More law and order
Any day is a good one to honor Sir Thomas More. Today, however, is his day, the feast day of the patron of politicians and lawmakers.
Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein
He stood for two things primarily, beyond all his other virtues and honors: the sanctity of marriage, and the primacy of Peter….the Pope at the head of the Church. He didn’t succumb to the pressures of his peers or even the king to capitulate to what he knew to be God’s law.
US Republican Henry Hyde cited More during President Clinton’s impeachment hearing, saying: “Sir Thomas More went to his death rather than take an oath in vain.”
He added words from Sir Robert Bolt’s play of More’s life, A Man for All Seasons: “As he told his daughter, Margaret, ‘When a man takes an oath, Meg, he’s holding his own self in his hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then – he needn’t hope to find himself again.”
Here’s something else he told his beloved Meg, in a letter he wrote from prison.
Although I know well, Margaret, that becaused of my past wickedness I deserve to be abandoned by god, I cannot but trust in his merciful goodness. His grace has strengthened me until now and made me content to lost goods, land, and life as well, rather than to swear against my conscience.
God’s gracer has given the king a gracious frame of mind toward me, so that as yet he has taken from me nothing but my liberty. In doing this His Majesty has done me such a great good with respect to spiritual profit that I trust that among all the great benefits he has heaped so abundantly upon me I count my imprisonment the very greatest. I cannot, therefore, mistrust the grace of God.
That he was able to show such graciousness and charity toward King Henry VIII even at that perilous time, when he was unjustly thrown in prison and threatened with death if he didn’t swear an oath to the king’s misdeeds……is beyond comprehension, but for the grace of God.
I will not mistrust him, Meg, though I shall feel myself weakening and on the verge of being overcome with fear…
And finally, Margaret, I know this well: that without my fault he will not let me be lost. I shall, therefore, with good hope commit myself wholly to him…
And, therefore, my own good daughter, do not let your mind be troubled over anything that shall happen to me in this world. Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best.
We need more of this humility, faithfulness, magnanimity in our lawmakers and politicians.
St. Thomas More, ora pro nobis.