AND WAS SUBJECT UNTO THEM

A SERMON FOR THE HOLY FAMILY

Here’s a remarkable thing we see in today’s Gospel.  When the young boy Jesus returns to Nazareth with his Mother and foster-father, the Gospel tells us that “he was subject unto them.”  Now it’s not such a remarkable thing that a child should be subject to his parents.  What should fill us with wonder, however, is that the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, the divine Son of the Most High Almighty God should submit himself to two of his creatures.  This is an extraordinary act of humility with which our blessed Lord began his life on earth.  And it reveals also the astonishing degree to which he exalted his humble and meek Mother and foster-father.  For this reason alone, we too must revere and honor not only these two creatures of grace, St. Joseph and of course our Lord’s holy Mother, the Purest of Creatures, full of grace.

In doing so, our Lord sets us an example that is sometimes hard to follow.  An example of humility.  And an example that we must follow under pain of sin.  Basically, it’s the Fourth Commandment.  “Honor thy father and thy mother.”  Today, let’s look at this commandment to see how far it extends beyond that microcosm of society, the family.  Yes, children must respect their parents, but equally, we’re bound to honor and respect all those who hold legitimate authority over us.

In addition to our parents, those who hold such authority are, first of all, those who represent our mother and father by helping them do their work of parenting: other members of the family like grandparents, uncles and aunts; teachers; baby-sitters.  Then there are those in authority in the communities to which we belong: magistrates and those in law enforcement, for example.  And finally, we must honor and respect those who hold authority in the workplace, and even in the clubs to which we belong.  This last one is important because it includes especially the secular and religious authorities who govern us.

I want to focus in on this last category, these secular and religious authorities.  Those who hold these positions lawfully are God’s representatives in the domain of their respective offices, and as such must be obeyed and respected according to the precept of the Fourth Commandment.  We have no choice in the matter.  For those with spiritual authority over us, namely the legitimate Catholic popes, bishops and pastors of the Roman Catholic Church, we are duty bound to honor and love them as our spiritual fathers, to submit fully to their instructions, and depending on circumstances, to provide for their support.

Now this, of course, brings us to another point we must consider.  You see, we do not have the obligation to be obedient to any authority in every instance.  Only God is owed unconditional obedience.  The claim to obedience on the part of those with spiritual, or secular authority for that matter, is fundamentally limited.  Obedience is owed only to authority that is lawful.  For example, when a bishop publicly proclaims a heresy, he immediately loses his office; he need not, indeed, must not be obeyed.  Which is why we’re here and not at the local Novus Ordo church this morning.  But if you truly believe Jorge Bergoglio to be the Vicar of Christ, you are duty bound to obey him in all things not sinful.  The reason we need not obey him is that we do not consider him to be a legitimate Pope who has been given the power from God to exercise any authority.  We’ve had years and years to consider this problem, and are where we are today, because of this conclusion we’ve made after careful and diligent reasoning.

Today, we are forced to consider something new.  Because the same principles we apply in the spiritual domain must be applied now to the secular authorities who govern over us.   The conclusions we must come to are based on how we consider the legitimacy of the presidential election that took place last November.  I know that many are grappling with this dilemma, but it is not my job to pontificate about things political except insofar as it affects our moral behavior.  And depending on your conclusion about the legitimacy of a Biden presidency, your actions will be judged accordingly.  If you believe that Biden has been lawfully declared President-Elect by Congress, and that he will be legally sworn in on January 20, then you must respect him as the duly elected President of the United States, and submit to his laws.  If, however, you believe in your heart that the election was stolen, rigged, and in no way expressing the legitimate will of the people, that Congress failed to protect the Constitution this week, then you are morally perfectly free to disregard Mr. Biden’s laws and show him no respect whatsoever.  This is not being disrespectful to the office of the presidency, as you would believe, presumably, that he does not hold that office.  And there can be no such thing as sedition against him, because then it would be Mr. Biden who is in sedition, having betrayed the Constitution by accepting the results of a stolen election. 

So either he’s going to be the legitimate president or he isn’t.  It’s not my job here to tell you what to think, whether to believe that he is or he isn’t, or even to bother you with my own personal beliefs on the matter.  You must follow your own conscience and all I’m trying to do from this church pulpit is to provide some guidance as to what is, and what is not, morally acceptable behavior based on your conclusions.

Be careful though!  If you choose to reject the presidency of Mr. Biden, this doesn’t mean you can go out and do whatever you want.  It isn’t a license to become totally lawless.  Any law that follows the law of God is legitimate and must be obeyed, no matter what illegitimate authority is enforcing it.  So you can’t just go out and steal and kill, tear down statues and burn down the Capitol.  It just means you don’t owe an illegitimate government the usual duties we have towards them.  So let’s briefly examine what those duties are towards a rightful government, and see which ones we can legitimately disregard without offending God when the government is not rightful and legitimate. 

