Morality: Law and Morality

  • Freedom is following the natural law.

  • Good law guides human freedom.

  • Good law protects people from license and directs people to God.

    • License: unrestricted freedom

  • The divine law is from the source of the Blessed Trinity and helps us through divine providence.

    • Divine Providence: God’s wisdom, power, and goodness by which he guides us to perfection.

  • Law is responsible and is for the common good.

    • For the common good = helps to build up a community.

  • Laws originate from a competent authority.

    • God is the source of all law.

    • Church and civil leaders enforce God’s law and moral law.

  • Moral law expresses three types of law that have their source in God.

    • Natural law

      • The human participation in divine law.

    • Revealed law

      • Old Law and the Law of the Gospel.

    • Civil and church law

      • Finds unity in Jesus.

  • Natural law is a person’s participation in divine law and is written in one’s soul.

    • Allow you to discern between good and evil.

    • Corresponds to three basic human needs:

      • Preserving life

      • Developing as individuals and communities

      • Sharing life with others

    • Expresses human dignity and serves as the basis for human rights.

    • The foundation of civil laws and moral rules.

    • The norms of natural law can be discovered through human reason by all people.

  • There are two types of revealed law:

    • The Old Law:

      • the laws of Moses, the first stage of God’s revealed law, summarized in the Ten Commandments, and it is holy, good, and spiritual, but also imperfect.

      • Denounces sin but cannot remove sin.

      • It is still the Word of God that provides teachings that will remain forever.

    • The New Law:

      • The law of the Gospel, the work of Christ (through the Sermon on the Mount), and the work of the Holy Spirit (infuses the New Law into your heart).

      • Does not add any new precepts to follow, but it helps you to understand the core attitudes that come before your actions.

      • A law of love

        • You act out of love, not fear

      • A law of grace

        • It gives you grace through faith and the sacraments

      • A law of freedom

        • Transforms you into someone who can act freely and spontaneously out of love.

      • Makes you a child of God

      • Includes the evangelical counsels

  • The evangelical counsels are poverty, chastity, and obedience.

    • They are helpful to anyone seeking the perfection of Christian life because they remove any part of your life that is keeping you from growing closer to Jesus.

  • Civil law applies natural law to a given society and is created according to custom and circumstance.

    • Civil laws may differ but the natural laws they are based on do not

    • Sometimes civil law opposes natural law.

    • Civil law is only as morally good as when it is conforming to God’s eternal law.

    • Civil laws that disobey natural law are considered unjust.

      • Everyone must work to change these laws.

  • Church law is also known as canon law, which draws on divine law — both natural and revealed.

    • Because it received the commandment from Christ to preach salvation, the Church has the right to proclaim principles of morality and to enact law.

  • The five precepts of the church are:

    • You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation, and rest from servile labor.

    • You shall confess your sins at least once a year.

    • You shall receive the Sacrament of Eucharist at least during the Easter season.

    • You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church.

    • You shall provide for the needs of the Church.