The Eternal Law: A Call to Return to God's Supreme Criteria for Justice, Schemes and Mind Maps of Law

Download The Eternal Law: A Call to Return to God's Supreme Criteria for Justice and more Schemes and Mind Maps Law in PDF only on Docsity! THE ETERNAL LAW BACKGROUND OF THE NATURAL LAW Introduction A singular and truly providential coincidence reminds us that exactly twenty-five years ago today Pope Pius XI, of revered and saintly memory, was busily en- gaged in his study in the Vatican Palace, putting the fin- ishing touches to the page proofs of the first Encyclical of his renowned Pontificate. Significantly enough this Papal Message to the world, published on December 23, 1922, was entitled, "The Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ." 1 In this historical document the scholarly Pon- tiff appealed to the entire world to return to the basic concepts of the Eternal Law of God, so that Europe and the other countries of the world might be saved from im- pending chaos and disaster. In view of what has hap- pened during these past twenty-five years, the warnings of Pope Pius XI now seem ominously prophetic. In this Encyclical Letter the Pope lamented that: "There is, over and above the absence of peace and the evil attendant on this absence, another deeper and more profound cause for present-day conditions. This cause was even beginning to show its head be- 1 Encyclical Letter, "Ubi arcano," December 23, 1922, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, XIV (1922), 673-700. An English translation appears in Social Well- springs, II, 13, 16 (edited by Joseph Husslein, S. J. Bruce, Milwaukee, 1942), and in Principles for Peace, 341, 345, (Washington, 1943, edited by Harry C. Koenig). ETERNAL AND NATURAL LAW fore the war and the terrible calamities consequent on that cataclysm should have proven a remedy for them if mankind had only taken the trouble to un- derstand the real meaning of those terrible events. In the Holy Scriptures we read: 'They that have forsaken the Lord shall be consumed.' No less well- known are the words of the Divine Teacher, Jesus Christ, Who said: 'Without Me you can do nothing' and again, 'He that gathereth not with Me, scat- tereth.' "These words of the Holy Bible have been fulfilled and are now at this very moment being fulfilled be- fore our very eyes. Because men have forsaken God and Jesus Christ, they have sunk to the depths of evil. They waste their energies and consume their time and efforts in vain sterile attempts to find a remedy for these ills, but without even being success- ful in saving what little remains from the existing ruins. "It was a quite general desire that both our laws and our governments should exist without recognizing God or Jesus Christ, on the theory that all authority comes from men, not from God. Because of such an assumption, these theorists fell short of being able to bestow upon law not only those sanctions which it must possess but also that secure basis for the su- preme criterion of justice which even a pagan phi- losopher like Cicero saw clearly could not be derived except for the Eternal Law. Authority itself lost its hold upon mankind, for it had lost that sound and unquestionable justification fo' its right to command on the one hand and to be obeyed on the other. So- ciety, quite logically and inevitably, was shaken to its very depths and even threatened with destruction, 108 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS uncivilized tribes what is good and what is bad, what lawful, what forbidden, and makes men feel them- selves responsible for their actions to a supreme Judge. "The denial of the fundamentals of morality had its origin in Europe, in the abandonment of that Christian teaching of which the Chair of Peter is the depository and exponent. That teaching had once given spiritual cohesion to a Europe which, educated, ennobled and civilized by the Cross, had reached such a degree of civil progress as to become the teacher of other peoples, of other continents. But, cut off from the infallible teaching authority of the Church, not a few separated brethren have gone so far as to overthrow the central dogma of Christiani- ty, the divinity of the Saviour, and have hastened thereby the progress of spiritual decay. "The Holy Gospel narrates that when Jesus was cru- cified, 'there was darkness over the whole earth,' a terrifying symbol of what happened and what still happens spiritually wherever incredulity, blind and proud of itself, has succeeded in excluding Christ from modem life, especially from public life, and has undermined faith in God as well as faith in Christ. The consequence is that the moral values by which in other times public and private conduct was gauged have fallen into disuse; and the much-vaunted laici- zation of society, which has made ever more rapid progress, withdrawing man, the family and the state from the beneficent and regenerating effects of the idea of God and the teaching of the Church, has caused to reappear, in regions in which for many centuries shone the splendours of Christian civiliza- tion, in a manner ever clearer, ever more distinct, ETERNAL AND NATURAL LAW ever more distressing, the signs of a corrupt and cor- rupting paganism: 'There was darkness when they