I’m the "natural law."

The natural law is the law of God which a person can discern by human reason alone, apart from any special revelation from the Lord. Until a few hundred years ago almost everyone believed in it (at least implicitly), but now very few do. Thomas Jefferson was referring to this law when he wrote the now famous line: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Jefferson said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident"—in other words, "These truths should be clear to anyone who is thinking properly: the truth that all people are created equal, and that they have certain rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These truths are not known because they’ve been revealed by a particular religion. They are, in a certain sense, written on the heart of every human person. Thus, even pagans who are using their faculty of reason properly will admit that these things are true. They will also tell you that killing and stealing and coveting your neighbor’s wife are wrong."

This should help us to understand why the Founding Fathers of our country—who believed in the separation of church and state—had no problem with teaching the Ten Commandments in public schools and displaying them in public places. They rightly understood that the Ten Commandments did not promote the establishment of any particular religion; they were simply the expression of some of the primary tenets of the natural law! This, by the way, is precisely what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us in paragraph 1955: "The natural law states the first and essential precepts which govern the moral life. . . . Its principal precepts are expressed in the Decalogue [i.e., the Ten Commandments]."

This means that it would have been possible to figure out the Ten Commandments, even if God had never formally given them to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Let me now demonstrate this to you, by showing the rational basis of the Decalogue. The first commandment, as we heard a few moments ago in that text from Exodus 20, is this: "I, the Lord, am your God . . . you shall not have other gods besides me." The existence of God (the fact upon which this commandments is based) can be discerned by reason alone. You don’t need the Bible, or any special revelation from the Lord to figure out that he exists. Just by looking around at the world, people over the centuries have come to the reasonable conclusion that there’s a Supreme Intelligence behind it all. In this regard, the writer of the Book of Wisdom said that God’s creation is like a great work of art, and that only a foolish person would fail to see a Great Artist behind it. Listen to Wisdom 13:1—"For all men were by nature foolish, who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan." St. Paul said something very similar in Romans 1:20—"Since the creation of the world, invisible realities, God’s eternal power and divinity, have become visible, recognized through the things he made."

So--God’s existence can be established by reason alone. And once his existence is recognized, my brothers and sisters, certain things reasonably follow: He should be worshipped, and all false gods must be rejected (Commandment #1). His name should be honored and not used rashly in oaths or spoken as a curse word (Commandment #2). If God exists, and he is the source of all we have and are, then it’s reasonable to set aside one day a week to praise, worship and thank him in a special way (Commandment #3). If God is our ultimate authority, he is to be respected as such, and so are all those human beings who share in his authority [e.g., parents, clergy, civil officials, teachers and employers] (Commandment #4). If God is the Creator of every human person, then it is wrong to rob an innocent human being of the life which God gave him as a gift (Commandment #5). It’s also wrong to take things from others which don’t belong to you (Commandment #7) or to misrepresent the truth (Commandment #8). If God has designed the sexual act to be an expression of total self-giving and for the continuation of the human race (two facts which can be discerned by reason alone), then it’s wrong for such activity to take place outside of a permanent, exclusive, lifelong marital relationship (Commandment #6). Consequently, it’s also wrong to want to sever a marital relationship to satisfy your own disordered sexual desires (Commandment #9). And since stealing from others is wrong, so is cultivating the desire to have what doesn’t belong to you (Commandment #10).

You know what the sad irony is, my brothers and sisters? What I just said to you about the rational basis of the Decalogue would make more sense to some ancient, pagan philosophers than it would to many contemporary Christians! That’s how far our culture has distanced itself from the natural law. One of the obvious challenges we will face in the new millennium is the challenge to bring this idea back, and to help others understand it properly. Because without an acceptance of the natural law, we have no common basis of morality; consequently, the culture of death will continue to grow in our midst. Incidents like the tragedy at Columbine High School will happen with ever-greater frequency.