Is your morality based on what you feel, prefer or like? - Daily Reflections November 27,2015

THE OBJECTIVE WISDOM OF NATURE

 

When the fig tree is in blossom, summer is near, as Jesus said in the Gospel (verse 31). People in pre-scientific times did not have the sophisticated weather forecasting gadgets we moderns have and yet they can predict the weather just as accurately by simply reading the signs written in nature. Yes, nature, both natural and human, is filled with the wisdom of its Creator. If we use our reason and understand the nature of the human person, of human actions, of the environment, we can deduce an intelligence behind them as well as the right and good action to be done at a particular moment and situation.

       Catholic theology calls this the natural moral law — the law of God written by God Himself in the nature of the person,  actions and things so that everyone, and not only believers in Revelation, might have access to the true, good and beautiful. The account of the wise decision of Solomon from the book of Kings which settled the dispute between two mothers fighting over a child ended with, “When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice” (1 Kings 3:28).

       Who gave Solomon that wise decision? He simply used his reason and reflected on the nature of a mother. A mother is someone who will lay down her life for her child. It is rational that the strong protects the harmless and the weak. Sadly, the very reason that led Solomon to that decision is the very reason used to rationalize and distort everything we understand about motherhood.

       We live in a time of relativism, where morality is determined by whims and fancies, by feelings and preferences. There is a moral wisdom written in the nature of everything. If only we are willing to critically use our reason and bravely accept concomitant demands it reveals, the natural moral law will lead us to the true, good and beautiful. Fr. Joel Jason

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Is your morality based on what you feel, prefer or like?

 

Give me wisdom, O Lord, the attendant at Your throne. Amen.