“The natural law, present in the heart of each man and established by reason, is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all men.”1 This truth that has existed through centuries and cultures, is itself a testament to, and an argument for man’s desire for God. C. S. Lewis once wrote, “A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”2 This is our nature, even our purpose. From a young age we are attracted to the wonder of the world and all of it’s beauty and goodness. “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself.”3
This inherent knowledge of right and wrong is the foundation of our ethics and morality, confirmed by The Ten Commandments and the words of The Lord, Jesus Christ. No amount of modern moral relativism can ever change what we are born knowing to be true. We know that abortion is wrong regardless of circumstance because we are commanded not to kill. We are assured it is wrong to have an affair because we must not commit adultery. When we are a witness to these acts, they offend us. Not only because of our religious conviction, but something in our very nature that tells us that something is simply wrong.
Today’s world would try and have you believe that no such thing exists as the Natural Law. This must be the case if we are to comfortably live in a common manner, especially in the USA. This idea of right and wrong has been shoved down to the lowest depth of the person’s conscious, where it is barely noticeable. Pascal commented on this burial of the Natural Law, “There are no doubt natural laws, but fair reason once corrupted has corrupted all.”4 The Catholic in the western world is presented with two options: Submit to moral relativism and become loved by this world at the cost of our soul, or push back against what we know to be false regardless of the consequences. We all know the correct answer to this dilemma and can take comfort in the words of Christ himself when he says to us, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”5
1The Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Double Day, 2003), 1956.
2 C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Collins, 2012), 136-137.
3The Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Double Day, 2003), 27.
4 Blaise Pascal, Pensées (New York: Penguin, 1995), Section 5.
5 John 15:18 RSVCE