Normally, these duties are threefold: first, to show those who govern us respect, loyalty and obedience—we’ve covered that already, and would not need to show any such filial piety towards any illegitimate authority. 

Secondly, we are required to stand by our government in need and danger—not so much the persons who govern us, as the country they govern.  As far as their personal needs and dangers are concerned, they have plenty of Secret Service around them paid to take care of that.  Still, if the need and opportunity arises, we always have the duty to stand by our neighbor, love our neighbor, even if he’s a sinner or a tyrant.  But our duty to the nation itself continues, and we must still do everything within our power to protect the United States from her enemies, both foreign and domestic—and there are plenty of both.  Civil servants take an oath to do this, and it should really apply to all citizens.  The military must continue their work, and we would still be required to fight in case of war. If there’s civil war, who knows, our duty must be to defend the Constitution, and the same goes even when it’s attacked in peacetime.

Our third duty to our government is to pay taxes.  Our Lord himself made this quite clear, that we must render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.  So I’d be getting myself in a whole heap of trouble, both with God and the government, if I simply told you that you don’t need to pay your taxes.  In normal circumstances though, it’s morally incumbent on us only to pay our due taxes, namely, a reasonable contribution towards those things which the state must maintain for the common good, such as the maintenance of our infrastructure, the military, education, medical research, and hundreds of other national requirements on which our tax dollars are wisely spent.  That is only fair and proper, and indeed it would be immoral to refuse such contributions for these legitimate expenses.  However, it’s a different story if our tax dollars are being diverted to support Planned Parenthood, or tearing down the border wall, transgender experimentation, free education and welfare checks for illegal immigrants—the new “government” will have a never-ending wishlist of wasteful, and indeed sinful, expenses that they want to impose on the taxpayer.  Of course, if your taxes are simply taken out of your paycheck, there’s not much you can do about it, but to voluntarily give money for these purposes is not only a bad idea, it can amount to being actually complicit in the sins to which they lead.  So as far as paying your taxes is concerned, figure it out for yourselves.  Morally speaking, you may not owe the government as much as you think.

And one other point here before we leave the subject of taxes.  Everything I’ve said so far about tax applies to its imposition by legitimate governments.  But if Caesar isn’t really Caesar, do we need to render anything at all to him?  After all, this country was founded on the principle that there should be “no taxation without representation.”  If you think the real vote of the people was ignored and that our “representatives” in Congress and the White House are nothing more than usurpers who succeeded in a bloodless coup, then according to the American tradition, they have no right to tax you at all.  Indeed, you might consider that if enough citizens refuse to feed the beast that is hell-bent on devouring this country, this may indeed be the best way to defend our nation from its claws. 

To sum up our duties towards an illegitimate government, we must conclude that we must still obey all of the laws that are imposed upon us if they are God’s laws.  Whenever they go against the laws of God, they must be disregarded, and if necessary, disobeyed, and this we must do no matter what the consequences.  If, however, the law is disciplinary, we must assess whether or not it is being reasonably imposed.  In the case of paying our taxes, for example, then we must consider whether the taxes are inordinately high, or being used for spurious purposes, or simply being imposed by a government that does not represent us.  Depending on your conclusion, it is, morally speaking, your choice whether to comply with the tax law or not.  If you do not comply, however, you must be ready to face whatever civil consequences are then meted out to you.  If you are put in jail, you will not be a martyr, you’ll just be in jail.  So you decide what’s worth standing up for.  Pick your fights!  Again, my disclaimer here is that this is not advice on what to do, merely a summary of the Church’s teachings on a subject that is currently on people’s minds.

With all that having been said, it is the feast of the Holy Family today, so let’s turn our thoughts back to that happy home in Nazareth, where peace and harmony dwelled.  It dwelled there because there was no overturning of the natural ways of God—a Child is subject to his Mother and foster-father.  No matter how wonderful and almighty that Child was, he submitted himself to a legitimate earthly authority as an example of humility to us all.  We must always follow his example by honoring any authority that is legitimate, and which comes from God.  Our blessed Lord followed the law of Moses at all times, except when the higher law of charity prevailed.  We must do the same, and that means that in the current situation it is quite moral and lawful in the eyes of God to do whatever we can to “heal on the Sabbath.”  Interpret that wisely!  Be prudent!  Remember that our first submission must be according to the First Commandment, not the Fourth, and that the laws of God always come first.