1st Article (Conscience): The conscience is a sign of aspect of God’s revelation and it is in our

minds that God exist and it is not an excuse that he does not exist. And we learn to control our
conscience because of God and with him things will change when you are with him and can do
something good in your life. And lastly we shouldn’t hear those judgement of conscience, we
have to fight for it for it is the nature and by the word of God we can be the better of ourselves.

2nd Article (Freedom): If you want to do something good in your life then you’re free. If you
believe in God then the truth will set you free. If you want something then grab that opportunity
and God will guide you for it. Jesus died for our sins so that we can be free because he loves us
and he rose from the dead, but it still our choice to do good or bad things.

3rd Article (Social Teaching and Authentic Human Freedom): The church has in mind that
about the responsible freedom. Every human being has a right to be recognized of being
responsible person and free. Freedom may be abused, but we used is it in a good way.
Freedom is power it can manipulate by a reason and living freely and with God then we are
matured and we can gain attention to God.

4th Article (Foundations of the faith): God created us in his image and likeness. We are
created to share his love and we should not disobey him and don’t be abusive from being free.
God chose not to leave us because he is the truth behind it. Those 10 commandments which
God created we should obey and abide because this will unite as one foundation.

5th Article (Seven Sacraments): Christ may be not created the seven sacraments, but he is the
foundation of it. These sacraments are the continuation of Jesus’s doings. We treat the
sacraments the way Jesus treat it and these sacraments are the signs of grace and it is
entrusted by the church which the divine life is dispensed to us. The catechist symbolizes
sacraments as power that come for and it is everlasting.

6th Article
 Is Your Conscience Captive to God?

