Daily Retreat 05/27/08
2008 May 27 Tue: Ordinary Weekday/ Augustine of Canterbury, bp, r, ms
1 Pt 1: 10-16/ Ps 97(98): 1. 2-3ab. 3cd-4/ Mk 10: 28-31
From today’s readings: “Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance but, as He who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct.... The Lord has made known His salvation.... Peter began to say to Jesus: We have given up everything and followed You....”
Fully Informed
To be legally binding, a new law must be officially promulgated and publicized, in order to uphold the maxim, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” For, if the enactment of a new law were to be deliberately concealed, how could citizens be expected to comply with it? But since all laws are publicly authorized, it becomes the reasonable responsibility of citizens to learn at least about all the laws which would apply to their state, and thus whoever refuses to study such essentials clearly risks the worst penalties.
Likewise, “the Lord has made known His salvation.” Divine Revelation completely publicizes God’s expectations for the moral conduct of all who are subject to His law (that includes everyone who is, who ever was, and who ever will be!). A well-formed conscience, the light of human reason, the Natural Law, the words of Sacred Scripture, and the teachings of the Church’s Magisterium all corroborate and converge on the eternal Truth of God’s law, so ignorance of His law is no excuse!
This implies, though, that those who stubbornly ignore or reject those guides thus clearly risk the worst penalties. Fortunately for us, God does not promulgate new laws every day, so there is no burden of keeping up with the latest divine legislation. However, it’s important to note that such statutory permanency increases, rather than decreases, our reasonable responsibility for learning about all the God-given laws which apply to our state in life. Sadly, in almost all cases, people are poorly informed about God’s law simply because they don’t see it as something with practical importance. I’m always amazed, for instance, at how many people can’t even recall the 10 Commandments, yet the same people are often enough quite well informed about principles that are exponentially more complex, yet infinitely less significant, such as the 10 major points of the M.L.B.’s official rules of baseball. Ignorance and violation of the laws of a sport leads even the repentant only to forfeiture of the game, but ignoring and violating the laws of God leads only the unrepentant even to losing a soul!
1 Pt 1: 10-16/ Ps 97(98): 1. 2-3ab. 3cd-4/ Mk 10: 28-31
From today’s readings: “Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance but, as He who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct.... The Lord has made known His salvation.... Peter began to say to Jesus: We have given up everything and followed You....”
Fully Informed
To be legally binding, a new law must be officially promulgated and publicized, in order to uphold the maxim, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” For, if the enactment of a new law were to be deliberately concealed, how could citizens be expected to comply with it? But since all laws are publicly authorized, it becomes the reasonable responsibility of citizens to learn at least about all the laws which would apply to their state, and thus whoever refuses to study such essentials clearly risks the worst penalties.
Likewise, “the Lord has made known His salvation.” Divine Revelation completely publicizes God’s expectations for the moral conduct of all who are subject to His law (that includes everyone who is, who ever was, and who ever will be!). A well-formed conscience, the light of human reason, the Natural Law, the words of Sacred Scripture, and the teachings of the Church’s Magisterium all corroborate and converge on the eternal Truth of God’s law, so ignorance of His law is no excuse!
This implies, though, that those who stubbornly ignore or reject those guides thus clearly risk the worst penalties. Fortunately for us, God does not promulgate new laws every day, so there is no burden of keeping up with the latest divine legislation. However, it’s important to note that such statutory permanency increases, rather than decreases, our reasonable responsibility for learning about all the God-given laws which apply to our state in life. Sadly, in almost all cases, people are poorly informed about God’s law simply because they don’t see it as something with practical importance. I’m always amazed, for instance, at how many people can’t even recall the 10 Commandments, yet the same people are often enough quite well informed about principles that are exponentially more complex, yet infinitely less significant, such as the 10 major points of the M.L.B.’s official rules of baseball. Ignorance and violation of the laws of a sport leads even the repentant only to forfeiture of the game, but ignoring and violating the laws of God leads only the unrepentant even to losing a soul!
posted by FrPitstick | 5/26/2008
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