Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Ligouri, bishop and doctor
of the Church
(Jeremiah
26:1-9; Matthew 13:54-58)
If a bank
robber threatened you with your life to act as his accomplice by driving his
get-away car, could you do so without committing a sin? It’s not an easy question to answer since it
seems that you would be giving immediate material cooperation that is generally
forbidden. Moralists are likely divided
on the issue which brings us to St. Alphonsus Ligouri whose feast day is today.
Alphonsus
lived during a time of great debate among moral theologians. Some, called
probablists, held that one could take a position in favor of freedom on a
difficult issue – in the above, that it would be permissible to cooperate with
the bank robber – if at least one accredited moralist held that position. Others, named probabilorists, believed that
it is always necessary to follow the opinion with the most internal reasons. St. Alphonsus settled the issue with his
typical wisdom. He wrote that one could take
a position of freedom if there are as many internal arguments in its favor as
there are in favor of the law.
We live in
an age that exalts information. Especially
through the Internet a mountain of facts are at one’s fingertips. But there is a scarcity of wisdom, the
ability to live rightly in any circumstances in which we find ourselves. People like St. Alphonsus are gifts from God
to be heeded and followed.