Article by
R.C. Sproul.Founder, Ligonier Ministries
Many of us are familiar with Martin Luther’s heroic statement at the Diet of Worms when called
upon to recant his teaching. “Unless I am convinced by sacred Scripture, or by evident reason, I
cannot recant, for my conscience is held captive by the word of God, and to act against
conscience is neither right nor safe.”
Today, we rarely hear any reference to the conscience. Yet throughout church history, the best
Christian thinkers spoke about the conscience regularly. Thomas Aquinas said the conscience
is the God-given inner voice that either accuses or excuses us in terms of what we do. John
Calvin spoke of the “divine sense” that God puts into every person, and part of that divine sense
is the conscience. And when we turn to Scripture, we find that our consciences are a significant
aspect of God’s revelation to us.
Where Does Conscience Come From?
When we talk about God’s revelation, we make a distinction between general revelation and
special revelation. Special revelation refers to that information given to us in the Scriptures. Not
everyone in the world possesses this information. Those who have heard it have had the benefit
of hearing specific information about God and his plan of redemption.
General revelation refers to the revelation that God gives to every human being on earth. It’s
general in the sense that it’s not limited to any specific group of people. It’s global, and it
extends to every human being. The audience is general, and the information given is general as
well. It doesn’t have the same level of detail that sacred Scripture does.
However, to understand the conscience, we must go further than dividing special and general
revelation. Within general revelation, we must distinguish between mediate general revelation
and immediate general revelation. Mediate general revelation refers to the revelation that God
gives through an external medium — in other words, the revelation is given through a mediator:
creation, in which God reveals his invisible attributes (Romans 1:20). General revelation
mediated through creation is clear enough that every single person knows God exists and,
therefore, is without excuse (Romans 1:20).
Immediate general revelation is revelation that is transmitted to every human being without an
external medium. It’s internal, not external. It’s the revelation God plants in the soul of every
person. God reveals his law in the mind of every human being by planting a conscience within
each of us.
Happy Hooker and the Christian Conscience
However, we face a problem: the conscience is fluid. It’s not fixed. Almost all people adjust their
consciences between childhood and adulthood, and the adjustment is almost always downward.
That is, we learn how to turn the volume of our conscience down so that our ethics align with
how we want to live and not how God tells us we should live.
Almost fifty years ago, Xaviera Hollander wrote a bestselling book with a strange title: The
Happy Hooker. Hollander, a prostitute herself, sought to silence the people who believe that no
prostitute in America could find joy in what she was doing. In her book, Hollander celebrates the
joy that she experienced in her profession, saying that she never felt guilty about what she was
doing. To be sure, Hollander said, the first time she involved herself in prostitution, she felt
pangs of guilt. But over time, she got to the point where her feelings of guilt dissipated.
However, there was one important exception to this. When Hollander heard the ringing of
church bells, her conscience would flare up. She was reminded that what she was doing was
under the condemnation of Almighty God. Even this hardened professional prostitute could not
totally destroy the conscience that God had placed within her.
Feeling Ebbs as Guilt Swells
Here is the supreme irony and tragedy of sin: the more we repeat our sins, the greater the guilt
we incur, but the less sensitive we become to the pangs of guilt in our consciences. Paul says
that people store up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath (Romans 2:5). That’s objective
guilt — they are guilty because they have broken God’s law. But some people have so
destroyed their consciences that they believe it really doesn’t matter what they do as long as it
is consensual and they can see no harm. Their subjective guilt — their feelingor sense of guilt
that accompanies wrongdoing — diminishes.
We find new ways to accept sinful behavior, both as individuals and as a culture. As of 2017, we
have killed almost sixty million babies, tearing them limb from limb. People use social media to
boast of this reality, saying how proud they are that they have maintained the freedom of a
woman to abort her child. We now boast about marriage between a man and a man, and a
woman and a woman, without shame. There is not much of a collective conscience left in this
country.
The worst part of Paul’s indictment in Romans 1 is not simply that we practice things deserving
death, despite knowing the righteous judgment of God — it is that we approve of others who
practice them as well (Romans 1:32). When people destroy their own consciences, they do
everything in their power to destroy the consciences of their neighbors.
To quiet their consciences, people will seek allies and make proclamations like, “We’re only
crusading for liberty here, for the freedom of choice.” What a strategy. “I’m not pro-murder; I’m
pro-choice.” That’s what the Godfather would say. “I’m pro-choice. I choose to murder my
enemies.”
We Who Judge Have No Excuse
However, our purpose in discussing these things is not to lament how bad “the world out there”
is, but rather how bad we are in that we Christians do the same thing. We, too, adjust our
consciences to fit the culture. As humans, we all try everything in our power to excuse our sin.
This is why it is so important to keep our hearts tender to the testimony of God’s word in our
conscience. At the Diet of Worms, Luther did not say, “My conscience is held captive by my
contemporary culture, by the latest Gallup poll, and by the latest survey that describes what
everybody else is doing.” Nor did he say, “My conscience is influenced by the word of God.”
In essence, he said, “I am in captivity to the Scriptures. That is why I cannot recant.” Had his
conscience not been captive to God’s word, he would have recanted immediately. So, he said,
“To act against conscience is neither right nor safe.”
Learn the Mind of Christ
We don’t want to hear the judgment of conscience; we want to destroy the judgment of
conscience. That’s our nature. The only antidote is knowing the mind of Christ. We need men
and women whose consciences have been captured by the word of God. Thank God for his
word. It exposes the lies we tell ourselves to make us feel better.
We aren’t going to be judged on the last day on whether we feel guilty, but on whether we are
guilty. But a taste of that judgment now in part, through our consciences, is a gift from the God
who wishes all would come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). The feeling of guilt is the signal that
there’s probably something wrong. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, and with that conviction
comes a certain tender mercy that leads us to repentance and forgiveness so that we might
walk in his presence.

