The Basis of Law

 

Homily Given at:
Red Mass
January 9, 1999
St. Mary Church, Lincoln, Nebraska



"On one occasion, a lawyer stood up to pose Him this problem, `Teacher, what must I do to inherit everlasting life.' Jesus answered him, `What is written in the law? How do you read it?'" These words are found in the Gospel of Saint Luke, chapter 10, verses 25 and 26.

It is a joy to welcome all of you to the celebration of this Red Mass, in the course of which we invoke the blessing of God upon our political and judicial leaders and all who are involved directly or even marginally in the legal profession and the practice of law. It is my hope that this Red Mass will be the first of an annual occasion, and that this occasion will develop into a custom and then, a tradition. Even the most arrogant and proud among us would acknowledge, I believe, that God's help and assistance is exceptionally important in all of human life, and assumes a particular importance in the noble and important practice of the profession of law.

A recent writer has pointed out that all of us, but especially sworn members of the bar, are invited constantly to live lives of faith and learning to unflinching protection of our precious legal heritage and to principled heroism, when necessary, to live lives that are somewhat counter-cultural in order that we might always be true to ourselves and our beliefs. Truth to self and to belief is exemplified in an excellent way by the life and death of the patron Saint of the legal profession, Saint Thomas More. Before he lost his life in his judicial murder (in the words of Winston Churchill) by King Henry VIII, Thomas More said, "I die the King's good servant, but God's first." I can think of no better slogan with which to enrich the lives of political and judicial officials, the lives of all involved in the legal profession than those words of Saint Thomas More. Dedication, loyalty, obedience, comity, and in an appropriate measure--political accommodation, but always in that necessary subordination to the ultimate ground of our being, God, our Almighty Father.

People who by profession and life-style are deeply involved in judicial and legal matters, perhaps more than other people are able to see both the nobility and grandeur of the human species as well as its other side--sordid, sin- filled, and frequently evil. When his daughter Margaret reproached Thomas More before his death for trying to be a hero, particularly when in her words, "It is not your fault the State's three-quarter bad." More replied, "But look now. If we live in a State where virtue is profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly, and we would live like animals or angels in a happy land that needs no heroes. But since, in fact, we see that avarice, envy, pride, sloth, lust, and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice, and thought, and have to choose to be human after all, why then perhaps, we MUST stand fast a little, even at the risk of being heroes."

Early in his life, Saint Thomas More thought deeply about the possibility of being a priest, but then, upon prayer and reflection, he realized that was not his vocation. He said, "It was a choice between being a good layman and a bad priest, which means it is no choice at all. I would choose, in these circumstances, always to be a good layman."

Thomas More was a man of principle. He was a devoted husband and father. As a matter of fact, after his first wife died, he married again, and brought luster to the profession of law. It stands as a splendid example of what a lawyer can and should be. Many of us remember the famous exchange, set in dramatic terms by Robert Bolt in his play which later became the movie A Man for All Seasons. His son-in-law Roper said to More that there are times to get rid of the law.

More replied, "Yes, but what would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the devil?"

Roper said, "I would cut down every law in England to do that."

More answered, "Oh, and when the last law was down, and the devil turned round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the law being all flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast, man's laws, not God's, and if you'd cut them down, you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the devil the benefit of the law for my own safety's sake."

In many ways, More's outlook, as well as his professional life, were based on the very words of Jesus in Matthew 24; namely, that lawlessness is the same as sin.

A Rabbi was once asked, "Why do you rabbis always answer a question with another question?" And the Rabbi replied, "Do we always do that?" The rabbinic practice of answering one question with another was used by Jesus in the famous exchange that Saint Luke records. He answered the question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" A question incidently asked by a lawyer, but perhaps somewhat unfamiliar to some present-day lawyers, with another question, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" The New Testament is replete with haunting questions and, in a certain sense, all of us should be haunted through our lives by the resonance of those questions of Christ.

