Viewpoints

ViewPoints 18 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

catholicnewsherald.com | January 15, 2021

Bishop Robert Barron ‘An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.’ — St. Thomas Aquinas

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the religious motivation for social change

Aprincipal reason why the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was so successful both morally and practically was that it was led largely by people with a strong religious sensibility. The most notable of these leaders was, of course, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. To appreciate the subtle play between King’s religious commitment and his practical work, I would draw your attention to two texts – namely, his “Letter from the Birmingham City Jail” and his “I Have a Dream” speech, both from 1963.

While imprisoned in Birmingham for leading a nonviolent protest, King responded to certain of his fellow Christian ministers who had criticized him for going too fast, expecting social change to happen overnight. The Baptist minister answered his critics in a perhaps surprising manner, invoking the aid of a medieval Catholic theologian. King drew their attention to the reflections of St. Thomas Aquinas on law, specifically Thomas’ theory that positive law finds its justification in relation to the natural law, which finds its justification in relation to the eternal law. Aquinas means that what makes a practical, everyday law righteous is that it somehow gives expression to the principles of the moral law, which in turn are reflective of God’s own mind. Therefore, King concluded, unjust positive laws, such as the Jim Crow regulations that he was contesting, are not just bad laws; they are immoral and finally offensive to God.

Here is King’s own language: “One may well ask: ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’ The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws.” But then King contrasts this with obedience to an unjust law: “Conversely, one

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has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’” And in clarifying the difference, he turns to Aquinas: “Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.” This is not pious boilerplate; rather, it reveals what gave King’s movement its justification and purpose.

The very same dynamic was on display six months later, when King addressed the throng who had gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington. He was not giving a sermon. He was making a political speech, advocating in the public place for social change. But attend to some of the language that he used: “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; ‘and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.’” He was directly relating the social revolution he was advocating to the mystical vision of the prophet Isaiah. And listen to the magnificent conclusion of the address in which he artfully blends the lyrics of an American patriotic song to the lyrics of a song he and his family sang in church: “And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, Holy Cross Father Theodore Hesburgh (second from left) joins hands with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Edgar Chandler and Monsignor Robert J. Hagarty of Chicago, far right, in 1964 at the Illinois Rally for Civil Rights in Chicago’s Soldier Field. King once said, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

CNS | COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” Once again, on King’s reading, the political nests within the moral, which nests within the sacred.

King derived from his religious heritage not only the metaphysics that informed his social activism, but also the nonviolent method that he employed. What Jesus reveals in the rhetoric of the Sermon on the Mount (“Love your enemies”; “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who maltreat you”; “If someone one strikes you on the right cheek, turn and give him the other”; etc.) and even more strikingly in His word of forgiveness from the cross is that God’s way is the way of peace, nonviolence and compassion. As a Christian, King knew in his bones that reacting to oppression with violence would only exacerbate the tensions within society. He sums up this principle in one of his best-known sermons: “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Within the confines of this brief article, I cannot begin adequately to address the social upheaval occurring in our culture today. But I will say simply this: it is indisputably clear that there are severe moral deficits in our society that must be addressed, but the best way to do so is from within a moral and, finally, religious framework. May Dr. Martin Luther King’s model of leadership in this regard be a lodestar.

Deacon Matthew Newsome

Making Christ known: the mission of every Christian

When does Christmas end? For many in the secular world, Christmas ends on Dec. 26. But in the Church the celebration is just beginning. We have the Octave of Christmas culminating with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Then there are the Twelve Days of Christmas leading up to Epiphany. Liturgically, the last day of the Christmas season is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, after which begins Ordinary Time, although some parts of the world continue to observe Christmas right up until the Feast of the Presentation on Feb. 2.

It seems fitting to me that the line between Christmas and the rest of the year is a little fuzzy, because what we celebrate on Christmas is not only the Lord’s Nativity but everything that flows from it. This deeper meaning of Christmas is summed up by the word “epiphany.”

We give this name to the feast on which we celebrate the Adoration of the Magi, but the word itself means a revelation or manifestation. The ancient tradition of the Church celebrates not only the Adoration of the Magi with this name, but also the Baptism of the Lord and the Miracle at Cana. Ponder the Gospel Antiphon from Vespers on the evening of Epiphany, prayed in the Liturgy of the Hours: “Three mysteries mark this holy day: today the star leads the magi to the infant Christ; today water is changed into wine for the wedding feast; today Christ wills to be baptized by John in the river Jordan to bring us salvation.”

We see these three events linked together in the cycle of readings for the Mass. On the Feast of Epiphany we hear the gospel of the magi following the light of a star to adore the infant King. On the following Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord with the gospel telling of Christ’s baptism in the Jordan by John, bringing us into Ordinary Time. And on the Sunday after that, every three years in Cycle C, we read from John’s gospel of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. Prior to the liturgical reforms after the Second Vatican Council, this gospel would have been heard every year on the Sunday after the Baptism of the Lord.

