A move toward theocracy?

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

WE need to understand that since Christ is the fulfillment of the law (cfr. Mt 5,17), Christianizing our laws does not mean that we are moving toward theocracy, or making the clergy the governing authority of the state. It is simply a call to our Christian lawmakers and law-enforcers to be consistent to their Christian identity.

We need to Christianize our laws since it is a necessity. Obviously, it has to be done with due process, without imposing things and respecting the different views and opinions of people who have different backgrounds, beliefs, etc. Resolving these differences should be done in the most democratic or fair way.

We have to realize that it is Christ who ultimately gives the real meaning and purpose of our laws. We have to disabuse ourselves from the thought that our laws can be based only on our common sense, or on our own estimation of what is good and evil according to the values of practicality, convenience, etc., or on our traditions and culture, etc.

While these things have their legitimate role to play in our legal and judicial systems, we have to understand that they cannot be the primary and ultimate bases. It should be God, his laws and ways that should animate the way we make laws as well as the way we apply and live them. After all, being the Creator of all things, he is the one who establishes what is truly good and evil.

And the will, laws and ways of God are revealed to us in full by Christ. That is why at one point Christ said to the Pharisees and scribes regarding the proper interpretation of the Sabbath law that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So, the Son of Man (Christ) is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mk 2,27-28)

So, it is Christ who can guide us as to the content and intent of our laws. He is the one who can interpret our laws properly. He is the one that would give our laws their proper spirit, which in the end is the spirit of charity that summarizes and perfects all virtues and values.

Without Christ, our laws would inevitably become rigid and harsh in certain instances. They would tend to absolutize certain things that actually should only have relative value. They would hardly recognize their limits, and so would find it hard to accept exceptions. 

Without Christ, our laws would only lead us to the path of self-righteousness that will always be accompanied by the ways of hypocrisy. They can tend to rationalize things that actually are against God’s laws and our own objective good.

We need to openly acknowledge the necessity of putting Christ into our laws—into their making, application and interpretation. At the moment, there seems to be a certain hesitation, awkwardness and even resistance on the part of many law-making bodies in the world, even among the so-called Christian countries.

Often underlying this hesitation, awkwardness and even resistance to the role of Christ in our legal system is the badly-understood principle of the separation of Church-and-state that puts a preventive bracket on God, on Christ, in the making, application and interpretation of our laws.

This attitude is what may be described as legal positivism that places the ultimate source of our laws on some government entity or political institution, or even on some philosophy and ideology alone.

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

Learn to love the cross

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

IF there’s any message or lesson the celebration of Good Friday is imparting in us, it is that we should learn to love the cross the way Christ loved it. He knew from the beginning of his earthly life how his redemptive mission would end. But that did not deter him from carrying out the will of his Father and his own will that actually are just one, since the will of the Son is the same as the will of the Father.

In that way, loving the cross the way Christ loved it is the ultimate expression of love to which we are also called to live, since we are God’s image and likeness. That’s why Christ gave that new commandment that summarizes all the previous commandments given to us—and that is, that we love one another as Christ himself has loved us.

So little by little, let us take away the usual obstacles we have in pursuing that love for the cross. We all know that we have a natural aversion to the cross and everything that it connotes. We have to overcome that aversion by identifying ourselves more and more with Christ, activating our faith and availing ourselves of certain practices that would help us understand and love the true value of the cross as shown to us by Christ.

This will obviously involve constant prayer, having recourse to the sacraments, growing in the virtues, waging a life-long ascetical struggle, and doing certain mortifications and other practices of self-denial, etc. We have to live a certain detachment from the things of this world, to guard our senses, practicing temperance, restraint and moderation in the use of things.

We need to know the true value of the cross because the cross, through Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, is where everything in our life is resolved. Christ’s passion, death and resurrection is the culmination of Christ’s redemptive mission on earth.

Yes, Christ preached. He performed miracles. But in the end, he had to offer his life on the cross because no matter what he did, our sins are such that they simply cannot be undone and forgiven through the preaching of the truths of our faith and the tremendous effects of the miracles. Christ has to offer his life on the cross!

We might ask, if Christ is God, why did he have to go through all that suffering and death? Why not just say, “Everything is now all right, guys.” After all, for God, nothing is impossible with him. With the movement of his will, with a flick of his hand, everything would be as it should be.

I must say, it is a good question to ask. Indeed, nothing is impossible with God. He does not have to do anything spectacular to repair what was damaged. A word from him, and everything would be as he wants it to be.

Be that as it may, the fact is that Christ chose the way the Father wanted it. “Not my will, but yours be done,” Christ said. (Lk 22,42) And I imagine the reason behind this is because God respects our human nature as it is, as it has been created by him, capable of loving and hating, and also capable of being faithful and unfaithful and faithful again after some conversion, and some consequences that would follow.

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com