Editor’s note: This column is based on Bishop Morlino’s homily at the Red Mass on October 26.
Dear Friends,
It is most interesting that, when asked which commandments are the greatest, Jesus doesn’t offer something new. When Our Lord is asked which commandments are the greatest, Jesus doesn’t say we need “change” — which is, of course, the watchword of both our political parties today. Instead, Jesus goes back to the Old Testament, basically to the Book of Exodus, and Jesus offers the summary that was very common in the early Jewish community about what we now call the natural law. Jesus points to those two great commandments: “love God above all things, and love your neighbor as yourself.” And in so doing Jesus is a teacher of the natural law that was written in the hearts of the people of His time, just as it was written in the hearts of the earlier Jewish community, just as it is written in every human heart.
I admit I have not always voted in the past. When I am tempted not to vote, however, I think back to a story I once heard about a certain Aunt Katherine who died a few years ago. She was blind during the last months of her life, but she had her daughter read the ballot to her and fill it out on her behalf. She was careful to sign the ballot and make sure it was mailed.
My wife and I live in a small village with a small Catholic parish and no Catholic school. Our children, however, all attend Catholic schools.