These three Sundays, then, form a kind of Epiphany Triptych. What ties these seemingly unrelated events together? They are all an epiphany, or manifestation, of Emmanuel. They are all signs that God is with us in Christ.

The ever-expanding revelation of God to man is the story of salvation history. God made us in His image (Gen 1:27) with a rational intellect and free will, so that we might know and love Him. But as a result of the Fall, we lost knowledge of God. This is reflected in the way Adam and Eve hid themselves from God in the garden (Gen 3:8). We distance ourselves from God by our sins.

But God never ceases to seek us out and make Himself known to us.

We see God’s revelation unfolding throughout the Old Testament. He gives us the Law so that we might know His mind. He sends prophets to call us back to His friendship. But we ignore the law. We persecute the prophets.

But God still doesn’t give up on us. In the fullness of time, He sends His only begotten Son into the world, born of a woman so that we might become adopted children of God (Gal 4:4). What a mystery! What love the Father must have for us! Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is the ultimate self-revelation of God. “No one has ever seen God. The only Son… has revealed Him” (Jn 1:18).

We celebrate the Incarnation with special joy at Christmas, but it began nine months earlier, at the Annunciation. The Word of God came to Mary by the message of an angel, who conceived God’s Son in her womb. This revelation was for a time a “family secret,” but it didn’t stay a secret for long. At Christ’s birth it was made known to the shepherds by an angel. It was made known to the magi by a star. It was made known at His baptism by the Father’s own voice declaring, “This is My beloved Son” (Mt 3:17). It was made known by Christ Himself when He demonstrated His authority over creation by changing water into wine.

God took on human flesh so that by His death and resurrection we might be redeemed.

But salvation means more than that. It means knowing and loving God; the very reason God made us in His image. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (Jn 17:3). And so Christ did more than die on a cross. He established a Church and left her with sacraments so that He might always be Emmanuel, God-with-us. And He gave the Church the mission to make disciples of all nations (Mt 28:19) – that is, to make Him known to the ends of the earth.

This is why when we come together as the Church to celebrate the sacrament of Christ’s continuing presence among us, the Eucharist, we are also sent on a mission. “Go,” the deacon instructs us, “and announce the Gospel of the Lord.” Like the wise men of old, we have followed the light to Christ and now we must go into the world and be light for others. We must make Him known. The three mysteries of the Epiphany – the Adoration of the Magi, the Miracle at Cana, and the Baptism of the Lord – both end the Christmas season and begin Ordinary Time because the Lord’s Epiphany is more than a feast day. It is an ongoing reality, the mission of the Church and the task of every Christian.

Letter to the editor

Getting vaccinated is an act of charity

As a Church we have been praying for months for deliverance from the medical, social and economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, through the wisdom and grace of God acting through scientists, a vaccine is becoming available to us. While this should be joyous news, some are expressing concerns and reservations about receiving it. Where does the Church stand on the COVID-19 vaccines? Recent statements from Rome and the U.S. clearly show approval, support and encouragement for vaccination.

If you want good company, Pope Francis says he will get a vaccination. In a Jan. 10 interview with Italian television, the pope said he has already scheduled his vaccination. He called opposition to the vaccine “suicidal denial” and he urged vaccination for all. “It is the moral choice because it is about your life but also the lives of others.” Earlier, in his Christmas

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The Catholic News Herald does not publish message, Pope Francis urged “vaccines for all, especially for the most vulnerable and needy of all regions of the planet.” A December statement from the Vatican’s doctrinal office, approved by the pope, also noted “it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines.”

U.S. bishops are also supporting vaccination against COVID-19. In a Dec. 14th statement, the chairmen of the bishop’s doctrine and pro-life committees said that not only was it morally acceptable to receive the vaccine, “being vaccinated safely against COVID-19 should be considered an act of love of our neighbor and part of our moral responsibility for the common good.”

Our Church leaders support and urge vaccination “as an act of charity toward the other members of our community.” Let us follow their messages and their lead as an act of Christian charity – for ourselves, our families, our country and the world.

JOHN P. LANGLOIS, MD, is a member of St. Eugene Parish in Asheville.

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FRESH-AIR

FROM PAGE 3

run. It’s relatively low cost, too,” he said. “The units themselves go for $500. When you’re talking about installing just an HVAC unit in your home, you’re talking about $8,000 to $12,000 per unit. Sometimes those have UV purification on the filter, a passive filtration, and that would be another increase. REME HALO units are half of that.”

Installing and operating the units are simple. A hole is cut in the side of the ducting, the units ionize the air, and carry that out into the church (or other space). “The ionized air is what purifies everything,” Father Coleman explained. “In fiber optics, it’s what we would call ‘plug and play’.”

