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Morality Notes
These notes are complete but need to be spell checked and proof read.
Chapter 1 - Morality Morality - A set of principles that determine right and wrong conduct.
The #1 Principle is that morality is based on objective truth.
- Objective Truth
- Its the truth that is revealed by things if we look at their nature, it never changes.
- The nature of things are revealed by how they are to be used, treated, and understood.
- The absolute law or Morality is that human life is priceless, this is reveals how human beings should treat themselves and others.
How to learn the objective truth.
- You Must understand that the eye is a receiver, it is not a projector.
- An Object tells us what its nature it.
- The subject receives the information.
- So the objective truth is found with the object not the subject.
- In reality the objective truth is outide the subject.
Subjective Opinion
- It's and attempt to process and put into words waht the sibject sees.
- Opinions can be wrong becasue there is a problem with the subject.
- Physical problems
- Blindness
- Mental problems
- Ignorance
- Lack of education
- Lack of experience
- Being taught the wrong thing
- Trying to convince ourselves that we are right because we are selfish
- Just as an alcoholic beleiving he does not have a problem, or teenager arguing that they came home on time when they were late,
- Nazis beleiving Jews were not humans and ancient Romans beleiving babies were not yet human.
- An opinion is correct is it correctly puts into words the objective truth.
- The objective truth is not a mystery becasue people have the ability to understand the truth.
Chapter 2 - Soul
- The soul is what makes us human.
- Freewill
- Reason
- Conscience
- Meaning
- Purpose
- Spirituality
- Understanding
- Love
- We can define a human by defining a rock, pland, animal, then human.
- Rocks
- Mass
- Volume
- Color
- Made of atoms
- Plants
- Has all characteristics the rock has
- Needs nutrients from the outside
- Produces elements for the environment
- Grows
- Reproduces
- Dies
- Animals
- Has all the characteristics of the rock and plant
- Move
- Learn behavior
- Has emotions
- Feels
- Has instincts
- Humans
- Has all characteristics of the rock, plant, and animal
- Reason
- Awarness
- Love
- Understanding
- Conscience
- Free Will
- All of this means that we have a soul and that wer are unique to human qualities as listed above.
- Anyone who can think, can understand that humans have dignity, worth, and are sacred.
- The Conscience
- It's a human quality that has to be developed just like any other part of our soul.
- This is done by learning and by obtaining good habits.
- It is not in-born.
- If it were we would not have serial killers and rapis
Chapter 3 - Sigmund Freud, Id Sigmund Freud (Founder of modern phychoanalysis)
- He says there are three stages to the development of the soul in a person.
- Stage 1 : The Id (Origional Sin)
- It's our animal instinct
- The Id is the "beast" inside of us
- It is the self-centered child in us
- Examples of the Id
- Desire for food and water
- Sex drive
- Wanting and easy, comfortable, lazy lifestyle
- Selfish instinct
- Being blind to our own faults
- Being controlled by our own fear and emotions
- Wanting to simply satisfy our sences and animal drives.
- Stage 2 : The Super-Ego
- It's your "taped" survival messages mostly from your parents
- Examples of the Super-Ego
- It;s when we first start to learn the maing of the word, No
- When we learn what is socially acceptable.
- The "taped messages" come from our parents first, then from
- It is anything that teaches us to fit into society
- Such as learning not to poop your pants
- Bathing
- Manners
- It is also anything that we are brought up to beleive
- Racism
- Materialism
- Religion
- Stage 3 : The Ego
- The Ego is a self, and adult human being that has a fully develope soul.
- The Ego evaluates all of the taped messages in the super ego in view of the objective truth.
- The examples of the Ego are all the qualities that make us human.
Sigmund Freud also discussed two levels of out psyche.
- Our psyche is
- Learning
- Conscience
- Reasoning
- The two levels of our psyche
- Conscious, is a small part of our psyche, it is basically the tip of an iceberg.