"What is written in the law? How do you read it?" The life and martyrdom of Saint Thomas More can give us an eloquent example of how to reply--with a lifetime of dedication and devotion to these questions.
Nature tells us that we must do good and avoid evil, but the question arises, "What constitutes good, and what constitutes evil and how is this determined?" Christian tradition and Catholic doctrine says that the supreme objective norm of morality is law, while the supreme subjective norm of morality is conscience. A consicience which is neither scrupulous or lax, but tender is a conscience that eschews error and falsehood and conforms itself to law--conscience being the rational aspect of a human being passing judgment on the rightness or wrongness of an act or an omission. Law, which is a permanent rational norm for human activity, enacted and properly promulgated by an appropriate superior for the benefit of the community and the common good, can be of various sorts. There is natural law, that which is written on the human heart according to Saint Paul, and which binds all human beings by virtue of their very humanity. There is also divine positive law, which comes through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, that is divine revelation mediated to us through the Church. Finally, there is ecclesiastical or Church law, and civil law.

God, of course, is the Supreme Law Giver, and all law must be rooted in His eternal and divine plan directing all created things to one End, Which is Himself. Every action or omission which is human, that is to say, under the direction of free will and human intellect, it derivative of an interaction between law and conscience.

In a memorable discourse about law, Pope Pius XII, once pointed out that all law even divine positive law, the laws of the Church and the laws of the State, must presuppose the Giver of the natural law, Who is God Himself. "If the Author of this law is set aside, the Pope said, "there is no room then, for any law worth speaking about because all law must repose as upon its foundation, the idea of God, the Almighty Creator and Father of us all, the supreme and perfect Legislator and the wise and just Rewarder of all human conduct."

We speak, oftentimes of natural laws, laws of gravity or other laws of physics, laws of chemistry, mathematics, and astronomy. Inanimate objects and sub-rational creatures have no choice but to obey the laws of nature. However, human beings, endowed as we are with the priceless gift of freedom being made in God's image, are free to disobey the natural law, which disobedience, of course, involves punishment and sanctions in time and in eternity.

When one is obedient to the natural law, one then sees oneself as bound to seek and follow the truth, and this inevitably leads to the divine positive law, to the practice of religion, and to the observance of ecclesiastical as well as civil legislation. The divine positive law, of course, is a law of liberty, as the Epistle of Saint James tells us, and it is the way in which one becomes truly free, being chained buy obedience to God. The alternative is religious ignorance, disorder, and strife. Until our Lord comes again on the clouds of glory, those who are Christians are bound to obey what Saint Paul calls, in his epistle to the Galatians, the law of Christ, which is a law of life,and to bear bravely the burden and yoke of the Gospel which Jesus says are light and easy.

In the observance of law, all Christians know that there must be a certain sense of priority. In any conflict of obligation, where two laws simultaneously oblige, but only one can be observed, the higher law, of course, must always prevail. Plus, the natural law must take precedence over all positive law and divine positive law over Church law and civil law. Canon law takes precedence in our conscience over civil law. We know as well that moral impossibility excuses from laws which are not negative, and do not involve intrinsicly evil acts. We would never be excused, for example, even to save our life, from those laws which forbid us to engage in idolatry, blasphemy, and so on.

In a certain sense, the life of every Christian, but especially those involved with legal matters, should be guided by the splendid words in the first Psalm, "Blessed is that man whose delight is the law of the Lord, and on His law, he meditates day and night."

As we know, Saint Thomas More was condemned to beheading because he refused to take the oath of supremacy, that is to say, the oath that was prescribed by King Henry VIII, declaring him, Henry, as the Supreme Head of the Church of God on earth. More's refusal to pronounce this oath was an extension of his remarkable life, when as a lawyer of incredible personal integrity, he was able to maintain honesty and purity of life in the midst of one of the most corrupt and evil courts of the Renaissance. When his daughter Margaret tried to pursuade him to swear the oath while reserving in his heart a negative view of the act of supremacy, More replied in those memorable words, "When a man takes an oath, Meg, he is holding his own self in his hand like water, and if he opens his fingers, then he need not hope to find himself ever again." At the moment of his sentencing, More showed the sterling elements of his character when he said to the judge who condemned him to death, "As Saul did hold the cloaks of them that did stone Stephen, and yet the twain are now together merry Saints in heaven, so prayest thou for me, as I shall for thee, that together we might make merry in heaven."

As we continue this Mass now, asking God to bless all our political and judicial leaders, as well as all who are involved directly or indirectly in the legal profession, let us pray that we might find ourselves making merry together in heaven one day, and the realization of this destiny, of course, will depend on how we answer not just with words but with our life, the questions of Jesus, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" AMEN.