crucified Jesus.' "Many perhaps, while abandoning the teaching of Christ, were not fully conscious of being led astray by a mirage of glittering phrases, which proclaimed such estrangement as an escape from the slavery in which they were before held; nor did they then fore- see the bitter consequences of bartering the truth that sets free, for error which enslaves. They did not realize that, in renouncing the infinitely wise and paternal laws of God, and the unifying and elevating doctrine of Christ's love, they were resigning them- selves to the whim of a poor, fickle human wisdom; they spoke of progress, when they were going back; of being raised, when they grovelled; of arriving at man's estate when they stooped to servility. They did not perceive the inability of all human effort to re- place the law of Christ by anything equal to it; 'they became vain in their thoughts.' "With the weakening of faith in God and in Jesus Christ, and the darkening in men's minds of the light of moral principles, there disappeared the indispen- sable foundation of the stability and quiet of that internal and external, private and public, order, which alone can support and safeguard the prosper- ity of states. "It is true that, even when Europe had a cohesion of brotherhood through identical ideals gathered from Christian preaching, she wa0; not free from dissen- sions, convulsions and wars which laid her waste; but perhaps they never felt the intense pessimism of to- day as to the possibility of settling them, for they had 110 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS then an effective moral sense of the just and of the unjust, of the lawful and of the unlawful which, by restraining outbreaks of passion, left the way open to an honourable settlement. In our days, on the con- trary, dissensions come not only from the surge of rebellious passion, but also from a deep spiritual crisis which has overtaken the sound principles of private and public morality." 4 4 AAS. XXXI, pp. 543-546. THE ETERNAL LAW Only three months ago, the Constitution of the State of New Jersey ratified on September 10, 1947, acknowledged its humble gratitude to God in these significant words: - "We, the people of the State of New Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations, do ordain and establish this Constitution." As one ponders the faith, humility, and commendable common sense of the Preambles to these Constitutions, one realizes how frightfully hollow and inept were the opening words of the Covenant of the League of Nations, signed in 1920, . . "The high contracting parties ..." What a godless, inane, and hopeless introduction to a Covenant destined to maintain peace, justice, and charity in a war-tom world. Can one wonder then, why a second World War followed so soon after Versailles? The origin of all law goes back, as St. Thomas striking, ly points out, to the Holy Trinity, back to that life of knowledge and love, which constitutes the essential glory of the Three Divine Persons.7 The Divine Word became incarnate in order to illumine from without, the fire of this glory, in bestowing upon mankind the knowledge and love of the Most Holy Trinity. Well indeed then is He called "The Splendor of the Glory of the Father" 8 come as He tells us Himself, "Not to destroy, but to fulfill the law." 9 7 St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I-II, Questions XC-XCI, aIX-Cx. 8 St. Paul, Epistle to the Hebrews, 1, 3. 9 St. Matthew 5, 17. 114 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS "In the language of philosophy, God is in intimate contact with all things, by His Power, by His essence, and by His Presence. The exercises of His Power on things does not cease with their creation. Conserva- tion is a continual creation. Without the uninter- rupted influence of God, nothing could continue in existence. Since the Lord's power and the exercise of that power is at the heart of all this, His Essence must, of necessity, be there also; for in Him Power, Essence, Operation, Nature are one Indivisible, Sim- ple Reality. Finally, the Creator is present every- where because there is nothing that escapes His observation and attention. Wherever therefore, there is any created reality, God is present in the totality of His being, with all His being, with all His attri- butes and all His perfections. He is in my body and in every fibre of it. He is in my soul, and in its facul- ties, and in the activities of these faculties. He is in me wholly, and He is wholly outside of me. And just as He is in me in the totality of what He is, so is He likewise in all creatures. "But beyond this universal and ordinary way accord- ing to which God is in all creatures, there is a distinct way of presence which can be found only in the case of rational creatures. In these He can be present as an object known and loved is present in him who knows and loves. An example drawn from nature will illustrate the difference between these modes of presence. Light shines in the eyes of the blind, in whom the organ of vision is intact and the nerve only destroyed. The eye is flooded with light, but there is no vital reaction. The rays are fully present in the eye but not to the eye. The visual faculty is power- less to possess by a vital act, what