- Subconscious has informatin, images, motivations, memories, etc, that we may have forgotten about, but are still in is and motivate us.
- The Id and the super ego often work on the subconscious level.
- The ego can only work on the conscious level, wich is the fully developed person that evaluates all messages, subconscious and conscious in view of the objective truth.
Chapter 4 - Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development Kohlberg's Stages of moral development are six stages that he divided the development of the conscience into.
He says that you can get stuck at any age and that you cannot understand where people two stages ahead of you, "are coming from"
- Stage 1 : Fear Of Punnishment
- The cost to me
- Conscience - Self Protectiveness
- About age 7
- Examples
- I won't cheat on my taxes because I don't want to go to jail.
- I won't speed becasue i don't want a ticket.
- I will help the poor because if i don't the Bible says that if I don't I will go to hell.
- I won't cheat on my test becasue i might get caught.
- Stage 2 : Profit
- Maxamize pleasure
- Conscience - Cunning
- About age 8
- Examples
- I will cheat on my taxes becasue 90% of the people never get audited
- I will buy a radar detector so i can speed.
- I will help the poor because it makes me feel good.
- I will cheat on my test becasue I can get away with it.
- Stage 3 : Group Loyality
- Obligation to ones family, gang, ect.
- Conscience - Loyality
- About age 10
- Examples
- I will cheat on my taxes because my family needs the money.
- I will speed because my friends tell me to.
- I will let my friend cheat off my test.
- I will have sex with my boyfriend becasue he wants me to do it.
- Stage 4 : Law and Order
- Without laws, society would be chaos
- Conscience - Good citizenship
- About age 18 to ?? (Some people never get here)
- Examples
- I will not cheat on my taxes becasue the government needs money to keep running.
- I will not speed becasue for some order in society we have to set the speed limit somewhere.
- I will help the poor because homeless people make the city look dumpy.
- I won't cheat on my test becasue if I did the school would fall apart.
- I will not drink because that leads to further problems in society.
- Stage 5 : The Common Good
- Loyality To Truth
- Conscience - What is best for people
- About age ??
- Examples
- I won't cheat on my taxes becasue many people depend on them.
- I will not speed becasue I am putting others at risk.
- I will help the poor becasue the need to be able to develop their human potential.
- I will not cheat on my test or drink because it acts as a poor example to others.
- Stage 6 : Integrity
- No matter whats the price i will never go against my soul.
- About age ??
- Examples
- I will not cheat on my taxes because I am honest.
- I will not speed becasue it's not loving to do so.
- I will help the poor becasue I love them.
- I will not cheat on my test because I am honest.
- I will not drink because it destroys my free will.
Chapter 5 - Character
- Character - What makes you, you
- Soul - Conscience - Character
- Who you are is revealed by your actions and your words
- Your actions and your words form the building block of you
- Personality is not character
- Personality is our way of incorperating informatino and reacting to our environment.
- Examples of personality
- Intorvert or extrovert
- Do you like order and structure
- Do you wait to the last minute
- Do you like to think of the present or past
- Do you like to think of the future
- Do you like to base decisions on logic and reason
- Beliefs that you have
- Personality is not a moral issue, it is neither right or wrong
- Character is a moral issue because you become what you freely choose to do.
- Vices are bad habits: there are seven "Capital sins" which all are vices.
- Pride
- Greed
- Envy
- Wrath
- Lust
- Gluttony
- Sloth
Chapter 6 - Two Forces & Human Web
- Sigmund Freud said that there are two forces within us
- Death wish - wanting to go back to the womb
- Comfort, safety, no suffering, no problems, no adwarness, no thinking, no conscience, no effort, no doubts, no worries, no responsibility
- Death wish consequences
- No love, no joy, no peace, nothingness, meaningless, darkeness, isolation
- Life wish - wanting to go beyond our present state of life to become more fully human.
