Discussions at our after - Mass coffee klatches cover a wide range of subjects, the timeliest being the pros and cons of gun control. Opinions on the subject run the gamut from approval to uncertainty to disapproval. Just as it seemed our group had reached an impasse, someone challenged, "Would you purposely shoot Jesus?"
Gasp! The debate resumed, this time more heated as the majority seized on the religious angle tossed into the fray. Several pointed out the hierarchal support of banning gun ownership for self - defense voiced by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and individual clergy as well.
Buoyed by this surge of support, the "shoot Jesus" challenger proceeded to expound on her notion that our constitutional right to bear arms might imitate the sin of deicide. She reasoned that because an intruder entering your home to steal your possessions and/or do violence to your family is "made in the image and likeness of God," he should not be deliberately killed. This is not only illogical, it smacks of the heresy of Patripassianism - that God died on the cross.
We're all made in the "image and likeness,'' but the intruder breaking into our home is not emulating the goodness of God, but has made a choice to do evil. It's doubtful that the Jesus who nearly vaporized the crooked money changers in the temple with his explosive voltage, would fault us for reacting similarly when a different type of thief invades our own temple to take our lives or possessions. Still, most in the group felt Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is the villain, not the interloper.
A conservative Catholic, Scalia is a proponent of originalism which is based on the principle of the Court interpreting the Constitution to mean as precisely as possible what its original audience would have understood it to mean. Therefore, he concludes that constitutional law ensures our right to have a gun and to use it in self - defense.
The assumption that the possession of handguns will promote violence and should be banned for the common good is contrary to the belief of most that the personal liberty of self - defense is a right. St. Gabriel Possenti agreed. In l860, while still a seminarian, the intrepid saint used handguns to rescue Italian villagers in Sola del Gran from a terrorizing gang of marauders. There is an international movement requesting the Vatican designate him as Patron of Handgunners.
Owning a gun does not come with a guarantee that one will use it to kill. Justice Scalia reminded the Court that the handgun is Americans' preferred weapon of self - defense in part because "it can be pointed at a burglar with one hand while the other hand dials the police."
Justice Scalia's reining in of the judicial activism of judges, who too often coddle the criminal and go beyond their constitutional duties of qualifying existing legislation to fit their personal conception of societal needs, has been long overdue. Hopefully, the American bishops will start listening to these Catholic justices who do not make their decisions arbitrarily.
Those bishops, and all Catholics, who try to make the case that gun ownership contradicts the "right to life," might consider the suggestion of St. Gabriel Possenti Society founder, John M. Snyder, that "the right to life does not end with birth but continues throughout natural life and includes the right to self - defense and the right to arms for self - defense."
Certainly, the valorous St. Possenti would agree.
Jane L. Sears is a freelance writer and member of Our Lady of Angels Parish, Burlingame.