The Only True Freedom

 Devotional by John Piper

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my
disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32)
What is true freedom? Are you free?
Here are four things that need to be true if we are going to be fully free.
1. If you don’t have the desire to do a thing, you are not fully free to do it. Oh, you may muster the
willpower to do what you don’t want to do, but nobody calls that full freedom. It’s not the way we
want to live. There is a constraint and pressure on us that we don’t want.
2. And if you have the desire to do something, but no ability to do it, you are not free to do it.
3. And if you have the desire and the ability to do something, but no opportunity to do it, you are
not free to do it.
4. And if you have the desire to do something, and the ability to do it, and the opportunity to do it,
but it destroys you in the end, you are not fully free — not free indeed — when you do it.
To be fully free, we must have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will make us
happy forever. No regrets. And only Jesus, the Son of God who died and rose for us, can make
that possible.
If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8:36).

God and Human Freedom

“Jesus answered, ‘You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from
above’” (v. 11a).
- John 19
One of the most difficult concepts to understand in Scripture is the relationship between the
sovereign providence of God and human freedom. How can God ordain everything yet not
violate human freedom? We must understand that God uses free moral agents to bring about
His purposes. Just as He uses secondary causes of all sorts to exercise His will, so He uses the
decisions and actions of human beings. We each act freely within God’s sovereign government,
gloriously bringing about His good will through everything we think, say, and do.
Providence in no way violates human freedom, but directs it. Human choices, evil and good, are
part of God’s providence. This can be understood in light of the doctrine of concurrence, which
refers to actions of two or more parties that run parallel with one another, acting in conjunction
toward the same end. We see this doctrine in action when God gave Satan permission to attack
Job (Job 1). God ordained everything that would happen to Job, and He used Satan to bring
about His purposes.
We also find God’s directing of human decisions in the most cataclysmic event in history—the
crucifixion of Christ. This event did not sneak up on God as if He did not expect it, but it was
ordained from eternity. Acts 2:23 confirms God’s ordaining this event saying Jesus was
“delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God.” Later we see that God used
free human agents to bring about His purposes: “Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against Your holy servant
Jesus, whom You anointed. They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should
happen” (Acts 4:27–28 NIV). While Judas, Herod, Pilate, and all the people who condemned
Jesus acted freely, God had ordained beforehand what would occur in order to bring about the
glory of redemption. Through Christ’s death all His people would be saved. God would be
glorified and His people would taste the happiness that comes through communion with God.
God does not compel people to act contrary to their own desires, but uses their free decisions to
bring about His glorious will.
Coram Deo
Read Acts 27. How is God’s sovereign providence revealed in this incident? Paul assures the
men that they would be saved, but he also stresses their responsibility in verse 31. What does
this teach you about your own freedom, responsibility, and God’s ruling providence?

Catholic Social Teaching and Authentic Human Freedom

By Andrew Greenwell, Esq.
12/27/2011 (7 years ago)

The fullness of freedom consists in the capacity to be in possession of oneself in view of

