2004-04-25 The Resurrection of Jesus was not just a spectacle...

April 25, 2004

The Resurrection of Jesus was not just a spectacle. The first witnesses were both frightened and joyful, but then He poured the Holy Spirit on them, changing them too. The apostles received power to forgive sins, and the lives of all the first Christians were radically changed. Everything glorious in Christian history is the direct result of the Resurrection. The power of the Resurrection gives us saints, and we have more of them now than ever.

Cardinal Ratzinger has recently said that moral behavior must be rooted in revelation to be understood and lived fully. While reason discerns the logic of nature and right behavior (pundits condescendingly call this “traditional morality” as if it were an option), the way we ought to behave is completely understood by understanding who God is and who we are in relation to Him.

So the Resurrection informs and directs the way we construct society and how political leaders ought to behave. To separate religious beliefs from political reality is morally schizophrenic. The Archbishop of Denver wrote about this in Easter week. Archbishop Chaput remarks the duplicity or, more kindly, ignorance of politicians who claim to be Catholic and take Communion with the Risen Lord while arguing for anti-life legislation. He cites a papal document of 2003, “On Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Public Life.” Private faith, to be authentic, must have public consequences. Christians “must recognize the legitimacy of differing points of view about the organization of worldly affairs” but they are also “called to reject, as injurious to democratic life, a conception of pluralism that reflects moral relativism.” Catholic politicians have a “grave and clear obligation to oppose” any law that attacks innocent human life. There are many issues implicated in this equation, and they involve medical/moral issues, tax structures, immigration laws, punishment of criminals, housing for the poor and other issues. But none of these is equal in gravity to the basic right of the unborn to be born. Blessed Pope John XXIII listed this as the first human right. Archbishop Chaput says we should not be fooled: Candidates who claim to be Catholic but who publicly defy Catholic teaching on the sacred principle of life, are dishonest public witnesses. “They may try to look Catholic and sound Catholic, but unless they act Catholic in their public service and political choices, they’re really a very different kind of creature. And real Catholics should vote accordingly.” Real Catholics could change the world by a personal response to the Resurrection, which (1) sends them to the confessional and (2) sends them to the voting booth. The two go together. I am edified each day by the sincere confessions I hear. As your pastor I pray that the way you vote will be a worthy offering at the altar of God and not material for confession.

Fr. George W. Rutler