As we hear in tonight’s reading from the
prophet Ezekiel, we are responsible for the behavior of our neighbors. If we see our neighbor doing something which is evil, we must tell him or her that this action is evil. If we neglect to tell him, we assume some responsibility for his behavior. However, we cannot judge the person who
exhibits an evil behavior, because we don’t know their motive. Only God can judge people. The old adage applies: hate the sin, love the sinner.
Today, our religious freedom is under
attack from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ contraceptive mandate. This mandate requires that virtually all
organizations pay for contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-inducing
drugs in their health insurance. The
only exceptions are those religious organizations which employ and serve those
of the same faith. This mandate directly
challenges our Church’s long standing opposition to contraception and abortion. Many charities, hospitals, and universities
will be forced to either violate their conscience or to likely close their
doors if this mandate isn’t changed.
This is an issue of religious
freedom. The question simply is: ”Does
our government have a right to mandate a religious organization to take an
action which is directly against its long established beliefs? As a religious people, we have a responsibility to speak out and warn someone when they are doing something evil. Also, as a religious people, we cannot
participate in evil by paying for it or in some other way encouraging it. For, if we do this, we clearly assume some responsibility for that evil.
The contraceptive mandate reminds me of
an issue which our nation faced during prior wars regarding young men who were
drafted. That issue involved the right
of those who were morally opposed to the war; known as conscientious objectors,
to refuse military service. While it
certainly was in the best interest of the country to have all young men
available for the draft, our nation decided, in the interest of religious
freedom, to allow those who were morally opposed to war to provide some service
to the country which was not related to the war.
While this may not be the best analogy,
because providing free contraceptives certainly cannot be seen as important to
our nation as winning a just war, it does illustrate that our nation has always
realized the importance of following one’s conscience. In fact, while I was in the Air Force during
the Vietnam War, they emphasized to us that we must not follow an order which
our conscience told us was not moral.
However, they were also quick to tell us that we must be willing to
accept the consequences of not following that order.
Recently, we celebrated the feast of St. John the
Baptist. John’s courage in upholding the
truth about marriage, and his subsequent beheading as a result, challenges us
in a time when it is not popular to speak the truth or live by the truth. Both
he and St. Thomas More remind us that just because certain behavior is enshrined
in the law of the land does not mean that is morally right. St. John the
Baptist and St Thomas More, pray for our country, for our Church, and for each
of us that we properly form and bravely follow our conscience.