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"The truth will make you free." (John 8, 32) Some thoughts on he occasion of the Church in this year 2018 commemorating 50 years of the (1968) and 25 years (1993)

I was asked to share with you some thoughts on the occasion of the Church in this year commemorating 50 years Humanae Vitae and 25 years Veritatis Splendor. For most of you these texts mean history of the Church! At the time of Humanae Vitae, my theological thought was not yet very developed... But I remember very well the publication of Veritatis Splendor. One year before, during my theological studies, I had a course from professor Eijk – he is now the Cardinal Archbishop of Utrecht in the Netherlands – on moral issues. And when I read for the first time Veritatis Splendor I had the impression to hear again what I heard one year before... Clearly there was a common source: the Belgian dominican father Servais Pinckaers... And I saw the beautiful unity and complementarity in the Church between theology and ... A document of the Church may contain some new aspects, some precisions, but ought to be read in the whole of the teaching of the Church and in the Tradition of the Church. You know of course saint Vincent of Lerins, churchfather of the first half of the fifth century. He wrote in his work Commonitorium (Chapter 23): “But some one will say, perhaps, Shall there, then, be no progress in Christ's Church? Certainly; all possible progress. (...) But yet only in its own kind; that is to say, in the same doctrine, in the same sense, and in the same meaning.” (in eodem scilicet dogmate, eodem sensu eademque sententia) Saint Paul already said: “I appeal to you, brethren; by the name or our Lord Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same judgement.” (1 Cor 1, 10) My purpose is not to summarize for you both these documents. You already read them or you will read them, and it is more conform with the method used in the ITI to read the texts self. My purpose is rather to give a perspective to integrate these documents in your faith, in your academic life and more generally in your Christian life. You know that the documents of the Church are named with the two or three first words of the Latin text. These words are carefully chosen so that with these few words we already can know what the text is dealing with. Very interesting is that in both these documents these words do not refer immediately to the order of faith, but to the order of nature, the order of Creation: Humanae Vitae, i.e. Human Life; Veritatis Splendor, i.e. the Splendor of the Truth. And indeed in both the cases we deal with the most fundamental realities: human life, truth. Human life is the truth of man; truth is the life of

Fr. Jean-Yves Brachet OP – 1 – Humane Vitae and Veritatis Splendor man. We will surely not make God greater if we diminish what is human! The first way to know God is to recognize the world – and especially man – as his Creation. We read already in the Old Testament (The Wisdom of Salomon): “For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.” (Wis 13, 5) And you know the following passage of the letter to the Romans: “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.” (Rom 1, 20) Humanae Vitae and Veritatis Splendor, are documents helping us to know the truth about man. In his first Encyclical, , John Paul II wrote:

It was precisely this man in all the truth of his life, in his , in his continual inclination to sin and at the same time in his continual aspiration to truth, the good, the beautiful, justice and love that the had before its eyes when, in outlining his situation in the modern world, it always passed from the external elements of this situation to the truth within humanity: “In man himself many elements wrestle with one another. Thus, on the one hand, as a creature he experiences his limitations in a multitude of ways. On the other, he feels himself to be boundless in his desires and summoned to a higher life. Pulled by manifold attractions, he is constantly forced to choose among them and to renounce some. Indeed, as a weak and sinful being, he often does what he would not, and fails to do what he would. Hence he suffers from internal divisions, and from these flow so many and such great discords in society.” (Vatican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 10: AAS 58 ( 1966) 1032). (Redemptor Hominis, 14)

It remains true, that it is necessary to really know what man is, in his most profound reality, in its truth, but also in his condition of sinner. The discovering of the profound reality of man leads to the discovering of God and the discovering of God leads to a better understanding of man. Or, in other words, an error about man leads to errors about God, and an error about God leads to errors about man. Jesus said in a very short statement: “Truth will make you free” (John 8, 32) It is quite simple, but at the same time difficult to understand well, because men of this time (thus we) do not understand but only with difficulty what truth is and what freedom is. In a sense this is not really new: the first sin was already against truth and against the real freedom of man! In his Commentary on the Gospel of saint John, saint Thomas Aquinas writes:

