The Bill of Rights Does Not Override the Demands of the Gospel
My rights do not override my role as a disciple
If we are members of the Kingdom of God what rules do we follow and how do we obey them while living in the United States of America? We are seeing a growing hostility to religion and a growing marginalization of religion in our country. Remember none of this happens without God’s permission. It may force us to live more deeply in the Kingdom of God while we are also in the United States. This means we must embrace the Kingdom by the means established for us so that we can show the kingdom to those around us. This requires a commitment to daily prayer.
We may be going through difficult times in the future which we can do if we encounter Christ every day in our prayer. Our role is to embody the kingdom of God to those around us especially in these times and in the future. This means we must internalize a different set of laws than what we find ruling our country but laws that our country does not prohibit.
Catholics do not have freedom of speech?
What am I talking about? You know that we as Catholics do not believe in freedom of speech for ourselves. We should only speak in ways that reflect that we are Christ’s disciples. In the United States, we are free to say anything we want including hate speech, as Catholics, we are exhorted to say only that which builds up others and leads them to Christ. This does not mean we walk about sounding like zombie but it does mean we do not use our speech to tear people down, to isolate or disparage people or even to promote an idolatrous agenda like loyalty to a party over the common good.
Jesus equated hate speech with murder. The same with freedom of the press. Catholics have a duty to report only the truth objectively. If you are not doing that you are disobeying the laws of the kingdom and hurting those with whom we co-exist in this country.
No, we cannot carry an AR-15 with us
Let’s look at the major trial in Wisconsin recently. During the trial, many debated whether the now exonerated man broke the law when he shot two men which he said he did in self-defense. The question people bantered about is: ‘was it legal?’ Let me ask you if it was Catholic? Was it in accords with the laws of the kingdom? If you came to me and said you were going to enter a place for civil unrest to help people, I might go with you depending on the cause. However, I would tell you to leave your AR-15 rifle at home. It may have been legal for him to carry the AR-15 but it was not in accords with God’s Kingdom. It is one thing to go hunting with such a weapon, it is another to carry one in an urban area especially under such unrest.
Others stated the men he killed deserved to die because they were vicious criminals. A great article I read on Medium by indi.ca explained that this same form of thinking entered the Weimar republic and set the stage for Germans killing Jews on the street in NAZI Germany. It became a nationally sanctioned act to engage in such actions. As Martin Luther King taught, none of what the NAZIs did was illegal.
Catholics and Capital Punishment
We as Catholics recognize the right of the state to carry out capital punishment but only as a last resort. Pope Saint John Paul II stated that condition rarely exists and Pope Francis indicates it is virtually non-existent. Many may claim the men killed in those shootings should have died because they have done evil and they may be right but we as Catholics do not justify their deaths outside of state action and as a last resort.
We represent a different set of laws through our citizenship in the Kingdom of God. Everything legal in this country does not mean it is acceptable in what we do. It is no secret that we as Catholics do not believe in abortion. It is legal in the country but we do not consider it legal within our role as Catholics. However, if we take that same standard then we need to look at it across the board. Jesus did not give us a set of laws to follow, he taught us about how to be. He called us to represent the Kingdom of God; this is a higher standard.
St. Augustine described our law as simply love and do what you want. If you are loving then what you want to do will always be correct in the Kingdom of God.
If we are to do what Christ called us to do, we must unite our will to God’s will. This means we do not want to do our will in a situation, we want to do what God wants us to do. Sometimes that can be frustrating and painful. Sometimes we must be on our knees in prayer begging God for the grace to do his will if it is so much against our will. However, when we do that we are acting as members of the Kingdom of God.
I do know that being in the Kingdom of God is a risk and it can be dangerous to your well-being after all it was to Jesus as well at least until he was resurrected. However, if we care to do the will of God, it is not that we must expect to encounter a risk but rather we must expect to embrace it fully. This is what it means to carry your cross. This is embracing the Gospel and it is showing the world your truth.
Are we being good citizens of the United States or are we demonstrating to the world that the Kingdom of God is real? Or better yet — are we both.
This is an excerpt from a homily originally published at https://catholicaudiomedia.substack.com on November 22, 2021.