WHY WE NEED THE NATURAL LAW

 

WHY WE NEED THE NATURAL LAW

The Church has always believed that human beings can come to know certain truths about God and about themselves by reason, apart from faith.  This is taught in the Epistle to the Romans: “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made” (1:19-20).  The same is affirmed in the Old Testament, for example, in the Book of Wisdom: “Foolish by nature were all who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing the one who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan” (13:1).  

Considering all that we see and experience in the world, it is reasonable for us to conclude that all things have an origin which itself had no beginning.  In other words, you cannot get something from nothing.  There had to be something that was first, and it had to be powerful and intelligent.  This we call God.  Thus, “The Church holds and teaches that God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason” (Vatican I, Dei Filius).   Without this natural capacity human beings could never be recipients of divine revelation. 

Natural Law is the foundation of all morality.  Just like belief in the existence of God, the existence of the Natural Law can be known by human reason, apart from revelation.  To make the point the Catechism quotes the famous Roman philosopher of antiquity, Cicero (d. 48 B.C.), who was a pagan.  He wrote in The Republic: “For there is a true law: right reason.  It is in conformity with nature, is diffused among all men, and is immutable and eternal; its orders summon to duty; its prohibitions turn away from offense…To replace it with a contrary law is a sacrilege; failure to apply even one of its provisions is forbidden; no one can abrogate it entirely” (cit. #1956).  This means that persons of faith, and persons of no faith, may make moral judgments for which they are responsible.  The Natural Law “expresses the dignity of the human person and forms the basis of his fundamental rights and duties…It is a necessary foundation for the erection of moral rules and civil law ” (Cat #1978-1979). 

Unfortunately, human beings often become vain in their reasoning, and their minds grow dark, so that they deny the Creator and come up with theories that are more appealing to them.  This is why idolatry and many other evils exist (cf. Romans 1).  The Second Vatican Council teaches that “What Revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our own experience.  For when man looks into his own heart he finds that he is drawn towards what is wrong and sunk in many evils which cannot come from his good creator.”  Failure to acknowledge God causes human beings to disregard their ultimate end.  It corrupts the right order that should reign in themselves, in their relations with others, and with all creatures (cf. Cat #401). 

In response to this situation, God in his mercy has revealed not only what human beings could never know on their own, such as the mysteries of the faith.  He has also revealed the Natural Law, of which the Ten Commandments are an expression, “so that they can be known by all men with ease, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error.”  We see in our own day that the widespread rejection of God has led human beings in many matters “to easily persuade themselves that what they would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful” (Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis).  If there is no God, there is no Natural Law, and if there is no Natural Law, there is no objective right or wrong.  This line of thinking is the foundation of so-called woke theories of today, which are based on human desires, which are arbitrary and changing, rather than on what is objectively right and wrong.  The result is the moral chaos that currently afflicts our society.