Yet the greatest things is the acquisition of freedom, which the knowledge of the truth produces in those who believe. Thus he says, and the truth will make you free. In this context, to free does not mean a release from some confinement, as the Latin language suggests, but rather a being made free; and this is from three things. The truth of this doctrine will free us from the error of falsity: “My mouth will speak the truth; my lips will hate wickedness” (Prov 8:7). The truth of grace will free us from the slavery to sin: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and of death” (Rom 8:2). And the truth of eternity, in Christ Jesus, will free us from corruption: “The creature will be freed from its slavery to corruption” (Rom 8:21). (Commentary on John, VIII, lect. 4, 1199)

Fr. Jean-Yves Brachet OP – 2 – Humane Vitae and Veritatis Splendor

The error of falsity concerns the intellect, the error of sin concerns the will, and the error of corruption concerns the whole man and his end: eternal life. Interesting is that the first error mentioned by Saint Thomas is the error concerning truth. Pope John Paul II is aware of this order when he begins his encyclical about moral life with this word “truth”! The most fundamental errors do not concern the moral, but the truth. Moral errors are a consequence. It is also important to mention, that for Christ (cf. John 3, 21) the truth is not only to be known (and to be said) but also to be done. And we have a fundamental example of this with Humanae Vitae; truth about human life and its transmission has to be done. And it has to be done in order to avoid the error of corruption. The way of man is a way in which the mercy of God is absolutely necessary, but this is a way based on the truth and a way which leads to eternal life. On this way cooperation of man is needed: this is a human way. Pope Francis in his exhortation insists on the necessity of accompaniment and mercy on this way, not forgetting that the basis is the truth about man and the universal vocation to go to eternal life. This way to eternal life is not only a personal way but also a common way. The first community in the Bible, which is also the most fundamental community in the society is this “intimate community of life and love” which “has been established by the Creator and qualified by its own laws, and is rooted in the conjugal covenant of irrevocable personal consent.” (Gaudium et Spes, 48) The basic truth of this conjugal life is presented in Humanae Vitae, while Veritatis Splendor analizes this way based on truth known in conscience: “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?” (Mt 19, 16; cf. Veritatis Splendor, 6) The Encyclical Veritatis Splendor begins with and is a commentary of this question, Humanae Vitae gave already the answer concerning matrimonial life in its purpose of transmitting life. All this corresponds with the first words of the Encyclical Veritatis Splendor:

The splendour of truth shines forth in all the works of the Creator and, in a special way, in man, created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26). Truth enlightens man's intelligence and shapes his freedom, leading him to know and love the Lord. Hence the Psalmist prays: “Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord!” (Ps 4:6)

It corresponds also with the first words of the Encyclical Humane Vitae:

The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. It has always been a source of great joy to them, even though it sometimes entails many difficulties and hardships.

Before asking “what is truth?” Pilate would have been well inspired to create copyright... The notion of truth is surely difficult to use, but we may not renounce! Those who say that there is no absolute truth (for instance, Montesquieu (1689-1755) said: “Vérité dans un temps, erreur dans un autre” / “truth in one time, error in another!”) make first of all a simple but fundamental fault of logic: indeed, if there is no absolute truth, thus the affirmation that there is no absolute truth is also not an absolute truth! This works directly against the principle of no- contradiction! This is also a metaphysical error in as far as it denies the priority of being and the priority of act on potency! It does surely not mean that finding truth is easy, but it does also not

