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Friday, March 1, 2013

CFC [P.216 - 220]



755.     Moreover it is within the Church that we Filipino Catholics, baptized into the death of Christ Jesus, to live a new life (cf. Rom 6:3-4), encounter the Risen Christ sacramentally __ forgiving us in Penance, strengthening us in Confirmation and Anointing, sanctifying our life’s vocation in Matrimony and Orders, and most of all, nourishing us with his own Body and Blood in the Eucharist. Through these saving sacramental encounters, the Holy Spirit inspires and empowers us as Christ’s followers, with infused virtues to strengthen us for the moral combat in the service of others.

756.     Church as Communal Support. The Church provides the communal support absolutely necessary to be faithful in following Christ in our moral living. The next chapter takes up the specific role of the Church’s Magisterium, or teaching function, as norm for our consciences in moral reasoning and the process of moral deciding (cf. CCC 2032-37). Here we summarize the broader mission of the Church in regard to the moral lives of her members in terms of three functions: a) to help form Christian moral character; b) to carry on and witness to Christian moral tradition; and c) to serve as the community of Christian moral deliberation.

757. Active Agent in Forming Christian Character. One commendable feature of today’s moral thinking is the shift in emphasis from individual acts and techniques of decision making to the formation of moral consciousness or character. More important for moral living than explicit instructions in the form of do’s and don’ts are the symbols, images, stories, and celebrations that, by capturing our active imaginations, determine in great part how we think, evaluate, judge and decide morally. Thus the Church helps form moral character with its epic Old Testament narratives of Creation, the Fall, the Flood, the Sinai Covenant, Exodus, and the formation of the Kingdom of Israel with their great heroes and figures __ Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses and David. The New Testament follows with the “Good News” of Jesus the Christ, who redeems all by his Passion, Death and Resurrection. Such stories are not only proclaimed by and in the Church, but also embodied in its ritual ceremonies, and imitated in its history of saintly witnesses through the ages.
       Thus does the Church help form moral character by exercising an indispensable influence on the imaginations and moral sense of Filipino Catholics.

758.     Bearer of Moral Tradition. A common complaint today among those plagued with difficult moral decisions is the lack of “rootedness.” So many have lost the sense of who they are, their identity, heritage and “roots.” For Filipinos, the Catholic Church can supply their solid point of reference, where they feel at home in continuity with their family and community traditions. The constancy of the Church’s moral tradition through changing times helps Filipino Catholics:
a) by grounding their own moral development with moral instructions, customs and ways of acting;
b) by supplying much of the content of a Christian morality __ the Ten Commandments, Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, the Precepts of the Church; and
c) by serving as the structure or framework for their moral accountability as disciples of Christ.

       Specifically, the Precepts of the Church include: 1) to assist at Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation; 2) to fast and abstain on the days appointed; 3) to confess one’s sins at least once a year, and receive Holy Communion during the Easter time; 4) to contribute to the support of the Church; and 5) to observe Church laws concerning marriage.

759.     Community of Moral Deliberation. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), and individual bishops throughout the land, have consistently brought before Filipino Catholics the burning moral issues affecting everyone __ on violence, peace, family planning, procured abortion and euthanasia, on voting in elections, on ecology, anti-government coups, and the like. These directive/guidelines and the moral reasoning employed are often themselves the outcome of prolonged serious reflection, careful research and discussion. In this, the Church is acting as a moral community in which active and vigorous dialogue between Filipinos on serious moral matters can take place on all levels, under the guidance of the Bishops. Typical are the moral catechetical programs for school children, religious education for teenagers, cursillos, marriage encounter programs, and social action seminars for adults __ just to name a few.


III. The Mystery of Wickedness: Sin

760.     But our common experience testifies to the fact that the full and perfect Reign of God has not yet come. On the contrary, we are all too conscious of our shattered world in which so many moral evils, both personal and social, afflict the human race. All too easily we can recognize St. Paul’s descriptions of the “works” of the flesh: “lewd conduct, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, bickering, jealousy, outbursts of rage, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envy, drinking bouts, orgies and the like” (Gal 5:19-21). “The mystery of evil is already at work” (2 Thes 2:7). So we must face the reality of SIN which obstructs the coming of Christ’s Kingdom.

761.     The Mystery of Sin. But beyond the stark factual reality of sin, we must recognize that sin is not simply “doing something wrong,” or “making a mistake” which we can easily rectify at will. John Paul II describes it as follows:

Clearly sin is a product of man’s freedom. But deep within its human reality there are factors at work which place it beyond the merely human, in the border-area where human conscience, will, and sensitivity are in contact with the dark forces which, according to St. Paul, are active in the world, almost to the point of ruling it (RP 14).

