Pope Saint John Paul II identifies four key issues to address in this second (and more technical) chapter of Veritatis Splendor: 1) Freedom and law; 2) conscience and truth; 3) fundamental choice, and 4) the moral act. In this podcast we look at the first of these issues.
To start, John Paul II takes us back to the Fall, when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, rejecting not only God’s commandment, but implicitly rejecting his love. By doing so, they effectively set themselves up as the one’s who could determine good and evil. They were called to accept God’s law, but chose instead to determine what the law should be.
Laws — even good laws — restrict our freedom, and we almost instinctively rebel against them. But even man-made laws and rules are necessary if we are to live in peace and to accomplish things that are genuinely good. The natural law is an aspect of God’s law that arises from our participation in the Divine wisdom. We are indeed free to decide much about how we will live and love. My wife and I determined how to set up our home, which is a participation in the work of ordering the world, and we made rules for our children. Our legislators and governor make laws about how people in our state should live together. This is all a participation — imperfect at times — in the Divine wisdom. But this Divine wisdom or providence is the basis for the truth an legitimacy of every law and is the foundation of natural law.
Human law is not absolute. God’s law is. In particular, God has given certain negative commands — “Thou shall have no strange gods.” “Thou shall not steal or murder.” “Thou shall not commit adultery.” and so on. These commands “oblige everyone, regardless of cost, never to offend in anyone, beginning with oneself, the personal dignity common to all.” (sec 52) Even the cleverest philosophers and moral theologians must acknowledge such laws.
Share this post