the genuine good
Many kinds of slavery wear a false frock of freedom to cover their blemishes. But the freedom
the Church has in mind is a responsible freedom, not an irresponsible freedom, which in fact is
no freedom at all. As John Paul II defined it in his homily in Orioles Park at Camden Yards in
October 1995, "freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we
ought."
CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - "For freedom,Christ has set us free", the Apostle
Paul wrote to the Galatians (Gal. 5:1): qua libertate nos Christus liberavit. Freedom is a central
value of the Church's social doctrine, along with truth, justice, and love. Libertas Christi urget
nos. The freedom of Christ spurs us on.
Freedom, however, is one of those words that is so easily abused on the lips of the libertine, of
the moral relativist who considers himself unbounded by objective truth and objective right. "O
Liberté, que de crimes on commet en ton nom!" exclaimed Madam Roland as she bowed before
the statute of liberty in the Place de la Révolution before the guillotine severed her head from
her body. "O Liberty! What crimes are committed in thy name!"
Many kinds of slavery wear a false frock of freedom to cover their blemishes. But the freedom
the Church has in mind is a responsible freedom, not an irresponsible freedom, which in fact is
no freedom at all. As John Paul II defined it in his homily in Orioles Park at Camden Yards in
October 1995, "freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we
ought."
It is not the freedom to do what we want, but the freedom to do what we ought that is the
"highest sign in man of his being made in the divine image and, consequently, as a sign of the
sublime dignity of every human person." (Compendium, No. 199) An irresponsible freedom
detracts from the freedom of the sons of God and consequently stains--even eclipses--his
dignity.
"Every human person," states the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, "created in
the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being."
(Compendium, No. 199) It is important to note the conjunction: we have a natural right to be
"free and responsible," not simply free.
Freedom is not something we exercise only in regard to ourselves, solipsistically,
egoistically. Such a restrictive notion of freedom is Hell. "Hell," T. S. Eliot had the loveless
husband say to his unloving wife in his play "The Cocktail Party," "is oneself, Hell is alone, the
other figures in it, merely projections. There is nothing to escape from and nothing to escape to.
One is always alone." In such a place, there is nowhere to go, nothing to do. All is restraint.
There is no choice. There is no freedom.
In his "Stanzas on Freedom," the American Romantic poet and abolitionist James Russell
Lowell asked this question:
Is true Freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake,
And, with leathern hearts, forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
Freedom is exercised not only for oneself, but with regard to others, that is to say,
communally. Freedom is necessarily "exercised in relationships between human beings." For
this reason, the "meaning of freedom must not be restricted, considering it from a purely
individualistic perspective and reducing it to the arbitrary and uncontrolled exercise of one's own
personal autonomy." (Compendium, No.199) Heaven is not alone. Heaven is communion,
communion with God, and with his angels and saints. To invoke again James Russell Lowe,
who answers the question he posed just earlier in the poem and quoted above:
No! true freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear,
And, with heart and hand, to be
Earnest to make others free!
The Compendium summarizes this quite nicely: "Far from being achieved in total self-sufficiency
and the absence of relationships, freedom only truly exists where reciprocal bonds, governed by
truth and justice, link people to one another." (Compendium, No. 199).
While communal and not solipsistic, the cloth of freedom is not dyed one color and does not
come in one size, like a Mao suit. Freedom allows for legitimate self-expression within certain
moral constraints and constraints required by the requirements of civil society and life in
common. Freedom's value allows for the "expression of the singularity of each human person"
within the constraints of right and due order. (Compendium, No. 200)
This sort of freedom should be reflected in the civil liberties enjoyed and practiced by those in a
well-ordered polity. In a well-ordered civil society, the following are the broad freedoms within
which one can express his personal autonomy responsibly:
- the freedom to fulfill his personal vocation;
- the freedom to seek the truth and profess his religious, cultural, and political ideas;
- the freedom to express his opinions;
- the freedom to choose his state of life, and, as far as possible, his line of work;
- the freedom to pursue initiatives of an economic, social, or political nature.
Naturally, these freedoms are not exercised in vacuo, in a vacuum. They are exercised in
communio, within a community. For this reason, they must be exercised within the matrix of a
"'strong juridical framework,' within the limits imposed by the common good and public order,
and, in every case, in a manner characterized by responsibility." (Compendium, No. 200)
There are some places where freedom cannot go, where it may not enter. For there are places
where one goes from freedom to unfreedom, from true freedom to what are just elusive shades
and shadows of freedom. Freedom will recognize those limits, and therefore it will "refuse what
is morally negative, in whatever guise it may be presented." Freedom accordingly includes the
"capacity to distance oneself effectively from everything that could hinder personal, family, or
social growth." (Compendium, No. 200) This suggests that freedom is found only in virtue, and
never in vice. "Only a virtuous people," wrote Benjamin Franklin unerringly, "are capable of
freedom."
In short, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it (§ 1731): "Freedom is the power,
rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate
actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a
force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed
toward God, our beatitude."
The Compendium summarizes its view of freedom in this manner: "The fullness of freedom
consists in the capacity to be in possession of oneself in view of the genuine good," which, of
course ultimately is God, "within the context of the universal common good." (Compendium, No.
200)