- Desire to be better
- Wanting the objective truth
- Being curious, imaginative, loving, good
- Life wish consequences
- Love, joy, peace, meaning, fulfillment, purpose
- Life wish - making the sacrafice necessary to grow
- Examples
- Developing focus, self discipline, and motivation to be a good student.
- Facing the objective truth to develop a conscience and changing our lives accordingly
- The Human Web
- We are only six people removed from every other human being on the planet.
- Example - You know a priest, the priest knows the bishop, the bishop knows the pope, and so on.
- What we do and don't do effects the human web
- Even the smallest action or interaction is significant
- Analogy - The ripples of a stone thrown intothe pond reaches the outer edge.
- "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do to me" - Matthew 25
- At your death, you get to see exactly how each action you did and every word that you spoke affected others.
- Examples of actions that affect the human web.
- The effects of stealing
- Companies have to raise cost to compensate for theft
- You steal a shirt that is $30 and the company makes up the differences of the price in other shirts.
- The average department store looses 5 million a year from theft.
- The people who pay the most for stealing are the honest poor.
- They paya higher price wich hurts them
- They suffer for being honest
- The profit of the retail companies decreases
- These companies are owned my share holders
- These owners loose money
- You are showing that things are more important than people by stealing.
- Your actions show whether or not you really love.
- Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life, the goods we possess are not ours but theirs.
- St John Chrysostom
- Stealing is taking what is not due to you
- Not respecting others and God's creation by taking only what you need.
- Steels from those who come after us
- Any violation of Justice
- Not giving God and others what they are due
- Examples of violations of Justice
- Not putting an honest effort at school or work
- Breaking a contract
- A lie is the failure to tell somone the truth who has a right to know it.
- The effects of lying
- The human web can only stand on trust
- Lying destroys trust
- The human web can only stand on trust
- Lying is offence against the Truth wich is God Himself
- Types of offences against the Truth
- Boasting - Exaggerating your accomplishments
- Irony that cuts others down
- Detracting, disclosing anothers faults without an objectively valid reason
- Rash judjement beleive that a person has a moral faith without real foundation
- Mortal sins
- Pergury - bearing false witness
- Praising, agreeing with or flattering someones account of wicked conduct
- Calumny - harming the reputation of another through a lie
Chapter 7 - Love
- Loving
- The word "love" is used in many ways
- I love ice cream
- I love my mom
- I love my brother
- I love my girlfriend
- What love means
- We sometimes use the word love when we lack a better vocabulary
- We should use the words we mean such as enjoy, affection, fondness, appreciation, loyality, contentment, devotion, attraction, etc.
- Unselfish love is the willingness to expend oneself in the hope of helping another grow, even if the only profit to the self is the joy at anothers joy
- The test to see if what you say is love, is really unselfish love.
- Test 1 : The Kickback
- Is the joy of the kickback to self less important that the others joy?
- Kickback examples
- Good parents do all sorts of things for their kids in order that someday their kids will be fully human enough to leave them behind and pay for their education, spend time with them, and discipline them
- Do you say that you "love" someone simply becasue you really want to get something else out of them like acceptance, security, sex, etc.
- Test 2 :
- Is it life giving to others beyond the relationship
- Or does the "love" stifle others out of the relationship to fulfill your narcissistic, inert, neurotic needs
- Us versus world romantic relationships
- They don't really understand us
- There is no room right now for babies
- Test 3 :
- One way or two way street
- Love is a two way street that enables both people involved to grow
- In a one way relationship the "lover" simply ceases to be a growing soul, and the purpose of life becomes the "beloved"
- Two one way relationships can exist at the same time, butthat is still not a two way street.
- Test 4 : Will or Feeling
- Love is a decision, not a feeling, love takes over when the feeling fail, when the beloved is no longer even likable.
- Happiness in loving comes from being good, not feeling good.
- Parents love children by staying up with sick children, feeding babies in the middle of the night.
