The Connection Between Law, Ethics and Worship

I have a confession to make: when I consider what to write in these quarterly articles, my thoughts sometimes drift to what I happen to be teaching at the time. This semester, six seminarians and I are reading and discussing Joseph Ratzinger’s work The Spirit of the Liturgy. At the beginning of the book, Cardinal Ratzinger (who would later become Pope Benedict XVI) drills down on the definition of worship. Referring to the Book of Exodus, he points out that, in the history of the Israelites, things go awry when worship, law and ethics are separated. When Israel falls away from right worship of God, bad things happen. As an example, Ratzinger points to the episode in Exodus 32 when the Israelites grow impatient waiting for Moses to come down from Mount Sinai with the tablets of the Ten Commandments. As a result of their impatience, the Israelites make a golden calf out of their earrings and begin to worship it and sacrifice to it. Moses had gone up the mountain to fetch the Ten Commandments (law). Yet, in his absence the Israelites acted badly (ethics) and worshipped falsely. Law, ethics and worship are intertwined, so when one or more of these are off-kilter it negatively effects the other(s).

Two of our authors in this newsletter refer to the important connection between law, ethics and worship in today’s American culture. Dr. Joseph Trabbic notes that for families to thrive, they need the support of the faith community, culture and civil law. By the principle of subsidiarity, families should be allowed to do what they can do on their own, but it helps when there is positive support by the society and culture in which they abide. Just as a newly planted seed needs water, sun and fertilizer to grow well, so the family needs encouragement and nourishment. In his article, Fr. Jerome Magat describes the train wreck that occurs when an objective moral truth is not promoted and defended (chaste non-contraceptive relations between spouses) neither by the faith community, nor by society as a whole. It is a recipe for disaster that includes, among other evils, same-sex relations and unions. The result is a perfect storm: bad laws, immoral behavior and poor, if not, non-existent worship of the God who created and redeemed us.

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger observed in 2000, we live at a time of “total secularization of the law and the exclusion of any God-ward perspective from the fashioning of the law”. (The Spirit of the Liturgy, Ignatius Press, p. 32) Rather than worshipping God, we worship the body. We spend thousands of dollars to make our bodies as physically fit as possible, and yet we ignore the beauty of the God-given fertility given to spouses. We worship the golden calves of technology, sports and entertainment, but by not properly worshipping God, we ignore the soul. As a result, families fall apart, drug addiction and mental illness dominate, followed by more crime in our communities, to name a few evils.

Only when we prioritize God who created us and redeemed us in our laws and in our actions and worship Him rightly are we able to live with the proper perspective. Law, ethics and right worship go hand-in-hand. At CANFP, we strive to be a positive voice in this confusing culture in which we live. That is why I am so grateful to all of our benefactors who support CANFP so that we can be a guiding light and a support during these challenging times. It is humbling to see so many of you (listed on pages eight and nine) who are there for CANFP year in and year out. Thank you and may God bless you as we embark on this new year together!