Foundations of the Faith Part 7: Christ as our moral compass Christian morality can both
enrich our lives and bring us closer to God David Werning OSV Newsweekly
7/16/2017
This is the seventh of a 12-part series that will cover core teachings of the Catholic faith. Once a
month from January through December, this space will focus on exploring a specific aspect of
the Church’s teaching. To read and share this and the previous parts of the series,
visit OSV.com/foundations.
Next month’s topic: Obedience and Catholic conscience

At this halfway point in the Foundations of the Faith series, the topics so far have ranged from
God’s existence to divine revelation and the Holy Trinity to what membership in the Church
entails and how individual members participate in the life of the Church through their vocations.
This article considers Christian morality in the light of what the Catholic faith teaches about God
and human beings, which has been presented already in previous articles. To summarize: God,
who is a communion of love (for example, the Holy Trinity), created human beings to share in
his love. Human beings, moreover, are made by God in his image and likeness, thereby having
an inherent dignity and the gifts of reason and freedom, which bestow upon them the capacity to
live in harmony with or to resist their Creator. Scripture and Tradition reveal that the first human
beings misused their intellect and free will, choosing to turn from God by sinning, which can be
defined as disobeying the will of God that had been made known to them:
From Scripture:
“Then God asked: ‘... Have you eaten from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat?’” (Gn
3:11).
From Tradition:
“[F]rom the very onset of his history man abused his liberty, at the urging of the Evil One. Man
set himself against God and sought to attain his goal apart from God” (Gaudium et Spes, No.
13).
Foundations in Christ
God, however, who is perfectly free, chose not to leave human beings in their sin. Instead, he
chose to forgive them and to offer them a path toward reunion with him through Jesus Christ. “It
is in Christ, Redeemer and Savior, that the divine image, disfigured in man by the first sin, has
been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of God” (Catechism of the
Catholic Church, No. 1701). Through his life, passion, death and resurrection, Jesus not only
saves humanity but also shows them how to accept the offer of salvation: “I am the way and the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). Therefore, if one
wants to know the meaning and substance of Christian morality, then one needs to look at
Christ.
The word “morality” is often defined as a set of principles that leads a person who adopts them
to right conduct. A particular system of morality also tends to be linked with a teacher, like
Aristotle or Immanuel Kant. As the term implies, “Christian morality” is linked to Christ, who, like
any teacher, has rules and commandments that he shares with his disciples. More importantly,
Jesus models for his disciples how to live. However, the aim of Jesus’ instruction is not simply
right living or even happiness (although both are certainly included) but rather the fullness of life
experienced in the communion of divine love. Union with God is the goal of human existence.
Indeed, it is the original state of human beings (as has already been noted). Christian morality,
therefore, is less an ethical system and more a school of love. Its master is Jesus Christ.
Love is the way
Jesus, of course, never used the term “Christian morality”; it is being used in this article to refer
to his teaching on love, and the Church’s principles give support in following the Lord’s teaching.
Support is needed because many people have experienced great frustration in understanding
Jesus’ words. The rich young man, for example, wanted Jesus to state unequivocally that by
obeying the commandments, one would gain eternal life (Mk 10:17-31). When Jesus asks him
to go deeper toward the spirit of the law, which calls for a complete gift of self to God and
neighbor, the young man walks away. Then there are those like the religious leaders at the time
who hated Jesus precisely because he would set aside the letter of the law in order to heal
someone (Mt 12:9-14) or to feed his hungry disciples on a Sabbath (Mt 12:1-8). Even those who
seemed to recognize the centrality of love in Jesus’ way of life, the Twelve Apostles, wanted to
know exactly how much love one had to give. Jesus answers with the parable of the Good
Samaritan (Lk 10:29-37), which makes it clear that love does not simply satisfy the law, nor can
it be measured. Love is the way and the goal; it moves toward wholeness and union, whether
that means taking the steps to care for a neighbor or, ultimately, entering eternal life.
Love of God and love of neighbor: These two commandments are the substance and meaning
of Christian morality. “There is no other commandment greater than these,” Jesus says (Mk
12:31). Nevertheless, the force of Jesus’ words, the fact that he is asking for wholehearted and
completely selfless love, can be disconcerting to say the least (see Mt 19:25). Who can even
begin to live by these two commandments? It seems impossible. Yet, Jesus does not say, “Try
to love like me, or give it your best shot.” He says, “As I have loved you, so you also should love
one another” (Jn 13:34). Jesus takes it for granted that human beings can participate in his love
by both receiving it and sharing it. They just need to be reminded.

