When You "Haven't the Foggiest," Look Again!
The most incredible law that was ever established in the United States was one enacted by the state of Virginia in 1610; it prescribed not jail, but the death penalty for any healthy adult failing to attend church for three consecutive Sundays!
Legislators argued that this didn't infringe on one's freedom of religion (or lack of it), since everyone was free to choose church or the gallows. That could mean the freedom to choose to endure a boring serrmon or to endure capital punishment (and not a few rebels hesitated over those alternatives!).
In our time the pendulum of civil liberty has swung to the opposite extreme - an extreme equally outrageous. Legal "freedom of choice" today smacks of libertinism - such as the freedom of choice in whether to kill an unborn infant. "Live as free men, " says Peter, "but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God" (1 Pt 2:16).
God respects our precious freedom, but hates our abuse of it, either by excess or by default: Those breaking "even the least of these [divine] commandments...will be called least in the kingdom of heaven," says Jesus (Mt 5:19). Yet, he has a stronger condemnation for those seeking holiness by rigid human legalism: "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, ...you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven" (v.20).
This excerpt is from the book One-Minute Meditations for Busy People, by John H. Hampsch, C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications. It and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/video recordings can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408 or www.Catholicbooks.net