is, nevertheless, sending its vibrations through the organ of vision. THE ETERNAL LAW Furthermore in the case where the eye is not dis- eased, the measure of its possession of what is pre- sented to its gaze is not unvarying. Objects of vision may be maintained under the same conditions of illumination, yet they will be seen more or less per- fectly according to the strength, power and acuity of the visual faculties of those who contemplate them. They are seen, and therefore more perfectly pos- sessed, by those whose vision is more perfect. "It is thus in a parallel manner between God and the soul, through which He pours the light of His being. He shines on all things, whether in the mineral realm, in the realm of plants, or in the realm of ani- mals; and He shines also even in the souls of the sin- ner. But there is nowhere in these worlds an answer- ing reaction. He is present in them, but not to them. They do not possess Him, even when they are sub- mitting to His influence. And when the blindness of sin is dispelled and He illuminates the souls of the just from their very centre; when He is present not only in them but to them, even then He is not present to all and possessed by all in the same degree. He is more perfectly in, and more fully possessed by those whose grace is more abundant and whose sanctity is more elevated. It is sanctity that sharpens the soul's vision and strengthens the soul's embrace of its God. "Hence, just as the faculty of vision, when in a healthy state, has power to receive within itself and to possess in a vital act the figures of coloured objects, so, too, the soul when endowed with sanctifying grace, has power to seize and to take to itself, has power to react vitally to the divine light streaming from its source. The faculty of intelligence fortified NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS bound to submit to law precisely because we are free by our very nature. Law then is the guide of man's actions. It turns him towards good by its rewards, and deters him from evil by its punishments. "Foremost in this office comes the Natural Law, which is written and engraved in the mind of every man; and this is nothing but our reason, commanding us to do right and forbidding sin. Nevertheless all pre- scriptions of human reason can have force of law only inasmuch as they are the voice and the inter- preters of some higher power on which our reason and liberty necessarily depend. For, since the force of law consists in the imposing of obligations and the granting of rights, authority is the one and only foun- dation of all law-the power, that is, of fixing duties and defining rights, as also of assigning the necessary sanctions of reward and chastisement to each and all of its commands. But all this, clearly, cannot be found in man, if, as his own supreme legislator, he is to be the rule of his own actions. It follows there- fore that the law of nature is the same thing as the Eternal Law, implanted in rational creatures, and in- clining them to their right action and end; and can be nothing else but the eternal reason of God, the Creator and Ruler of all the world. "To this rule of action and restraint of evil God has vouchsafed to give special and most suitable aids for strengthening and ordering the human will. The first and most excellent of these is the power of His divine grace, whereby the mind can be enlightened and the will wholesomely invigorated and moved to the constant pursuit of moral good, so that the use of our inborn liberty becomes at once less difficult and less dangerous. Not that the divine assistance hin- THE ETERNAL LAW ders in any way the free movement of our will; just the contrary, for grace works inwardly in man and in harmony with his natural inclinations, since it flows from the very Creator of his mind and will, by whom all things are moved in conformity with their nature. As the Angelic Doctor points out, it is be- cause divine grace comes from the Author of nature, that it is so admirably adapted to be the safeguard of all natures, and to maintain the character, efficiency, and operations of each. "What has been said of the liberty of individuals is no less applicable to them when considered as bound together in civil society. For, what reason and the Natural Law do for individuals, that human law, pro- mulgated for their good, does for the citizens of States. Of the laws enacted by men, some are con- cerned with what is good or bad by its very nature; and they command men to follow after what is right and to shun what is wrong, adding at the same time a suitable sanction. But such laws by no means de- rive their origin from civil society; because just as civil society did not create human nature, so neither can it be said to be the author of the good which be- fits human nature, or of the evil which is contrary to it. "Laws come before men live together in society, and have their origin in the Natural, and consequently in the Eternal, Law. The precepts, therefore, of the Natural Law, contained bodily in the laws of men, have not merely the force of human law, but they possess that higher and Tmore august sanction which belongs to the law of nature and the Eternal Law. And within the sphere of this kind of laws, the duty of the civil