods (such as money, power, sex) that open him to
impurities and degradations.
The truth of
these words is being played out in our times, thanks to our "judicial
experts" who have perverted our nation's Constitution so as to make it
palatable to extreme liberal tastes. They now interpret "separation of
church and state" to mean that God must be eliminated from the human
equation, completely removed from the public's eyes. The writers of our
Constitution fully acknowledged God and His natural law; however, their
original intention was to also insure religious freedom by preventing the
imposition of one state religion on our people. They merely wished to prevent
the great harm once wrought by the religious persecutions in their English
homeland, not promote atheism.
Today, God's
Commandments have been placed in a courthouse back room behind locked doors;
this allows us to draft laws that are contrary to what should be the premises
behind all laws--love, truth, leading to respect for human life and assurance
of justice for all. Now, under the protection of law, we can cheat, lie, covet,
kill and commit adultery, to name but a few of our newly claimed
"rights."
Also lacking
God's love and wisdom, we cannot discern truth from falsehood and spend much
time rationalizing acts that cheapen humanity, and cancel our dignity as beings
made in God's image.
We must be
careful to maintain our focus on the Spirit of Jesus. There were occasions in
which Jesus did not fulfill the external rituals of his day. He seems to have
done this to point out the hypocrisy of those who focus on externals and forget
that religion is about a heart given over to God and God’s people. So, to those
who made a big deal to ceremoniously wash their hands before eating but whose
hearts were “filled with plunder and evil,” Jesus said that the God who made
the outside of a person also made the inside and we ought to be at least as
concerned, if not more so, about that inner geography. Washing your hands but
then hating your brother is like washing the outside of a bowl but not managing
to clean out the rancid meat that is in it. To Jesus, the remedy for this
spiritual myopia is to give alms. When we give to others instead of focusing on
ourselves, this cleanses our hearts. Then, Jesus says, “Everything will be
clean for you.” (Luke 11:37-41)
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