Religious Laws

A common reaction to “religious” laws put forth by the Church is that they appear repressive regarding the hum
free will. Yet, in the public square, laws are seen as helpful to the common good, helping people to avoid confl
when used correctly, promoting freedom.
This is certainly the intent of religious laws like the Ten Commandments or the precepts of the Church. They h
from falling too far away from God. As Jesus says, law was made for man. They fulfill their purpose when they
become freer to practice charity and justice.
For example, the precept to attend Sunday Mass can sometimes seem a burden, but the gifts received at Mas
actually stir people to desire to be present and active and to bring the gifts received to other people. If this hap
person is no longer simply obeying a rule but participating in communion in its fullest sense.
Reason and freedom
Fundamental to Jesus’ Good News is that he became man out of love for all men and women,
to save them from their sins and eternal death. Moreover, Jesus lays down his life for human
beings in order to remind them of both their inherent dignity and their capacity to respond to his
love (see Jn 10:15). Created in the image and likeness of God, human beings have two gifts:
reason, which enables them to understand “the order of things established by the Creator” and
freedom, which enables them to direct themselves to their “true good,” which is eternal life with
God (CCC, No. 1704). While human beings still suffer the consequences of original sin (and any
personal sin), they need not remain enslaved to sin if they receive Jesus’ forgiveness and
mercy. Through the grace of forgiveness, human beings are able to follow Christ; they are
capable of “acting rightly and doing good” (CCC, No. 1709).
However, having the knowledge of one’s inherent dignity and possessing the attributes to
accept God’s invitation to communion with him does not make it any easier to act on these good
gifts, which is why the Church has sought to explain the way of Christ’s love, or Christian
morality, in a manner that is, perhaps, less daunting. While Jesus remains the author and
archetype of Christian morality, and participating in divine love is its essence, the Church
provides certain principles that can help a person respond better to receiving and sharing God’s
love.

“Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform delibe
on one’s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and m
truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.”
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1731
Fundamental principles
Two fundamental principles that ground Christian morality are “there is objective truth” and
“there is the ‘good.’” Neither one is universally accepted as self-evident in the present culture.
Nonetheless, the Church proclaims that God is the source of all truth and whatever is good. And
human beings, through their reason and free will, are able to discern what is true and choose
what is good. Moreover, these qualities, inasmuch as they have their origin in God, do not
change based on human culture. The dignity of the human person is an example of an eternal
truth. The protection of innocent life is always a good to be achieved. In God’s “economy,” what
is true and good for one person is true and good for another, and both are discernible through
the use of reason and God’s revelation.
Natural law
Closely related to truth and goodness is what the Church calls “natural law,” which does not
refer to nature in the sense of irrational beings. Rather, natural law “shows man [or woman] the
way to follow so as to practice the good and attain his [or her] end,” which is union with God
(CCC, No. 1955). The Ten Commandments express the principal precepts of the natural law.
They teach human beings how to honor the relationship with God (the first three
commandments) and with one’s neighbor (the last seven), which are ways of participating in the
good. The beatitudes proclaimed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount build upon the Ten
Commandments by showing what a person who yields to the grace of God and imitates the life
of Christ must do in love. Whereas the Ten Commandments are easily accessible to human
reason, the beatitudes (and the Sermon on the Mount in general) reveal “the countenance of
Jesus Christ and portray his charity” that his disciples are invited to share (CCC, No. 1717).
Human beings, because they have free will and the offer of God’s grace, are able to shape their
lives according to the principles made known through natural law and revelation. They are able
to choose between good and evil so long as they remain on earth. Freedom also makes the
human person responsible for his or her acts: “It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or
reproach” (CCC, No. 1732). At the same time, the Church teaches that “[t]he imputability or
responsibility for an action can be diminished or nullified by ignorance, duress, fear and other
psychological or social factors” (CCC, No. 1746). Still, human acts — “that is, acts that are
freely chosen in consequence of a judgment of conscience” (“conscience” will be the subject of
the next article in this series) — are either good or evil, and determining which depends on “the
object chosen; the end in view or the intention; and the circumstances of the action” (CCC, No.
1750).

