• applying objective moral norms to our
particular acts,
• and thus commanding: do this, do not do that!
724. If we are morally obliged by
our conscience to “do good,” are we any longer free?
We
are exercising authentic freedom in obeying moral laws and our
consciences. The objection is based on the common erroneous idea of freedom as
“doing what I want.”
725. How are our consciences
formed?
Our
consciences are formed gradually through the natural educational agents of our
family upbringing, our school training, parish catechesis, and the influence of
friends and social contacts.
726. How do we form a “Christian
conscience”?
A
“Christian conscience” is formed gradually in faith and through personal and
ecclesial prayer-life:
• by attending to the Word of God and the
teachings of the Church,
• by responsiveness to the indwelling Holy
Spirit, and
• by critical reflection on our concrete moral
choices and experiences of daily life.
“Heart
factors” include reading and prayerful reflection on Jesus’
teaching and actions, and our own prayer and sacramental life.
“Mind
factors” refer to a deepening in understanding of Sacred
Scripture and Church teaching, especially Catholic moral principles, and sound
moral guidance.
727. What types of conscience are
there?
Many
different categories are used to describe the exercise of conscience, but the
most functional is:
• “correct” conscience corresponds to objective moral values and precepts;
• “erroneous” conscience, one which mistakenly judges something as morally good which
is objectively evil.
Our
moral responsibility is to develop a properly “informed” conscience, and to
correct any erroneous conscience we may have had.
728. What must our consciences
decide on?
To
judge the good or evil of an act, our consciences must decide on its three
essential aspects:
• the nature or object of the
act,
• our intention as agents
or doers of the act, and
• the circumstances which
affect the morality of the act.
Chapter 14
The Challenge
of Following Christ
Jesus appeared in Galilee proclaiming the Good News of God: “. . . The kingdom of God
is at hand! Reform your lives and believe in the Gospel!”
(Mk 1:15)
The joy and hope,
the grief and anguish of the men of our time, especially of those who are poor
or afflicted in any way, are [shared] by the followers of Christ. For theirs is
a community composed of men who, united in Christ and guided by the Holy
Spirit, press toward the Kingdom of the Father and are bearers of a message of
salvation intended for all men.
(GS 1)
OPENING
729. The preceding chapter sketched the disciple
of Christ as a person with innate dignity shown in responsible use of freedom
according to conscience. This chapter presents the social context
of the moral life of the Christian.
We live in
a world changing at an ever faster pace, where traditional moral values and
ways of acting seem to disappear overnight. It is a world of sharp contrasts,
where mass media flood mind and heart with images of “success” in opulent
luxury and power on one hand, and of “failure” in unspeakable suffering,
destitution and oppression on the other. These sudden upheavals put in question
not only our daily behavior, but more basically our whole Christian vision of
life and fundamental moral attitudes and values. For amidst all the incredible
advances of today, we often find ourselves strangely confused, paralyzed by
uncertainty about the most basic things in Christian moral living.
730. In such a situation, the Church has the
“duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the
light of the Gospel” (GS 4). God’s Word brings the light of Christ to
bear on those “anxious questions about the current trends of the world” (GS
3) which so mark our times. To bring the commandments fulfilled by Christ
to bear on a concrete situation is an act of prophetic interpretation. In
so acting, the Church “is interested in one thing only __ to
carry on the work of Christ under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, for he came
into the world to bear witness to the truth, to save and not to judge, to serve
and not to be served” (GS 3; cf. Jn
18:37; Mt 20:28). Thus this chapter treats of what constitutes the
social context of following Christ in today’s world, namely, Christian
Faith and Morality, developed through Christ’s image of the Kingdom
of God, which calls us to personal conversion from sin in
following Christ, as members of his people, the Church.
CONTEXT
731. Dramatic changes in Philippine life have
occurred in the past decades. Some of the traditional Filipino ways of relating
to one another have quietly faded away. New heightened expectations have
roused formerly dormant people to actively espouse various causes for: a)
liberating the many oppressed; b) defending the human rights of the exploited;
c) improving working conditions, raising salaries, and d) promoting better living conditions among the less
fortunate. The Catholic Church in the Philippines has consistently
exercised a major influence on this new “social awareness” and concern for
justice and the poor. PCP II calls for renewal as a “Church of
the Poor” (cf. PCP II 125-36), courageously addressing the causes and
conditions of poverty and social injustice (cf. PCP II 165, 247-49, 256-61,
290-329, etc.).
