XIII- Sunday- Religious liberty

Wis.1:13-15,2:23-24; MK. 5:21-43

As Americans and Catholics preparing to celebrate July 4, Independence Day, we are observing this year a Fortnight for Freedom through prayer and special church services. Never before has our precious religious freedom been so threatened in this country. Our Bishops are united in calling us to daily prayer from June 21 until July 4.

The readings for this 13th Sunday in Ordinary time fit so well with our right to religious freedom and life itself. God created us for happiness, freedom, and life to the full; "God did not make death, nor does He rejoice in the destruction of the living," the Book of Wisdom declares.

In the gospel, Jesus revives a dead girl and heals a chronically-sick woman. The woman is desperate having tried everything and had exhausted her finances. Jesus was her last resort, and death would be her final end without His saving solution. She had made a gesture of faith and by her faith in Him, she was healed.

God is the author of life. It is God who created the world, no body else. Therefore God has the right to decide what is good and evil. The first sin itself was man’s attempt to decide for himself what was good for him against God’s commands. He thought the forbidden fruit would bring him happiness and eternal life; would make him like God. But he was wrong. So the whole world suffers from that wrong choice.

Jesus came to reverse man’s wrong choice and give us fullness of life. He said: I came that you may have life, life in its fullness. Man may have been able to go to several planets, but that doesn’t mean that he can claim the authority of life in any sense. Man may be able to altar life, making man out of a woman or woman out of a man, but never been able to create a life from nothing. Therefore the power of creating is the sole power of God and he uses parents, a man and a woman united in love, to share in that power. Therefore morality, decision of what is morally good and wrong is the prerogative of religion, not the state. The Chinese government tells abortion is right, as does the US govt. There was a news this week that 9 months pregnant woman was forcefully taken out of her home in China and her baby was aborted and even her uterus was removed. The Indian government says that selective abortions is wrong. Because they kill a lot of girl babies there. Therefore sex determination test is unlawful in India. Now who can decide between these nations who is right and who is wrong ? Is it the govt or the religion. Morality is for all people not just for a nation. Religion is for all and not nationalistic. And therefore moral issues are the concerns of religion. As far as I know, no religion teaches that abortion is right. Knights of Columbus did a survey recently and in that nearly 9 in 10 Americans (88 percent) agreed that religious leaders should speak out on issues of religious freedom.

George Washington famously said that there can be no law without morality, and no morality without religion. Saint Augustine said that ‘An unjust law is no law at all.’… A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law of God.  An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”

As we all know the US bishops and catholic organizations around the country file lawsuits to protect their First Amendment rights from the government’s health care mandate. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

Now, the HHS mandate is a clear violation of the first Amendment right. Freedom of religion is the foundation of all our freedoms. According to the Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll, the survey found that nearly three in four Americans say that freedom of religion should be protected, even if it conflicts with other laws.

For if you are not free in your consciences, in your religious faith, in your corporal works of mercy, then all your freedoms are fragile. When the government commands us to do what God commands us not to do, the American heritage of freedom is imperiled. And a responsible Christian citizen would refuse to obey an unjust law.

Our bishops have identified several attacks on religious liberty. The mandate of the Department of Health and Human Services that all employers, including Catholic agencies, provide health insurance for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, is a national assault on religious liberty without precedent in history. Recently the state of Alabama passed the immigration bill which stated that if you help an illegal immigrant in any way, say for instance, you give a stranded illegal immigrant a ride, or baptize an illegal immigrant, or administer any sacrament, allow him attend the Church, you would be doing a criminal offense. Doesn’t it violate the freedom of religion ?. Religion caters for all people, irrespective of citizenship or nationalism.

The HHS mandate defines religious institutions in such a narrow way that it excludes, for example, Catholic Universities, hospitals, food pantries, publishing houses, and social services. According to HHS definition, the St.Vincent De Paul Society and the Knights of Columbus wouldn’t qualify as religious institutions. Indeed, according to the federal rule, if we serve people who are not Catholic in our agencies, or educate them in our universities, or employ them in our institutions- we cease to be religious. If we provide for the needs of the sick and the poor, but don’t ask whether they are Catholic or teach them catechism- we are not religious.

It is about whether we can make our contribution to the common good of all Americans. Can we do the good works our faith calls us to do, without having to compromise that very same faith here?

For nearly a century, the Catholic bishops of the United States have been and continue to be consistent advocates for comprehensive health care reform to ensure access to life-affirming health care for all, especially the poorest and the most vulnerable. So, don’t think that our fight is against Obamacare, no. It is against limiting religious freedom. The political concept of religious freedom, is more likely to end in freedom from religion—imposed by force, if necessary.

When the Government mandates that we cannot do what our faith mandates us to do, then we should refuse to obey unjust laws. Our liberty is not something we have invented for ourselves, much less is it the generosity of the government. It is God’s gift. We have been set free in Christ for freedom.

Let’s pray that all Christian disciples may have the fortitude to stand up for our faith and for our freedom. In standing fast for our faith, in standing fast for our freedom, we know that we may have to suffer and to sacrifice.