Fr. Jean-Yves Brachet OP – 3 – Humane Vitae and Veritatis Splendor mean that this is impossible. We are here in order to know better the truth. And do not forget, that before proclaiming and defending the truth, this is the truth which will defend you! I would like to emphasize here that there is no opposition between truth and mercy, between the necessity to discover the objective truth and the importance to be merciful and to accompany step by step to the fullness of truth. The first truth is that God is mercy. And the first mercy is to proclaim the truth. Presenting the truth without mercy can be very hard and insupportable and does not really help, but pretending to be merciful without the truth is a dangerous illusion with does not make free, but rather enclose the person in the error. Without any truth, there is no basis for mercy. I would like now to try to read in perspective the Humanae Vitae and Veritatis Splendor and the Amoris Laetitia. First of all, it seems to me that there is a clear continuity between these texts and that it is necessary to read them in the right order (Also the chronological order of the documents can be attributed to the fact that the Holy Spirit is leading the Church). In 1968 pope Paul VI published Humanae Vitae. In this encyclical the pope does not only present the question of contraception: this would be a very reductive way of reading and understanding the text. “The question of human procreation, like every other question which touches human life, involves more than the limited aspects specific to such disciplines as biology, psychology, demography or sociology. It is the whole man and the whole mission to which he is called that must be considered: both its natural, earthly aspects and its supernatural, eternal aspects.” (Humanae Vitae, 7) In this sense the pope gives “the characteristic features and exigencies of married love” (HV, 8): (1) fully human, (2) total, (3) faithful and exclusive of all other, and this until death, and (4) fecund. Again, my purpose is here not to develop each of these characteristics, but there is clearly in Humane vitae a vision about marriage and family which finds its foundation in the Bible, especially in the first two chapters of the book Genesis. Twenty five years later, in 1993, pope John Paul II published the encyclical Veritatis Splendor in which he insists on the truth as the basis of moral life and on the place of the conscience. The relation between objective truth and conscience is probably one of the most important teaching of Veritatis Splendor. If we try to summarize this doctrine, we can say the following: - Intrinsic evil exists: i.e. there are some actions which are always morally evil independent on the circumstances and whatever the intention may be. Nothing and no one can make these actions morally acceptable. - One may not act against his conscience: the conscience – or the reason – is, to say it with the words of Saint Thomas, the proximate measure of the morality of the act, but not the first measure, the first measure being the eternal law or, which is the same, the objective reality of the created world. (Summa Theologiae, IaIIae, q. 19) - A distorsion can exist between the judgement of the conscience and the eternal law. An error of the conscience does not always excuse, but it can happen that an objective fault is not a subjective sin. For this reason one ought to form his conscience. In March 2016 pope Francis published the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia in which he insists on the necessity to meet the persons where they are (not where we think they are, also not where they think they are, not where they ought to be or could be, or where we wish them to be…), to discern the truth existing in their situations – which also means to discern what is not true! – and to lead these persons step by step till the fullness of the truth. The order between these three texts clearly shows the impossibility to emphasize the

Fr. Jean-Yves Brachet OP – 4 – Humane Vitae and Veritatis Splendor necessity of a merciful pastoral approach without seeing well the place of the conscience, and also the impossibility to really see the place of the conscience without knowing the truth about man, i.e. the intention of the Creator. The pastoral accompaniment of persons in questions regarding the transmission of life (in the light of Amoris Laetitia), requires a clear theological approach of the question about conscience (cf. Veritatis Splendor), and requires first of all to know the truth about conjugal love and transmission of life, as given in Humanae Vitae. Reading Humanae Vitae is not an archaeological activity, but a necessity, also for being really merciful in a pastoral approach. In that sense, the truth does not consist only in the knowledge of the teaching of the Church, but also in transmitting this knowledge and in the way of transmitting it. The mercy consists in transmitting this truth in such a way that the person may discover what is really good, what is really helpful, what can really lead to true happiness. For this, study is required. “Truth will make you free!” Study in truth, in and with the Church, will make us free from misunderstandings, will make the others free from our limits. The fact that in this year the Church is commemorating 50 years Humanae Vitae and 25 years Veritatis Splendor is a unique opportunity for all of us to re-read these texts and to reflect on them first of all to know better the truth about man in his personal vocation but also as married person, cooperating with God in transmission of life, to reflect on them also to be able to live according with this truth, with the help of the grace, and then to transmit this truth to others.

Fr. Jean-Yves Brachet OP – 5 – Humane Vitae and Veritatis Splendor