English
EspañolThe person contemplated by the law is a generic and impersonal subject. The moral or legal law does not love but commands and mandates. It is the concrete people who love one another. Moreover, it is God himself who, in Jesus Christ, reveals to us that the supreme law is that of love. We have been given the right to love as Jesus taught us. This right to love, and the duty to do so by straightening out any adverse circumstances, is fundamental.
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“A pastor cannot feel that it is enough simply to apply moral laws to those living in “irregular” situations, as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives (…)Because of forms of conditioning and mitigating factors, it is possible that in an objective situation of sin – which may not be subjectively culpable, or fully such – a person can be living in God’s grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the Church’s help to this end. Discernment must help to find possible ways of responding to God and growing in the midst of limits.) (The Joy of Love, n.305)
Commentary
Each human person, with his or her biographical circumstance, is unique. Their particular worth justly demands to be attended to without being nullified by the abstract and generic character of the moral and juridical law. Without this attention to each person´s singularity, the law can produce cruel and merciless injustices. That is why mitigating and exonerating factors exist; they are demands of justice towards a person. This rings true not only in moral laws but also in penal codes.
The mission of Pastors is not that of prosecutors, judges, and police officers. Their mission is more like doctors, who come to us to cure our illnesses, or better yet, the mission is the one taught by Jesus Christ, who spent his life “doing good” to each person, not blaming or reproaching for sins, but healing each person of his or her illness. That healing mission – of consolation, relief, and help – concerns everyone, spouses, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, friends, given they are Christians, that is, they love.
However, daily living those rules of love and mercy that Pope Francis presents us with such simplicity is not easy. Moral rules of obligatory compliance, which apply to everyone without exception, without extenuating or exonerating circumstances, make it relatively easy for us to speak of good and evil, to separate them into two factions, and simplify the tendency to judge and condemn: either you are on the right side, or you are not. However, each human person is unique, complex, has lights and shadows. Today they wake up generous and kind, but tomorrow will want nothing to do with helping their neighbor because we all carry inside a tendency to selfishness and to prefer ourselves over others. Moreover, we do not live alone. Sometimes, the environment around us hurts us, and the people closest to us – a spouse or parents or siblings, for example – can darken our lives and push us into very painful deserts and precipices.
For various reasons, the family has turned away from the Church and, above all, from loving one another unconditionally. It sometimes finds it very difficult to identify the road that leads back. It is true that the rise of civil or de facto unions, divorces and irregular situations within today´s society present a seemingly bleak scenario for the fulfillment of the moral mandates of the faith. But it will be necessary to find for each person in particular, in those specific circumstances, the opportunity to improve, even if it is just a dose or one aspect of the whole, repairing the damages committed as much as possible, finding a path that straightens out for the better.
The first path is to teach how to talk to God under any circumstances. “Good and put-together people” do not have a monopoly on prayer, for it is the conversation that any human being has with his Father, especially in complex, dark, and painful circumstances. Another route can be through the sacraments, often celebrated out of inertia, custom, or social usage without realizing the opportunity they present for a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. The baptism or communion of a child whose parents are not married in the Church may serve as a bridge of communication with that family to shape it as a Christian family. It may be a difficult and only half-successful task, since the present cultural moment does not facilitate the diffusion of the Christian message, but this does not mean that we should give up helping those people who, in their hearts, are still close to Jesus Christ and feel the nostalgia of true love, however, for very different reasons are living separated from the Church.