legislator is, mainly, to keep the commun- NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS ity in obedience by the adoption of a common disci- pline and by putting restraint upon refractory and viciously inclined men, so that, deterred from evil, they may turn to what is good, or at any rate may avoid causing trouble and disturbance to the State. "Now there are other enactments of the civil author- ity, which do not follow directly, but somewhat re- motely, from the Natural Law, and decide many points which the law of nature treats only in a gen- eral and indefinite way. For instance, though nature commands all to contribute to the public peace and prosperity, still whatever belongs to the manner and circumstances, and conditions under which such service is to be rendered must be determined by the wisdom of men and not by Nature herself. It is in the constitution of these particular rules of life, sug- gested by reason and prudence, and put forth by competent authority, that human law, properly so called, consists, binding all citizens to work together for the attainment of the common end proposed to the community, and forbidding them to depart from this end; and in so far as human law is in conformity with the dictates of nature, leading to what is good, and deterring from evil. "From this it is manifest that the Eternal Law of God is the sole standard and rule of human liberty, not only in each individual man, but also in the com- munity and civil society which men constitute when united. Therefore, the true liberty of human society does not consist in every man doing what he pleases, for this would simply end in turmoil and confusion, and bring on the overthrow of the State; but rather in this, that through the injunctions of the civil law all may more easily conform to the prescriptions of the Eternal Law. THE ETERNAL LAW "Moreover, the highest duty is to respect authority, and obediently to submit to just law; and by this the members of a community are effectually protected from the wrongdoing of evil men. Lawful power is from God, 'and whosoever resisteth authority resist- eth the ordinance of God'; wherefore obedience is greatly ennobled when subjected to an authority which is the most just and supreme of all. But where the power to command is wanting, or where a law is enacted contrary to reason, or to the Eternal Law, or to some ordinance of God, obedience is unlawful, lest, while obeying man, we become disobedient to God. Thus, an effectual barrier being opposed to tyranny, the authority in the State will not have all its own way, but the interests and rights of all will be safe- guarded-the rights of individuals, of domestic soci- ety, and of all the members of the commonwealth; all being free to live according to law and right rea- son; and in this, as We have shown, true liberty really consists." 15 IV. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ETERNAL LAW AND CREATION St. Thomas explains the relationship that exists be- tween the Eternal Law and all creation in such a brief and illuminating way that we can best borrow a few of his unforgettable thoughts. "Since all things subject to Divine Providence are ruled and measured by the Eternal Law, it is evident that all things partake in some way in the same Eter- nal Law, in so far as, namely, from its being imprint- 15 Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, "Libertas Praestantissimum," June 20, 1888, The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, (New York, Ben- ziger Brothers, 1903), 139-144. 124 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS ed on them, they derive their respective inclinations to their proper actions and ends. "Now among all others, the rational creature is sub- ject to Divine Providence in a more excellent way, in so far as it itself partakes of a share of Providence, by being provident both for itself and for others. Therefore, it has a share of the eternal reason.... "The light of natural reason, whereby we discern what is good and what is evil, which is the proper function of the Natural Law, is nothing else than an imprint on us of Divine Light. It is, therefore, evi- dent that the Natural Law is nothing else than the rational creature's sharing in the Eternal Law .... -16 In view of the intimate relationship that exists between God and law, we can readily understand why peoples and nations begin to ridicule and to reject law, and particular- ly the Natural and Eternal Law, precisely in the measure in which they cease to believe in Christ, as God. This is just another reason, it appears, why we Americans of the present generation have the special and personal respon- sibility to warn the skeptics, as well as the uninformed, that it is a law of life, as proved by history, that the "Nat- ural, as well as the Eternal, Law invariably buries its undertakers." As some of you perhaps recall, in 1925, Theodore Dreiser wrote his American Tragedy. Unfortunately, he himself proved to be a living embodiment of the great American tragedy, by cutting himself off from the religion and beliefs of his childhood. As a result, he was a sad, 16 St. Thomas, Summa, I, Quest. 