|
| |
Alphonsus Liguori - Doctor of the Church
Bernard Häring, C.Ss.R.
Alphonsus
was declared a Doctor of the Church primarily because of the significant impact
he had on moral theology. His role in the renewal of moral theology can be
evaluated only in the context of the battles that raged between various kinds of
rigorism and legalism. Alphonsus became a tenacious champion in favor of
conscience, rejecting the devastating theories that prevailed during his time.
Jansenists and other rigorists
preached a religion of fear and anguish, while legalists overburdened Christians
with many strictures and outdated laws. I came to understand Alphonsus only
after I read the four books in which he defends himself against his
detractors—men who evidently believed more in law and control than in creative
liberty. How passionately he defends the redeeming love of God against these
narrow-minded rigorists! He asks: Did God create a system of law that must be
obeyed in servile anguish? No! God creates human beings out of his own love and
freedom. Therefore, law and the threat of punishment cannot be foremost in God's
plan. In God, the Creator, love and freedom coincide. In God's plan of creation
and salvation, the indivisible call to love and to freedom is to be cherished.
REDEEMED AND REDEEMING LOVE
In his moral theology and pastoral care, Alphonsus draws his conclusions from
the primacy of love and liberty. One conclusion says: Where there is a concrete
doubt about the existence or application of a law or prohibition, freedom is
always "in possession." The main purpose of the God-given liberty cannot be the
observance of laws but a creative response of love to God and neighbor. Creative
and faithful love is immensely greater than that of laws.
From his own pastoral experience, Alphonsus knew that overburdening people's
conscience with laws, especially if these laws were arbitrary, suffocated the
creativity of love and freedom and caused anguish. Most of the good that
Christians do is neither regulated nor imposed by law but is inspired by
spontaneous and creative love. Therefore, the core of Alphonsian moral teaching
is the ability to discern what is true love, genuine redeemed and redeeming
love. Alphonsus best expresses this in his small book The Praxis of Love, which
he considered not only his most pious but also his best writing.
Alphonsus writes from personal experience. He had only gradually been liberated
and healed from his early experience of rigoristic teaching that he had received
while preparing for the priesthood. As a friend of the poor and the outcast, he
could fill their hearts with this good news, becoming for many a healer of
anguish.
Learning to always give primacy in his pastoral care to the good news of
liberating and healing love had taught Alphonsus to test all laws and norms to
see whether they truly served the cause of creative and faithful love. Time and
again, his opponents accused him of opening doors to arbitrariness and unbridled
egotism. All of his responses reflect his firm conviction that the love of God
is poured out into the hearts of the faithful. He adored the Holy Spirit, who
endows even the most simple person with the gift of wisdom and discernment. He
became ever more a master of the Pauline paraklesis, sharing
hope-inspired encouragement that is based upon the love and grace of God poured
out into the hearts of the humble by the Holy Spirit.
EMPHASIS ON CONSCIENCE
Against legalistic moralism, Alphonsus sets a well-elaborated doctrine on the
primacy of conscience. His great work on moral theology (Moral Theology) shares
some deficiencies of the period. But his unique and lasting contribution is the
role he gives to conscience and the care with which he describes the dynamics of
a sound conscience.
Two distinct traits of Alphonsian moral theology are the great reverence he
accords each person's conscience and the equally strong appeal to each
individual to form a mature conscience. For Alphonsus, the latter does not mean
an insistence on the minute details of all possible moral norms and prescripts.
Without neglecting the role of norms and laws in Christian life—always, of
course, in the light of true love—his main emphasis is on the upright
conscience: the individual's search for the meaning of genuine love and for its
implications for the good of each person and of the community. Formation of
conscience centers on the ability to discern what furthers or hinders the growth
of true love. Formation of conscience coincides with the formation of character
and an ever more committed choice to love Jesus, joining him in his loving
concern for others. Favoring the preeminence of conscience and inner freedom
over an anguishing rigorism and legalism is the hallmark of Alphonsian moral
teaching.
