MORAL LAW
Over what laws does the Church have
authority? On which sectors of human affairs are they
allowed to make judgments? (CCC 2032-2040)
The
Church always has the right to announce moral principles. As
well, they can make judgments on human affairs if they
pertain to fundamental human rights and the salvation of
souls. The authority of the Magisterium also includes the
precepts of natural law because their observance is
necessary for salvation. Not only does the Church and its
Magisterium have the right to proclaim these truths, but the
faithful have the right to receive them. All men are made
for truth and should have access to it so that they can know
it and live it.
What are the obligatory
precepts to which all Catholics must adhere? (CCC 2041-2043)
The
following precepts are the minimum needed by the
faithful to assist in prayer and moral efforts and actions
and to grow in love of God and neighbor. We should never
stop at the minimum however. True love wants to love with
its whole self as much as possible. Naturally, love goes to
the extreme. This should be our goal. However, the following
is what the Church requires to preserve love, life, and
growth in the Church.
The
first precept requires that we attend Mass on
Sundays and holy days of obligations (Feast of the
Assumption, Immaculate Conception, All Souls Day, etc.) As
well, it requires that is a day of rest, free from work and
activities that will make the day less holy.
The
second precept requires that we go confess our
sins at least once a year in the Sacrament of
Reconciliation. However, if a person is in mortal sin, he
should confess as soon as possible.
The
third precept requires that we receive the
Eucharist at least once during the Easter Season (Easter and
the 50 days following it).
The
fourth precept requires that we observe days
of fasting and abstinence that are prescribed by the Church.
Days of fasting include Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Days
of abstinence are Fridays (in which we are asked to offer
some sacrifice) and the Fridays of Lent in which we are
asked to abstain from meat. These are times of penance that
help us repair for sin and acquire mastery over our bodily
passions and instincts.
The
fifth precept requires that w assist and
provide for the material needs of the Church, each according
to his own ability.
Is there really such thing as
absolute moral laws that apply for all men? Don’t we have
the ability to decide for ourselves what is right and what
is wrong? (CCC 1950-1953)
Yes,
there is an absolute law that applies for all man, and no we
do not have the ability or right to determine it ourselves.
In fact, this is the root of all human rebellion and sin – a
desire to determine for ourselves what is good and what is
evil. It is the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden. They were
told not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
because only God determines what is good and evil. By eating
of this tree, they rebelled against this fundamental truth.
They wanted to make their own rules, be their own judge. Is
this not reminiscent of every human sin? Each time we sin,
we are saying to God, “I know better than you.” What a
failure in reason. What makes us believe that the creature
knows better than the Creator what is best for him? This is
like the car saying to its auto-manufacturer that is going
to run itself with soda instead of gasoline – and then
actually doing so. We laugh at this silly example, but in
essence that is what we say to God every time we sin – I
know best. Why do we do this? Unfortunately, we have a
distorted image of God in our minds. We do not trust that He
is good and that He wants our best, that He wants us to be
happy. So we take matters into our own hands. This is why
Jesus came to the earth – to show us that the Father can be
trusted no matter what. He showed us that God is Love, and
that this Love is willing to die to prove itself to us.
How do we know of what absolute
moral law really consists?
First, all law comes from God’s divine and eternal law. In
creation, God established a natural order that is
governed by natural laws. These laws ensure that
creation functions and operates according to its intended
and beautiful purpose. A fundamental truth is that creation
is orderly, just like God. All things, non-living and living
(excluding humans) follow these laws without choice. The
apple falls from the tree due to gravity, no matter what.
Animals behave in characteristic ways due to the natural
laws imprinted in their beings; we call this instinct.
He
gave human beings a natural law as well. However, God not
only imprinted us with a natural law that flowed from His
eternal law, but He also gave us the ability to know it
(through our intellect) and the ability to choose whether or
not to follow it (through our will). Animals do not have
either of these capabilities. The natural law is imprinted
into our being, stamped in each one of us. This is why men
with no formal religion, men who lived before the time of
Christ, men who never heard of the Jews or Jesus, have the
capability to live moral and orderly lives. The ability to
know these laws is imprinted in us, and our conscience
speaks it to us.