- People who remain faithful to spouces despite illness, traqety, etc.
- True love involves suffering and sacrafices
- Too many people often don't really love because they do not want to suffer of sacrafice.
- Test 5 : Understanding or Control
- Unselfish love really sneeks to understanding what is necessary for the "beloved" to grow
- Wanting the "beloved" to say I am sorry is important so the "beloved" grows
- Control seeks manipulation of the other
- Wanting the "beloved" to say I am sorry so we feel better
- In scripture Gods love for us is expressed through the word Covenant.
- Contracts exchange goods for services
- I do this in exchange for you doing that
- A coventant is the gift of your whole self to the other
- God gives us his whole self to us at every moment
- God gives Himself to us through His son
- Living a good life, is one way we give our whole selves back to God
- God does not owe us anything for our moral lives. We do it as an act of love for Him. We give all our action to and for Him.
Chapter 8 - Life Issues
Life Issues
- Main guiding principle, the dignity and potential of each human life must be maintained from the movement of conception to natural death
- Pope John Paul II wrote an Encyclical (authoritave papal statement on Church teaching) called Veritatis Splendor
- The Pope calls all Catholics, Christians, and people of good will to oppose the "Culture of Death" and moral revolativism that enables it.
- Three main life issues
- Capital Punishment
- Abortion
- Euthanasia
- Capital Punishment - The Death Penalty
- Criminal Justice is meant to protect society
- Criminal Justice should try to rehabilitate criminals
- Life incarceration for sever cases
- Capital punishment not only ends the life, but it is an offence to a truly human civilization. It does not bring out the most human in us.
- The USA is the old western "developed" country with the DP. It also has the highest homocide rate. Does it really work?
- Abortion - The active killing and removal of an unborn human life
- Actively and internationally causing the death of an unborn human life from the monent of conception is immoral.
- No reason my justify abortion
- Rape, Incest, Genetic, or handicapped problems with the fetus. Pregnancy is inconvenient. Health or life of the mother
- Abortion Methods
- All abortion methods are immoral
- Using suction to destroy and remove the fetus, indicting labor and disregarding the fetus. Partial birth abortion, cutting up the fetus and removing the parts, chemically killing the fetus (Ru 486) or saline injection.
- Certain comonly used birth control methods are abortion causing because they really prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb.
- Morning after pill
- IUD - Intra-Uterine Device
- Treatment of an illness that causes the death of the fetus.
- A woman may treat an illness that threatens her life even if the treatment kills the baby
- Principle of Double Effect - if an abortion has two effects, one good and one evil and the evil does not outweigh the good, and the evils never intended, then one may do the action
- Example of treatment of an illness that causes the death of the fetus
- Chemotherepy for cancer
- Chemotherepy is meant to cure the cancer
- Chemotherepy also kills the fetus wich is not indended
- Example #2 - Ectopic pregnancy - pregnancy where the fertalized egg implants in the fallopian tube instead of uterus.
- The tube is cut away, this causes the life threatening illness
- The death of the fetus is not intended but happens.
- Doctors are trying to develop new procedures that can transplate the fetus from the tube to the uterus where it can develop normally
- Stem - Cell Research
- Stem cells are cells that have not differentiated into specific trypes of cells
- Muscle, nerve, liver, etc.
- Embryonic stem cell research is immoral because it must destroy human life at is ery beginning in orger to "harvest" the cells
- Research using adult stem cells or stem-cells from umbilical words or placenta are moral.
- No humand life has to be destroyed.
- Euthanasia
- The word means "mercy killing"
- Ending the life of a terminally ill, handicalled or chronically ill person.
- Active froms of Euthanasia are always immoral
- This includes doctor assisted suicide where a doctor sets up a way for a patient to easily end his or her life
- Dr. Kevorkian
- Various form of suicide commited by the patient
- Assistance that family or friends give a patient to end his or her life
- Reasons people give for advocating active Euthanasia
- There is a quality of human life not worth living
- Responce
- All life is priceless otherwise, we can start killing people for almost anything
- Physics pain is to much to bear
- Modern society has nedicine that can eliminate or greatly reduce pain so it is managable.