91, Art. 2. THE ETERNAL LAW discontented, bewildered man in the last years of his life. In his book, The Stoic, he wrote this haunting lament: - "Chronically nebulous, doubting, uncertain, I stared at everything, only wondering, not solving." During the past twenty-five years a great deal of Amer- ican law, American jurisprudence, and American legal writings have become chronically nebulous, doubting, un- certain, staring at everything, only wondering, not solving. Unless we return to the true understanding of law, the future will be one of chagrin, of bewilderment, of tragedy. Ours is the privilege, ours is the heritage, ours is the sa- cred personal duty "to restore all things under the Head- ship of Christ," the Universal Lawgiver.' 7 Can any legal system long survive, when it is being ceaselessly and systematically assailed by myriads of soph- istries, erroneous juristic concepts, by the pragmatism of an omnicompetent State, by the naturalism of a Dewey, the sociological jurisprudence of a Pound, the scoffing skepticism of a Holmes, the relativism of a Cardozo, the positivism of a Hohfeld, the functionalism of a Cohen, the symbolism of an Arnold, the realism of a Llewellyn, or the utilitarianism of a Frankfurter? 18 Such bewildering sys- tems-most of them godless-of law and of jurisprudence have become a definite menace to our American Law and legal thought. Under the very aegis of the Goddess of 17 St. Paul, Epistle to the Ephesian,, 1, 10. 18 Geoffrey OConnell, Naturalism ir. American Education, (New York, 1938); Man and Modern Secularism, Essays on the Conflict of the Two Cultures, (New York, 1940); M. T. Rooney, Lawlessness, Law, and Sanc- tion, (Washington, 1937), "Relativism in American Law," Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, 1945, "Mr. Justice Car- dozo's Relativism," The New Scholasticism, XIX (1945), 1-45. NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS both national and personal, by its dictates. This will require, moreover, correcting not a few aberrations. Social injustices, racial injustices and religious ani- mosities exist today among men and groups who boast of Christian civilization, and they are a very useful and often effective weapon in the hands of those who are bent on destroying all the good which that civilization has brought to man. It is for all sincere lovers of the great human family to unite in wresting those weapons from hostile hands. With that union will come hope that the enemies of God and free men will not prevail. "Certainly Your Excellency and all defenders of the rights of the human person will find whole-hearted cooperation from God's Church. Faithful custodian of eternal Truth and loving mother of all, from her foundation almost two thousand years ago, she has championed the individual against despotic rule, the labouring-man against oppression, Religion against persecution. Her divinely-given mission often brings her into conflict with the powers of evil, whose sole strength is in their physical force and brutalized spirit, and her leaders are sent into exile or cast into prison or die under torture. "This is history of today. But the Church is unafraid. She cannot compromise with an avowed enemy of God. She must continue to teach the first and great- est commandment incumbent on every man: 'thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, with all thy strength,' and the second like unto the first: 'thou shalt love thy neigh- bor as thyself.' It is her changeless message, that man's first duty is to God, then to his fellow-man; that that man serves his country best who serves his THE ETERNAL LAW God most faithfully; that the country that would shackle the word of God given to men through Jesus Christ helps not at all the lasting peace of the world. In striving with all the resources at her power to bring men and nations to a clear realization of their duty to God, the Church will go on as she has always done, to offer the most effective contribution to the world's peace and man's eternal salvation. "We are pleased that the letter of Your Excellency has given Us the opportunity of saying a word of en- couragement for all those who are gravely intent on buttressing the fragile structure of peace until its foundation can be more firmly and wisely established. The munificent charity shown by the American peo- ple to the suffering and oppressed in every part of the world, truly worthy of the finest Christian tradi- tions, is a fair token of their sincere desire for univer- sal peace and prosperity. The vast majority of the peoples of the world, We feel sure, share that desire, even in countries where free expression is smothered. God grant their forces may be united towards its re- alization. There is no room for discouragement or for relaxing of their efforts. Under the gracious and merciful providence of God, the Father of all, what is good and holy and just will in the end prevail." 21 V. REASONS FOR THE NEED OF A DIVINE ETERNAL LAW Lawyers who are not truly versed in the history and philosophy of law sometimes ask why there should be any 21 A.A.S. XXXIX (1947), 380-382. 