The mystery of sin “hates the light” (cf. Jn 3:19; 1 Jn 2: 9f), and we, sinners all, are often ashamed to take it seriously. But we need to reflect deeply on sin: 1) to truly appreciate God’s everlasting merciful love, and 2) to correct common distorted ideas of God, the Church, conscience, law and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

762. In summary fashion, with St. Augustine, we can define sin as “an utterance, a deed or a desire contrary to the eternal law” (cf. CCC 1849). We can sketch the essence of sin in a few broad strokes as:
   refusing to follow our own conscience’s call towards the good;
   rejecting God, our Creator and Lord, and our own true selves and others, by turning away from God, our true end; and
   breaking God’s loving Covenant with us, shown forth in Jesus Christ, dying and rising for our sake.
       What must be stressed these days is the inner link between rejecting God and rejecting ourselves. In refusing God and wishing to make a god of ourselves, we deceive and destroy ourselves. We become alienated from the truth of our being. Hence, to acknowledge oneself a sinner, is to know oneself guilty — not only before conscience, but before God our Creator, Lawgiver, and Savior (cf. CCC 1849-51).

763.     The “Sense of Sin.” Our Christian faith alerts us to the basic fact that we are “not well,” that all of us have an urgent need for a physician to “cure us.”

If we say, “We are free of the guilt of sin,” we deceive ourselves; the truth is not to be found in us. But if we acknowledge our sins, he who is just can be trusted to forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word finds no place in us (1 Jn 1:8-10).

764.     Moral life, then, requires that we recognize in ourselves the tendency to sin and acknowledge ourselves as sinners when we have done evil. PCP II presents Jesus’ mission to “liberate from sinfulness” (cf. PCP II 53-54), as well as his call to us for “overcoming the reality of personal sin and sinful structures (cf. PCP II 81-86, 266-70). Today this sense of sin seems to have been radically weakened by secularism: we are caught up in the flagrant consumerism that surrounds us. We are unconsciously influenced by the modern behaviorist psychologies that identify sin with morbid guilt feelings or with mere transgressions of legal norms (cf. RP 18). And through radio, TV and the cinema, we continually face so many examples of bribery and corruption in business and government, cheating in family life and lying in personal relationships, that we often end up rationalizing for our own misdeeds: “Anyway, everybody does it,” or “I had to do it because. . . .”

765.     Even within the thought and life of the Church, certain trends contribute to the decline of this basic sense of sin. Exaggerated attitudes of the past are replaced by opposite exaggerations: from seeing sin everywhere to not recognizing it anywhere; from stressing the fear of hell to preaching a love of God that excludes any punishment due to sin; from severe correction of erroneous consciences to a respect for individual conscience that excludes the duty of telling the truth. Some conclude: “the sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin” (RP 18). Despite the “natural piety” of the Filipino, an authentic Christian “sense of sin” is gradually being eroded due mainly to religious ignorance and the consequent secularistic set of attitudes and values. A true sense of sin is a grace as we perceive in the saints, who (paradoxically) manifested, without exception, a far keener sense of sin than the “ordinary sinner.”

A.   Sin in Sacred Scripture

766.     The Old Testament presents three basic notions for what we call sin.
a) Missing the mark focuses on the offense inflicted on another by failing to meet one’s covenant obligations. Since the first law of the Covenant is worship of Yahweh, idolatry is its clearest expression. “The worship of infamous idols is the reason and source and extremity of all evil” (cf. Wis 14:27).
b) Depravity and perversity refer to the defect of character or disorder that weighs the sinner down. “For my iniquities . . . are like a heavy burden, beyond my strength” (Ps 38:5).
c) Rebellion and transgression picture sin as a conscious choice which destroys positive relationships. “See what rebellious Israel has done! She has . . . played the harlot” (Jer 3:6).

767.     More importantly, the Old Testament manifests certain shifts of emphasis in its conception of sin. A more primitive, less morally developed idea of sin pictures it as defilement or “stain,” the sense of being unclean before the face of God, the All-Holy. “You shall warn the Israelites of their uncleanness, lest by defiling my Dwelling, their uncleanness be the cause of their death” (Lv 15:31). Strong in its sense of God’s holiness, this “stain” image manifests a rather primitive ethical sense by: 1) missing the inner evil of sin in not seeing the difference between responsible free acts and involuntary evils; 2) fixing on sexual taboos and ritual cleanliness, but ignoring interpersonal and societal justice; and 3) being motivated by a self-centered fear that shuts out authentic faith in the transforming merciful forgiveness of God.

768.     A more ethical view of sin is presented in the Old Testament prophets and “covenant” narratives. Sin is seen as a crime, an internal, willful violation of Yahweh’s covenant relationship. Isaiah warns: “It is your sins that make Him [Yahweh] hide His face,” and lists their sins: their works are evil, their lips speak falsehood, their hands are stained with innocent blood, their feet run to evil, and their thoughts to destruction, plunder and ruin on their highways. Crooked have they made their paths, and the way of peace they know not (cf. Is 59:2-8). Viewing sin as crime emphasizes its juridical aspect, with its concern for determining the nature of the crime, the culpability of the sinner, and the appropriate punishment.

769.   A third model of sin is personal rejection of a love relationship. It draws on the Bible’s covenantal language of personal vocation, discipleship and conversion, to reduce the fire and brimstone emphasis of the more

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