- Some pain medications are so strong that they can actually shorten the life of a patient
- Patients can still ise them if they are following the principle of Double Effect
- Emotional pain
- Want to be in control of our own life
- Isolated feeling
- Suffering seems meaningless
- We never totally are in control or our lives even in life God is
- Everybody dies, Even Jesus did
- Suffering has meaning when we unite it to the Cross of Christ
- People who are dying still have a soul
- They can still develop their soul
- They can still affect people in a positive way
- Active killiong of the terminally ill is different from treatment that prolongs life
- Everybody must accept "ordinary treatment" to save their lives
- Includes water, food, antibiotics, etc
- Extraordinary treatments can be refused but don't have to be
- Extraordinary treatment are those that are excessively painful, expensive, complicated, dangerous, have low chance of suceeding, experimentaly and disproportianate
- Why stopping extraordinary treatments is ok
- We are not willing that death happens
- We are simply acknowledging our inability to stop death
- Examples of stopping extraordinary treatment
- Disconnecting a patient from life-support
- Stopping chemotherapy treatments when the end is inevitable
- Refusing an organ transplant or an artificial transplant
- Giving a "do not resusitate order" for a terminally ill patient if theyhave a stroke or heart attack, etc.
- Refusing brain surgery to cure cancer if the surgery itself has a good chance of killing the patient
- Who can decide if extraordinary treatments can be refused?
- The patient
- If the patient is unable, the family should decide
- Living wills are legal documents that tell the family and doctor what a patient would want
Chapter 9 - Procreation
Procreation - Baby
Unity - Oxytosin
- These two cannot separate
- Reproductive Morality in marriage incorperates chastity (respect for sexuality) and human dignity (respect for each human life)
- Sexual intercourse is the physical way a couple renews their covenant with eachother
- A coventant is a gift of the whole self to the other person
- Because sexualy relations by nature is reproductive, each sexual act must be open to the possibility of creating human life, because sex is both about unity and procreation
- This does Not mean that a couple must try to make a baby everytime they have sex, they must be open to the possibility
- Artificial Birth control violates the moral covenant
- It says, I love you but except for the way your ovaries work or I love you except for the way your sperm work
- It is not giving of the Complete self to your spouce
- Artificial Birth control separates unity and procreation from sex.
- When the procreation power of sex is denied unity suffers also
- The use of Artificial Birth Control is immoral
- It is not open to the possibility of creating human life
- It hurts marriages because,
- The woman often feels used sexually
- It breaks down communication
- The divorce rate is around 60% now. The divorce rate for couples that practice artificial birth control is higher than average
- No method of birth control is 100% effective. It gives a couple a false sence of security
- Artificial Birth Control methods
- Condoms
- Spermicides
- Vascectemies
- Fallopial tube cutting or tying
- The pill
- Using the pill to cure and illness, is ok
- See principle of Double Effect
- Couples have the responsibility of spacing and limiting childern so they can provide and care for them as best as they can
- Spacing children and limiting the number is not is not an exact science no matter how a couple tries it
- A couple may use the natural method for spacing and limiting the number of children
- Natural Family Plannning - Dr. Billings Ovulation method
- A method of spacing and delaying children using knowledge of when a woman is fertile in her cycle
- A woman normally ovulates in the middle of her cycle
- When she is ready to ovulate, she has a thicker and stickier vaginal secretions
- Body temperature rises when she ovulates
- To avoid pregnancy, a couple should not have intercourse 3-5 days before ovulation, since sperm can live that long in the fallopian tubes
- Couples should also avoid intercourse for one day after ovulation since the egg can live about 24 hours after ovulation
- This method is 98% effective, just as effective as the pill