It is significant that two Redemptorists (Father Domenico Capone and I) drafted
the final wording of the article on conscience in the Pastoral Constitution on
the Church in the Modern World. I believe that this text accurately summarizes
the Alphonsian vision on conscience:
"Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law which he has not laid upon
himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do
what is good and to avoid evil, tells him inwardly at the right moment: do this,
shun that. For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. His dignity lies in
observing this law, and by it he will be judged (see Rom 2:15-16). His
conscience is man's most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with
God whose voice echoes in his depths. By conscience, in a wonderful way, that
law is made known which is fulfilled in the love of God and of one's neighbor
(see Mt 22:37-40; Gal 5:14). Through loyalty to conscience Christians are joined
to other men in the search for truth and for the right solution to so many moral
problems which arise both in the life of individuals and from social
relationships. Hence, the more a correct conscience prevails, the more do
persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by the
objective standards of moral conduct. Yet it often happens that conscience goes
astray through ignorance which it is unable to avoid, without thereby losing its
dignity. This cannot be said of the man who takes little trouble to find out
what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through
the habit of committing sin" (16).
The merit of this truly Alphonsian text becomes even more evident if you read
previous formulations written by those from a more legal-minded tradition.
Alphonsus and his followers in moral theology fought difficult battles to
sustain this vision, supported by other great men such as Cardinal John Henry
Newman.
It is gratifying to recognize in these battles for the preeminence of
con-science over law and control not only Alphonsus' skills as an outstanding
lawyer but his thoroughly pastoral approach as well. He was a bold advocate of
the upright and sincere conscience.
ABIDING CONCERNS
We need to be aware that the moral theology of Alphonsus reflects to some degree
the influences of his time. Alphonsus had to work, think, and write within the
context of his culture and, as far as possible, in accordance with the Church of
his time. Even so, Alphonsus was ahead of his time in his teachings on several
controversial issues. I mention here two examples: his stand on usury and on
marital chastity regarding the transmission of life, where he had to fight not
only stubborn rigorists but longstanding tradition as well.
His stance—vehemently labeled as laxism—was, in reality, rooted in Alphonsus'
emphasis on the universal vocation to holiness. Many people in those days
identified holiness with belonging to the so-called "states of perfection" and
with scrupulous observance of rigoristic norms (usually of prohibitive
character). Alphonsus, on the contrary, firmly believed that God calls each of
us, married people as well as celibates, business people as well as cloistered
nuns, to Christian holiness that integrates love of God and love of neighbor.
USURY
In Alphonsus' time, borrowing or lending money with interest was labeled and
condemned as usury. Traditional rules did not allow any exceptions, which
alerted the pastoral concern of Alphonsus. How could people whose economic
status forced them to borrow or lend money with interest fulfill their vocation
to holiness? The solution had to be in accordance with the vocation of all to
holiness. Looking to Tradition and church documents with little success, he
turned to the example of good Christians. He found that many of them had good
reasons and felt free to lend or to borrow capital with interest. He finally
trusted in the experience of these good people and determined that there were
occasions when taking or granting loans with moderate interest should be
allowed. This decision provoked wild protest from numerous moralists and other
churchmen, but Alphonsus was finally able to convince Pope Benedict XIV.
THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE
When Alphonsus first became a moral theologian, the Augustinian view of marriage
and marital chastity was commonly held: conjugal inter-course could be "excused"
from sin only when motivated by the intention to transmit new life. In this
matter, Alphonsus was particularly daring. He wrote that "with all respect for
Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas," it has to be affirmed that the
conjugal act, when manifesting conjugal love and faithfulness, needs no "excusation"
by a direct intention to procreate new life. And he sharply concluded: "And this
is a matter of faith—Et hoc est de fide" (Moral Theology).
CONCLUSION
Many issues mentioned in this article manifest clearly why Alphonsus is known
for his courageous stand against rigorism and legalism. For him, this was
nothing less than removing unnecessary obstacles on the road to holiness. He
didn't stop, however, at just removing obstacles; his strongest characteristic
was in giving positive encouragement. Through his wisdom and enthusiasm, he
could somehow "contaminate" people with his own firm conviction that all are
called to nothing less than holiness. Its origin is God's love, its road is
love, its final goal and fulfillment are everlasting love.
Bernard Haring, C.Ss.R., a
renowned moral theologian and prolific author, died July 3, 1998.
BACK
|