This active filtration is one of the key features that sets these units apart. It eliminates the chance that virus particles will travel through HVAC or air purification systems because the air is already clean.

THE SCIENCE AND TESTING

In explaining how the technology works, Father Coleman gave a short chemistry lesson by saying that atoms like to release an electron or receive one, oftentimes forming new compounds. That’s what the REME HALO units encourage.

“These smaller airborne pathogens or allergens that are in the air are either positively or negatively charged, then bond with these positive or negative ionized air particles – creating larger particles that can’t stay airborne, so they precipitate out,” he said. “In that bonding process, they get neutralized.” Test data, he said, shows “it actually neutralizes and kills PROTEST FROM PAGE 14 ‘NOTHING IS GAINED BY VIOLENCE’

Pope Francis and other religious leaders around the world also reacted with shock to the violence in America’s capital.

After reciting the Angelus Jan. 10, the pope offered prayers for Americans, including the five people who died. He urged government leaders “and the entire population to maintain a high sense of responsibility in order to soothe tempers, promote national reconciliation and protect the democratic values rooted in American society.”

“Violence is always self-destructive. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost,” he said.

In the face of political discord and selfinterest, we have an obligation to promote unity, peace, and the common good in society and in the Church, he said.

He prayed that “Mary Immaculate, patroness of the United States of America,” would “help keep alive the culture of encounter, the culture of caring, as the way to build together the common good; and may she do so with all who live in that land.”

Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, president of the Australian bishops’ conference, tweeted: “I didn’t realize just how much the integrity of and respect for the democratic institutions of the U.S. matter to the rest of the world until this pandemonium erupted in D.C. From the other side of the world, I find myself shaken and disbelieving.”

At the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Romanian Orthodox Father Ioan Sauca, interim general secretary, said, “The divisive populist politics of recent years have unleashed forces that threaten the airborne or surface virus through that process.”

In an Oct. 26, 2020, video, Dr. James Marsden, whose doctorate is in food science and microbiology, explains his background and how RGF came to develop this technology. After working in food safety in Washington, D.C., Marsden taught food science and microbiology at Kansas State University for 21 years. He retired from that position in 2015 and went to work in food safety for three years until joining RGF as a scientific advisor.

In March, the company became so focused on SARS-CoV-2 that he joined RGF full time as executive director for science and technology. They sought to determine whether an active air system would be effective in reducing the spread of the coronavirus.

There were several requirements: the test chamber had to represent real-world conditions, it had to be able to use the actual virus in the testing, and tests had to study the virus on surfaces and in aerosolized form (to simulate sneezes, for instance). Innovative Bioanalysis Laboratories met all the requirements.

Here’s what they found: “We started killing the virus on contact immediately. Because the chamber was so large it took a little bit of time, minutes I’m saying, to reach equilibrium in that chamber. By the time we reached equilibrium, it was hard to find any remaining virus whatsoever,” Marsden said. In this first in a series of tests, the lab results found that the virus was eliminated at a rate of 99.9 percent on surfaces and 99.5 in the air.

To shore up trust in the data, Father Coleman explained independent lab accreditation: “When I was working with Corning and we needed a particular lab, we had to wait if it was undergoing accreditation. CNS | SHANNON STAPLETON, REUTERS Protestors break into the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6 after a rally for President Donald Trump contesting the certification of the 2020 presidential election. the foundations of democracy in the United States and – to the extent that it represents an example to other countries – in the wider world.”

Anglican Bishop Nicholas Baines of Leeds, England, said Jan. 7, “The ancient wisdom of the Hebrew Scriptures dig deeply into the cry for justice, generosity, peace and the common good. The prophets weep over how easily people can be seduced by words of strength or power or security that in the end undermine that very security itself.”

Bishop Baines also remarked on how many of the protesters were seen carrying signs proclaiming their faith in Jesus.

In Christianity, “strength and power have been powerfully reinterpreted in the I put a lot of stock in the data that comes out of that, just having that experience with testing labs, and the strenuous accreditation they have to go through.”

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

People at the Greensboro churches have noticed the improvements, and it has been described as “indoor fresh air.”

“You’re breathing clean, fresh air, so the air quality, from what people have told me and what I have noticed, has a qualitative difference. It just feels fresh, so when I breathe in, I can actually breathe deeper, like you do when you’re outside in the fresh air,” Father Coleman said.

Father Mack also noted that parishioners who have allergies have reported that they cough and sneeze less after the NPBI units were installed in his church.

“Outside there is naturally-occurring ionized air. Inside we have stale, stagnant air, we don’t have ionized air, so (pathogens are) able to live and persist longer indoors. That’s why (public health officials) are telling us to open up the doors and windows and breathe the fresh air,” Father Coleman said. “By installing these, you’re creating that indoors. It’s actively purifying and causing the air to be more easily filtered, too.”