- Couple respect their own bodies and the bodies of other spouces
- They are open to the possibility of life
- They work with their bodies instead of against them
- For couples that use this method, the benefits are great
- Lots of comminication
- Respect for the way each others bodies work
- True love, not use of the other
- Intimacy in other ways that sex are fostered
- It is true to the marital covenant because a couple gives their body, mind, and soul
- The divorce rate for couples practicing Natural Family Planning is less than 2%
- Infertility
- 1 in 6 couples have problems having a child
- The fertility problems include something physically wrong with the woman
- She doesn't ovulate
- The fertilized egg will not implant in the uterus
- Blockage of the fallopian tubes
- The fertility problem may be dues to something physically wrong with the man
- Low numbers or no sperm
- Lack of sperm motility
- It is immoral to conceive a child in any other way that through sexual intercourse with fertilization taking place inside the woman
- Acceptable fertility treatments inclide
- Drugs that stimulate ovulation
- Drugs that increase sperm production
- Unacceptable methods unclude
- Test-tube fertilization
- Often there are many embryos that are created. Many are discarded
- Who "owns" the embryo
- It's human life not a thing
- The child to be conceived is not a product but a gift
- It creates the mentality in society that treats human life as a commody to happiness
- Having a child is a gift, not a right
- If unable to conceive, a couple can find other ways to care their time adn gifts through service, etc
- Adoption - 1 baby for 40 couples
- The Catholic Church is the largest provider of adoption services both to birth-parents and odoptive parents
- Genetice Therepy
- The manipulation of genes to correct defects that lead to disease
- This is acceptable
- Eugenics
- The attempt to acheive the perfect human race by changing genes or eliminating carriers of undesirable ones
- Morally unacceptable
Chapter 10 - Catechism 1 Human Dignity
- Image and likeness of God
- Immortal soul
- Reason
- Free will
- responsible for acts
- until death, we can either reject ultimate Good (God) or grow in goodness
- fallible
- Conscience
- tells us to seek good and avoid evil
Wounded by Origional Sin
- Inclines us to
- Division in us
- Dramatic struggle between good/evil; light/darkness
- Division within the individual and socially
- Freedom comes from being good
- Slavery to sin comes from evil
God Draws us to Himself (Goodness, Truth, Love, and Reality)
- Purpose in life is to know Him, love Him, and serve Him
- Placed a desire for happiness in our hearts
- Not found in finite things
- Grace/Beatitude: state of ultimate happiness which is complete union with God
- Share in Trinitarian Life
- Filial Adoption
- We become sons or daughters of God by believing in Christ
- We follow the example of Christ
- Christ saves us by his passion from in and Satan
- By Grace/Beatitude
- By new Life in the Holy Spirit
- Makes us capable of doing good and acting right
Chapter 11 - Catechism 2
Conscience
- Human dignity requires an upright moral conscience
- Heart and Soul of a person
- It is a judgment of reason
- Must be formed
- Life-Long task to form it
- A well formed good conscience includes:
- Perception of moral prinicples
- Universal principles include:
- Respect neighbor's conscience
- Whatever you wish men would do to you, do so to them
- Application in circumstances
- Judgement of concrete acts
- Messenger of God
- Word of God is a light to our path
- Makes us responsible for our acts
- Need interiority to hear our conscience
- Reflection
- Self-Examination
- Introspection
- We must always obey our certain conscience or we would condemn ourselves
- We must NOT be prevented from acting according to conscience
- We must NOT be forced to act contrary to our conscience
- Ignorance is NOT always an excuse for a bad conscience if:
- Person takes little trouble to find the truth
- Habit of sin
Morality of an action depends on three things:
- Object
- Resides in the object
- Action Itself
- Decided by objective truth
- 'Good' toward which the will deliberatly directs itself
- Intention
- Resides in subject
- Purpose pursued in the action
- Goal of activity or the 'end'
- End never justifies the means
- Can never make and evil act good
