No comment

A reflection and prayer to start the day with Canon Simon Doogan.

Good morning.
As suckers for TV crime drama my wife and I worry we’re growing addicted to the adrenaline rush of ‘No comment’ police interviews.
As criminal suspects tactically answer ‘No comment’ to question after question we’re glued to the screen for every involuntary facial or bodily tick until finally the mobile phone messages or CCTV footage is laid bare before them.

The point, legally speaking,
is that rather than infer anything from a defendant’s silence, the prosecution must prove its own case on its own merits.
Hence those sonorous formal words of arrest: you do not have to say anything.

The right to ‘No comment’, first appeared as a tenet of Canon Law.
The writings of St John Chrysostom at the end of the fourth century contain the words: no one shall be compelled to betray themselves.
That stipulation became associated with another phrase, no one shall be compelled to reveal their own shame, but it’s actually a principle with New Testament roots.

Before God no creature is hidden, submits Hebrews 4 verse 13,
all are naked and laid bare
to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
In other words, we should confess our sins to God under no compulsion to confess to anyone else.
On the basis that Christ tolerated Judas up to and including the Last Supper, other sins will be overlooked in the greater public interest of pursuing sins that are graver and more serious.
Expose everyone’s every action, after all, and we would all be guilty of something.

Lord help us understand the pragmatism of the law as an expression of Christ’s forgiveness,
and an example of the compassion by which He calls us all to live. Amen