130 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS need of a Divine Eternal Law in addition to the Natural Law and Human Laws.2 2 We need but enumerate a few reasons. First of all, man is directed to perform his proper actions in view of the final purpose of his existence. If man were destined only to a purely natural end, then there would be no need for any further direction on the part of his reason in addition to the Natural Law and Human Law. However, since man is destined to an end of eternal happiness, which far transcends man's natural ability, it is necessary that he should be guided by a God- given law. We know that by the Natural Law, the Eter- nal Law is participated proportionately to the capacity of human nature. Man, however, needs a higher way in which to be directed to his supernatural end. For this reason God gives an additional law to man, whereby he shares more perfectly in the Eternal Law. The second reason for the Divine Eternal Law is that different people form diverse judgments on human actions, especially when dealing with contingent and ab- struse matters. This is due principally to the instability and uncertainty of human judgment, from which would result divergent and even contrary laws. "Men's judgments, like their watches: None goes just alike, But each believes his own." Wherefore, in order that man may clearly know, without any doubt, what he ought to do and what to avoid, it was necessary for him to be directed in his proper actions by 22 St. Thomas, Summa, 1-II, Quest. 91, Art. 4. THE ETERNAL LAW Since the Eternal Law is that supreme and exalted plan of government existing in God Himself, the Supreme Legislator, all plans of government on inferior planes are derived from the Eternal Law. Hence it is that all laws, in so far as they partake of right reason, are derived from the Eternal Law. In other words, all that is just and law- ful in temporal laws is derived from the Eternal Law.27 In the Morgan Library on Madison Avenue in New York City, there is an interesting, illuminated Manuscript of the fourteenth century, from the University of Bologna. The Manuscript is a treatise on law. An artist of con- summate ability has embellished the parchment at the beginning of the text with a painting of the Almighty Father, seated, as it were, in a medieval Court Room, with the Divine Son and the Holy Ghost, surrounded, in turn, by innumerable Angels, the Apostles and the heav- enly Court, despatching two Archangels to earth. One Archangel presents to a king the book of law for all tem- poral kingdoms. The second Archangel offers to a Pope a similar volume, containing the laws of the Church. It was in this beautiful and simple way, that both the medi- eval artist and jurist understood, depicted and described the derivation of all law from the Eternal Law of God. VIII. OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE ETERNAL LAW An objection that is sometimes made to the notion of an Eternal Law is that a person cannot possibly be obli- gated by a law about which he knows nothing. And we 27 St. Thomas, Summa, Quest. 93, Art. 3. 134 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS realize that there are many people, even lawyers, they tell us, who profess to know little or nothing about the Eternal Law. Fortunately, St. Thomas answers this objection in a masterly way: - "A thing may be known in two ways: first in itself; secondly, in its effects, in which some likeness of that thing is found. For instance, someone, not seeing the sun in its substance, may know it, by its rays. Hence, we must admit that no one can know the Eternal Law, as it is in itself, except God and the Blessed who see God in His essence." 28 Every rational creature, however, knows the Eternal Law according to some reflection, in a greater or lesser degree. Knowledge of truth is a kind of reflection and sharing of the Eternal Law, which is unchangeable truth, as St. Augustine tells us.29 Now all men know the truth in a certain measure, at least, as to the common principles of the Natural Law. As to the other truths, they partake of the knowledge of truth, some more, some less. And in this respect they know the Eternal Law in a greater or lesser degree. IX. THE ETERNAL LAW KNOWN THROUGH THE NATURAL LAW The Eternal Law is known to us through the Natural Law, but is nonetheless prior to every other law, to Natu- ral Law, as well as to all Human Law. Furthermore, it is the very basis and source of every other law. 28 St. Thomas, Summa, 1-11, Quest. 93, Art. 2. 29 De Vera Religion*, XXXI, PL 34, 147. THE ETERNAL LAW The Eternal Law existed in God before the created world existed, just as the architect's plan preceded the construction of the Empire State Building. This same Eternal Law was even promulgated before the world ap- peared, despite the fact that its promulgation was not received until creatures existed. X. THE PROMULGATION OF THE ETERNAL LAW In view of what has just been stated, it may well be objected that any law is meaningless, which is enacted or promulgated before the very existence of the subjects for whom it is intended. Now we know that the Eternal Law, destined for the created world, existed before the creation of mankind. If the Eternal Law had been intended only as a mere means to creatures, then it would indeed have been ab- surd to promulgate it to nonexistent creatures. But the Eternal Law, as we have seen, is not merely and solely a means to something beyond itself. Like the Natural Law, the Eternal Law has the character of a directing princi- ple, in itself. It directs things to their proper end. It is the Wisdom of God Himself, Who is the Creator and Su- preme Legislator of mankind. 