732. Yet Philippine society continues to present
glaring contradictions which, far from “passing away,” have so
successfully defied all efforts thus far to remove them, that they have
actually grown in depth and intensity. Never has the gap between rich and
poor Filipinos been so wide, so tangible (conspicuous) and so shameless.
Striking too, despite all the public outcry, the government stress on value
education, and the many religious groups calling for high moral integrity and
reform, is the alleged persistence of widespread political graft and
corruption, and the continued ruthless destructive exploitation
of our natural resources. The enduring spectacle of such national
social ills has contributed to the apparently widespread confusion over the
role of Christian Faith in moral matters.
733. Most Filipinos naturally link their
belief in God with their ideas of good and evil. They pray for guidance
and inspiration of the Holy Spirit when
they have serious problems, or must make an important decision. They make
novenas to gain certain favors. This speaks much of the Filipino Catholics’
conviction of being close to God in their personal lives. Unfortunately, in many cases, these practices remain
enclosed within their own private prayer life, with little relationship
with others. “The split between the faith which many profess and the
practice of their daily lives is one of the gravest errors of our time” (GS
43).
EXPOSITION
I. Faith and Morality
734. We begin with the most general theme of all
__ the influence of Christian Faith on morality. Every human
person, Christian or not, is called to live a moral life. Therefore, Christian
faith and moral life are not identical. But for Filipino Christians,
their Faith makes a radical difference in their moral lives in two basic
ways:
1) by providing a distinctive Christian meaning
to life; and
2) by strengthening moral motivation with
uniquely Christian motives.
735. The Christian meaning for the
individual person was detailed in the preceding chapter: how
Christ gives new practical meaning to the innate dignity of human persons, to
what it means to be authentically free, with a good and true conscience. For
the broader vision of this personal meaning within the real world context, with
all its problems, evils, and suffering, Faith brings further meaning. In the
words of Vatican II:
736. In the Christian vision, the world
is the whole human family, the theater of human history — its
travails, its triumphs and failures __ this world has been
created and is sustained by the love of its Maker, [it] has been freed from the
slavery of sin by Christ, who was crucified and rose again in order to break
the stranglehold of personified Evil, so that it might be fashioned anew
according to God’s design and brought to its fulfillment (GS 2).
737. The motivation with which Faith
inspires the moral life of Filipino Christians flows from this new meaning Christ
gives, and from the Spirit of Truth who guides us to all truth (cf. Jn
16:13). Motives are gradually formed by the many symbols, stories,
personages, ritual ceremonies, customs and prayers through which the Faith is
handed on from generation to generation. Thus, not only the mind but the
imagination, affections, heart and will of the Filipino Christian are deeply
touched by Faith in Christ. PCP II emphasizes this motivation by
beginning its vision of a Church renewed with “The Way of Jesus,” and “The Call
of Jesus Today” (cf. PCP II 37-85).
738. Christian Faith radically influences the
moral life of the Filipino, then:
a) By giving reasons for acting in a
Christian way. The Christ of the Gospels provides a new perspective
which helps us to interpret the relevant moral aspects of our daily life
situations. He is the “light” that illumines our consciences with the truth, so
we can “judge what is God’s will, what is good, pleasing and perfect” (Rom
12:2). “God’s Word is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged
sword. . . it judges the reflections and thoughts of the heart” (Heb 4:12).
b) By developing the attitudes and
dispositions of Christ. Christians grow up with the Gospel stories of
Christ’s care for the poor, his fidelity to his Father, his sacrificial love.
We honor Mary and the Saints for their heroic virtues in following Christ
through the power given them by the Holy Spirit. Thus Christ-like attitudes are
built up which “test and interpret all things in a truly Christian spirit” (GS
62).
c) By inspiring “Christ-like”
affections. The Christ of the Gospel naturally attracts us. As
Filipinos, our natural affective nature is formed under the sacramental
influence of our Baptism, Confirmation, Confession,
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