Despite some initial skepticism about the increased protection offered by these air purification systems, Father Coleman hopes the technology – in combination with other COVID-19 health measures – will put parishioners at ease.

“My goal would be to get more people in the pews, even if we’re still wearing masks,” he said. “If they’re asking us to believe the science on other things, then we should believe it with this, too. This should give us greater confidence in our ability to come together and worship in a safe way.” scandal of a man on a cross. Not a man with a gun,” he said. The story of Jesus “challenges me to re-imagine what power looks like when colored by love and mercy rather than entitlement and fear.” ‘SPIRIT OF TRUTH’

Back in Washington, like many across the country, pastors of two Catholic churches near Capitol Hill watched in disbelief as people stormed and ransacked the Capitol.

Father Gurnee leads St. Joseph’s Parish on the northeast side of Capitol Hill and Father Studniewski serves St. Peter’s Parish on the southeast side. Members of Congress and Capitol Hill staff members attend Mass at the two churches, as do Capitol Hill police officers and those who live and work in the neighborhood.

In a Jan. 10 interview, Father Gurnee said that during the attack, he received texts from parishioners who worked there and were being sheltered in safety while protesters were inside the building.

“When I saw people walking brazenly on the floor of the Senate, I was sickened,” he said.

At Mass that Sunday, his homily emphasized the need to stay focused on what really matters: eternal salvation.

When people take an earthly view over a spiritual outlook, he said, “the results are always ruinous.” He quoted the words of Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who in reflecting on the aftermath of the Russian Revolution which led to the deaths of millions over the following decades, said, “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”

The priest said he believed leaders inside and outside the government “cynically manipulated people for their own selfish reasons,” and as a result, many people who came to Washington “thought they were engaging in an historic event to secure

DOMINGUEZ

VIENE DE LA PÁGINA 7

Espíritu por el que resucitaste a Jesús de entre los muertos”. El tiempo ordinario viene a tocar todos los momentos de nuestra vida.

Este Tiempo Ordinario se divide como en dos “tandas”. Una primera, desde después de la Epifanía y el bautismo del Señor hasta el comienzo de la Cuaresma; y la segunda, desde después de Pentecostés hasta el Adviento.

Les invito a aprovechar este Tiempo Ordinario con gran fervor, con esperanza, creciendo en las virtudes teologales. Es tiempo de gracia y salvación. Encontraremos a Dios en cada rincón de nuestro día. Basta tener ojos de fe para descubrirlo, no vivir miopes y encerrados en nuestro egoísmo y problemas.

Dios va a pasar por nuestro camino. Y durante este tiempo miremos a ese Cristo apóstol, que desde temprano ora a su Padre, y después durante el día, se desvive llevando la salvación a todos, terminando el día rendido a los pies de su Padre, que le consuela y le llena de su infinito amor, de ese amor que al día siguiente nos comunicará a raudales.

Si no nos entusiasmamos con el Cristo apóstol, lleno de fuerza, de amor y vigor, ¿con quién nos entusiasmaremos?

Que el tiempo ordinario haga mella en nuestras vidas y que desde el principio de este tiempo escuchemos ese hermoso llamado del Señor que nos dice: conviértanse, porque el Reino de Dios ha llegado.

EL PADRE JULIO DOMÍNGUEZ es director del

Ministerio Hispano de la Diócesis de Charlotte. freedom and fairness for this country.”

Father Gurnee said participants at the rally “were told that they should fight, that they should enter into combat and prevent the theft of something given to them by God.” They were “incited into a mob, and they were fueled with a rage that told them they were being denied their rights,” he said. “Instead, they stole the rights of others. Five people died and countless others were trampled or injured.”

He urged people to recommit themselves to a spiritual outlook on life, “one which calls us to love our enemies, to forgive those who harm us and to work respectfully and firmly to proclaim the truth, in season and out.”

On Jan. 7, Father Studniewski described how he had opened his church to provide shelter and water to local residents impacted by the security lockdown in the area.

As he watched on television the events unfolding nearby, Father Studniewski said it was “very disturbing, very disheartening.”

Before entering the seminary, Father Studniewski was a captain in the U.S. Army. After his ordination in 1995, he served as an Army chaplain for many years and achieved the rank of colonel.

The priest said he hoped the Jan. 6 events lead to “a turning point where people – red (states), blue (states), with faith or no faith, people of all stripes and backgrounds – could say, ‘Let’s make sure this doesn’t happen again. The spirit we saw yesterday can never take us forward.’”

He also said he hoped the nation’s people and its leaders could be guided by a spirit like that which Jesus witnessed to, a spirit of “truth, justice, harmony, charity and peace,” to pursue change nonviolently as Rev. King did.

“Any change that’s going to be lasting and meaningful,” he said, “is going to be grounded in that spirit of God.”