- One may not do evil so that good my come of it
- Can make a good action evil
- Circumstance
- Determines degree of responsibility
- Determines severity of evil
- Determines degree of goodness
- Never makes an evil good
Chapter 12 - Catechism 3
Sin
- Offence against:
- Reason
- Truth
- Right conscience
- Human dignity
- Sin is a failure of geniune love of God and neighbor
- Results in perverse inclinations which cloud conscience
- Wounds the nature of man
- Creates a proclivity to sin further
- Makes men accomplices of one another
- Give rise to social situations and instituions that are contrary to divine goodness
- Sin is disobedience to God, a revolt against Him
- Pretends to be on par with God by pretending to be a god
- Many sins are directly listed in scripture
- 10 commandments
- Galatians
- Different degrees of seriousness
- Venial
- Wounds love in us but allows it to continue
- When unrepented, disposes us little by little to commit mortal sin
- Mortal
- I John 5 tells us that there are some sins that are deadly; some are not
- Destroys charity within hearts of men by grave violation of God's Laws
- Turns men away from God by preferring an inferior 'good' to him
- Three conditions that make a sin a mortal sin
- Grave matter
- Specified by the 10 Commandments
- Full knowledge
- Complete consent
- Mortal sin must be redeemed by:
- Repentance
- God's Forgiveness
- Unredeemed mortal sin leads to the eternal dath of hell
- While we can judge that an act is grave, we must leave the judgement of persons to God's justice and mercy
- There are no limits to the mercy of God except for the one who refuses to repent
- Responisbilty for other people's sins
- Cooperate with them
- Participating directly and voluntary with them
- Ordering, advising, praising, or approving them
- Protecting and evil-doer
- Not disclosing a sinner
- Not hindering when we have an obligation to do so
God created us without us but he will not save us without us.
Chapter 13 - Catechism 4
Salvation
- Needed because we are called to beatitude but wounded by Origional Sin. Comes to us through the help of God in the form of.
- Grace - presence of love and power of God
- Gift
- Favor
- Undeserved help from God to
- Become children of God
- United with God
- Participation in the life of God
- Have eternal life
- Can only be known through faith
- Cannot be earned
- Preparation for the reception of grace is already the work of Grace
- Moral Law
- God's Fatherly instruction to us
- Eternal Law
- Source of all Law
- In God-Himself
Natural Law
- Given bt God at creation
- In each person through reason
- Part of human nature
- It is unchangeable
- It is universal
- It can bever be removed from human hearts totally
- It provides a foundation for building a himan community
- Basis for civil law
- We call it objective truth
- Not always clearly and immediately perceived by everyone
- Revealed Law
- Makes Natural Law easily and firmly known
- Makes known how to love God and neighbor beyond Natural Law
- Began with the Old Law
- Christ is the fullness of all moral law and Revelation
Justification
- Holy Spirit's grace (GIFT) that cleansesus from our sins through faith in Jesus Christ and baptism
- Makes us right with God
- Passion of Christ merits this for us
- Merit is the reward or punishment owed to an individual within society
- We can take NO merit for our initial conversion to God where we received forgiveness
- Only possible through grace
- Demands our free response
- Filial Adoption
- Those in whom the spirit dwells are divinized
- We are made co-heirs with Christ
- The moral life is a way of offering spiritual worhsip to God
- Bestowes true merit on us as a result of God's gratuitous justice
- Gives a supernatural quality to our acts
- God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace
- Obedience to the divine will is granted us
- Estabolishes cooperation between God's will and our freedom
- All are called to holiness
- Holiness comes from
- Renunciation of all attachments, sin, our own will
- Spiritual battle
- What we merit from our good works are also gifts from God that come from full cooperation with him
Jesus gave the Church the responsibility to teach the truth
- Magisterium
- Teaching authority of Christ given to
- Roman Pontiff and the bishops
- Infallibility
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