More Abel, Less Cain

For some the mention of “Christian morality” conjures up images of the Inquisition or stirs memories of a nun o
warning

The poem can be read pessimistically if one focuses only on Cain, but since it ends with Abel, who honored Go
living, the clear movement is toward optimism (see Gn 4:4; Heb 11:4; 1 Jn 3:12) . The same is certainly true fo
Church, because it was established by God the Father through the blood of Christ and is sustained by the Holy
Church, as long as it remains connected to Christ (and thereby to the Father and the Spirit, too), will never suc
Nevertheless, in terms of Pauker’s poem, the Church needs to correct its Cain side and develop its Abel side w
grace God provides. And so must every human being.
Good intentions
The object of an act is “a good toward which the will deliberately directs itself” (CCC, No. 1751).
What does the person want or desire; what is he or she looking for? Obviously, the ultimate
good can and should be behind every subordinate good: “I want to get all “A’s” in medical
school so that I can better serve my brothers and sisters who are sick and give glory to God.”
Getting ‘A’s’ is an object, and it is a “good.” But notice that the intention is crucial. If the person’s
intention had nothing to do with helping the sick and was really only about guaranteeing a
certain salary, then the act loses its goodness (money, by the way, is not evil in itself, but the
love of money is). Finally, the circumstances “contribute to increasing or diminishing the
goodness or evil of human acts” (CCC, No. 1754). In the present example, a person who wants
to do well out of fear of God is less good than one wanting to do well out of glorifying God.
Internalizing morality
These principles that ground the practice of Christian morality may not be as daunting as
Christ’s commandment to love as he loves, but they certainly can seem rather complicated in
the context of daily living. Does one really go through such a detailed analysis of one’s actions
to make sure that they conform to the Church’s teaching on right conduct and Jesus’
commandment of love? The answer is: hopefully not. For the most part, human beings engage
these principles automatically after living the Christian faith for years and through a conscience
that has been well-formed by prayer, study and good habits. Still, the principles can be very
helpful, even to mature Christians, in times of crisis or in matters that are difficult to discern.
They can provide support and grounding when responding to a culture that relativizes truth and
goodness. Nevertheless, their real purpose is to free a person to attain the good for oneself and
for one’s neighbor through participation in divine love.
An analogy might be a better way to show how living by the principles of Christian morality
blossoms into a participation in the love of Christ. Consider this: Who is freer to play the piano?
A person who has never played before or the virtuoso who started playing when she was 5
years old, dedicating countless hours to learning notes, reading music and perfecting timing?
Obviously it is the virtuoso. Through her discipline and practice and by developing her skill from
the firm foundation of the fundamentals, the virtuoso now has the freedom to play the piano
whenever she wants. Moreover, whereas the basic skills are still evident in her playing, she no
longer thinks about them. Indeed, now that they have been formed into a good habit, they free
her to express her own personality in the music.
Morality in practice
The analogy is not perfect. Christian morality is not a discipline in the same sense as playing the
piano if for no other reason than Christian morality originates in the person of Jesus, who is able
to grant his gifts to whomever he pleases. Yet, the analogy is helpful. A person needs to know
the basic rules and commandments of Christ to put them into practice. The person, moreover,
needs to be an active participant in a relationship with Jesus: reading and pondering his words,
meditating on his deeds and following his example. Receiving his grace and love, too, through
participation in the sacraments, and then sharing these gifts with others, are part of anticipating