30 It is obvious that the Eternal Law did not produce its effects until the world existed and until the conditions of its fulfillment were realized. But since the Eternal Law is not distinct from God Himself, it had attained its end, 30 St. Thomas, Summa, I-II, Quest. 90, Art. 4; Quest. 93, Art. 2. 138 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS nal Law. What does follow, is rather that it is not on a perfect equality with it." 34 From this we clearly discern why Pope Pius XI stated that: "The Church teaches-since she alone has been given by God the mandate and the right to teach with authority-that not only our acts, as individuals, but as groups and Nations, must conform to the Eter- nal Law of God. In fact, it is much more important that the acts of a Nation follow God's law, since on the Nation rests a much greater responsibility for the consequence of its acts, than on the individual." 35 XIII. ENDURING STABILITY OF CHANGELESS PRINCIPLES OF LAW Since all true law emanates in some way from the Divine Authority of the Eternal Law we see how lament- able are the errors of those moderns who seem to think that everything in this world is in a perpetual and planless state of ever-shifting mutation, like the sand dunes of In- diana. Only a few months ago, in fact, on April thirtieth of this year, a District Judge of New Jersey wrote these words in his opinion: "As we have seen, the generally accepted rules of morality or ethics fluctuate in each era and the best we can do with the subject is to apply the generally accepted rules of our own day." 36 34 St. Thomas, Summa, I-II, Quest. 93, Art. 3, ad 3. 35 Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, "Ubi Arcano Dei," A.A.S. XIV (1922), 689. 36 Petition of Smith, 71 Fed. Supp. 972 (D. N. J. 1947). THE ETERNAL LAW This type of error is one of the saddest commentaries on the status of our legal thinking of today. As a result, our present-day judicial opinions and our legal writings are, in large measure, a curious admixture of errors, platitudes, sophisms and half-truths. Speaking of half-truths, we are reminded of what Stephan Leacock once said about them: "Half-truths, like half-bricks, are more dangerous than whole ones: they go further." As we envision the future of American legal thinking, it is not the persecution of the concentration camp, nor even the execution in the prison-yard, that is to be feared, but rather the imperceptible corruption of the American legal mind by the insidious Trojan-horse system of infiltration of false principles. This precisely is the most alarming attack on our American thinking at the present time. Legal thought in America is entering upon a new era. The age of confused paganism opposing Christianity is more or less at an end. The Christian legal system, as a system of values and moral standards is being attacked, or more correctly, is being betrayed, more insidiously than ever before, perhaps, in the history of mankind. The persuasive infiltration of a de-Christianized, god- less, and even anti-God system of law converging on the Christian citadel of truth from all sides, mocking its mo- rality and ridiculing its basic principles even of the Divine Eternal Law, calls for the defence, not only of heroic wills, but of sturdy, enlightened legal minds, firmly grounded in the abiding principles of eternal truth. Today as never 140 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS before in the history of American law, a veritable Niagara of high-sounding legal terms, of catch-words, of cliches, of dithyrambic verbiage, of what the men in service con- temptuously called "Gobbledygook," tumbles from the legal printing presses, in a tiresome cascade of ceaseless repetition, and thus seeks to conceal in meaningless phrases, the shallowness and poverty of thought, charac- teristic of an age that has lost its grip on God.3 7 XIV. THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF ALL THINGS UNDER THE HEADSHIP OF CHRIST In conclusion, may we be permitted to remind you that imbedded in the wall overlooking the Main Entrance of the Library of this College of Law is a beautiful plaque, chiseled from infrangible stone, of Christ, the King, the Author of the Eternal Law and the Legislator of a true, everlasting Kingdom. As we view this statue of a Divine King and Supreme Lawgiver let us not forget that the first struggle recorded in all history, was that of a battle in Heaven over a law and over a Kingdom, that is, the Kingdom of Christ, the Author of the Divine Eternal Law, against the lawless, arrogant, war-mongering, rebel kingdom of Satan. May one of the blessed results of this Natural Law In- stitute be that America and the world may more and more 37 Two volumes issued in recent years exemplify the sad state of Ameri- can legal writing at the present time. A curious commixture of erroneous expressions, ponderous platitudes, sophisms and half-truths will be found, in large measure, in: My Philosophy of Law, Credos of Sixteen American Scholars, (Boston, 1941), and Interpretations of Modern Legal Philosophies, Essays in Honor of Roscoe Pound, (New York, 1947).