the full communion in heaven. When desires conflict with this ultimate goal, the person must
exercise the freedom to say “no” to himself or herself as well. All of these good practices build
up a person to both receive and to share the love of Christ. Indeed, just like a beginner at the
piano progresses to virtuoso status via fundamentals and hard work, a person who loves like
Christ matures to the point where commandments like “thou shalt not steal” or “thou shalt not
bear false witness” are no longer shaping the person’s character but have become fully
integrated in the person’s way of life.
Christ and the seven sacraments They are a continuation of Jesus’ saving actions and an
elongation of his actions during public ministry Msgr. M. Francis Mannion OSV Newsweekly
7/7/2010
Question: What is the relationship between Christ and the seven sacraments? Did Christ
“invent” all of the sacraments, or were they made up by the Church over time — as one of my
Protestant friends claims?
— Janice N., Pueblo, Colo.
Answer: We cannot say that Christ “invented” all seven sacraments in the sense that he
specifically and in detail devised all the rites and words of the sacraments. But neither can we
say that they were “made up” by the Church over time.
The sacraments have their foundation in the very life of Christ himself. They are a continuation
of his saving actions and an elongation in time of what he did during his historic ministry. During
his public ministry, Jesus called disciples and gave them the anticipation of the Holy Spirit. This
is the basis of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation.
Jesus shared meals with his disciples on a regular basis. Preeminent among these was the Last
Supper. After his resurrection, Jesus made himself known in the meal shared on the way to
Emmaus and on other similar occasions. This is the basis of the Eucharist.
Among Jesus’ most distinguishing actions was his calling of sinners to repentance and
conversion. This is continued in the Sacrament of Penance. Jesus regularly healed the sick and
raised up those who were bowed down. In the sacramental anointing of the sick, Jesus
continues this ministry.
Jesus’ “blessing” of the marriage feast at Cana by his very presence is the basis of the Church’s
rite of marriage. In calling apostles and sending them forth to preach the Good News, he laid the
foundation for the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church treats the origins of the sacraments in this way: “Jesus’
words and actions during his hidden life and public ministry were already salvific, for they
anticipated the power of his paschal mystery. They announced and prepared what he was going
to give the Church when all was accomplished. The mysteries of Christ’s life are the foundations
of what he would henceforth dispense in the sacraments, through the ministers of his Church,
for [quoting Leo the Great] ‘what was visible in our Savior has passed over into his mysteries’”
(No. 1115).
There is what a modern theologian has called a “chain of symbolism” at work in the sacraments
in that Christ is present in the Church and the Church is manifested in the sacraments; thus
Christ is present in the sacraments. The Catechism puts it this way: “Sacraments are ‘powers
that come forth’ from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving. They are actions of
the Holy Spirit at work in his Body, the Church. They are ‘the masterworks of God’ in the new
and everlasting covenant” (No. 1116).
The development of the Church over time was the means by which the actions of Christ
developed fully into the sacraments as we know them. The Catechism states: “As she has done
for the canon of Sacred Scripture and for the doctrine of the faith, the Church, by the power of
the Spirit who guides her ‘into all truth,’ has gradually recognized this treasure received from
Christ and, as the faithful steward of God’s mysteries, has determined its ‘dispensation.’ Thus
the Church has discerned over the centuries that among liturgical celebrations there are seven
that are, in the strict sense of the term, sacraments instituted by the Lord” (No. 1117).