God’s
natural law can be discovered by human reason, and this is
why all men are obligated to follow it. We all have the
capability to know it. Natural law is based on first
principles. First principles are self-evident truths,
meaning you cannot help but see the truth in them. These
first principles are the building blocks on which we can
discover more. For example, in math, we must know how to
first add and subtract. From these first principles (adding
and subtracting), we can discover everything else about
math. The same is true of the natural law. Here are some
examples of first principles:
Everything that changes has a cause.
The whole is greater than the parts.
The human mind is capable of knowing truth.
Truth and reality exist.
Good should be sought, and evil should be avoided.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
God is to be loved above all.
Famous philosophers like Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates were
able to come to understand this, and they came to some
fundamental truths concerning the content of natural law.
Aristotle, beginning with first principles, was almost able
to come to the full truth concerning natural and moral law
without ever knowing of Judaism or Christianity. Why did he
fall short?
Unfortunately, sin has darkened our intellect and weakened
our wills. Therefore, it is far more difficult to know
the natural law and far more difficult to follow it.
Because of sin, we have greatly diminished our capacity to
correctly understand natural law, and we have extreme
difficulty following it. Because of this diminished
capacity, even the most brilliant men like Aristotle were
only able to come close; it requires more than what we are
capable. It requires grace and revelation from God. God
reveals the natural law to us, not only through nature, but
through His words, His actions, and His Son. We also need
grace to purify and renew our minds concerning the truth.
Therefore, in conclusion, in order to know God’s law
fully and without error, we need our intellect, God’s
revelation given through the Church, and the help of His
grace. Finally, when we know it, we must act on it.
Why does God give us so many rules to
follow? It seems as though He does not want us to enjoy
ourselves.
The
question itself here betrays the false assumption on which
it is based. Unfortunately, most the time we view God’s
rules as things that prevent us from enjoying ourselves.
This is our first mistake. A car manufacturer includes a
manual when it sells new cars. The manual gives the owner
information and suggestions about the functions, make-up,
and maintenance of the car. We can easily agree that if a
person were to follow the suggestions in the manual to
perfection that his car will run at peak performance for the
longest period of time. The same thing applies to us and the
laws of God. The Lord gave us life, our bodies, creation,
one another and Himself. He wants us to be perfectly happy.
Therefore, He gave us guidelines to follow in order to
endure that we “function” in the best possible way. Notice a
few things about this. Always, without fail, God gives the
gift first and then, only afterwards, does He provide
rules to maintain it. He does not wave the gift in front of
us and require that we do certain things in order to attain
it. He does not put obligations on us, and then reward us if
we perform well. No. He gives us great gifts, and then He
helps us to maintain and keep them by giving up rules to
follow. The rules are not burdensome; instead, they lead to
perfect happiness. When we live according the laws of God,
we are living as we were created to live, and only then will
we have perfect peace and joy. As long as we believe that
“we know best,” we will continue to experience interior and
exterior misery.
How can you say that He gives the
gift before He gives the rules? Isn’t that how heaven works:
we do good works and then we go to heaven?
This
is how it initially seems, but no. Heaven is ours. He has
offered and given the gift. It is waiting there for us, and
God will never take it away. Heaven is full union with the
Lord and a sharing in His life. We actually already have
some of this here on earth. We are partially united with God
now, according the level of our holiness. As well, each time
we receive the Eucharist we become more physically and
spiritually united with Christ. We must imagine life as a
journey, a walk toward the sun. The sun is there, but far
away. As we get closer to it, we experience more of the heat
and light that it gives off. And if we choose to keep
walking, we will eventually arrive, and we will be united
with the sun, experiencing its full brilliance and beauty.
The only reason we will not enjoy the presence of the sun is
if we choose to turn around and walk away. In this case, it
is not the sun that is moving, but instead it is us. The
same is true with heaven and the love of God. He has offered
the gift, we can experience some of its joys now, and these
joys will increase as we choose to walk to closer to Him.
Heaven will never be a gift that is taken away; we only lose
it if we reject it. Just because we do not have full
possession of the gift, this does not mean that the Lord is
withholding it until we do enough good things. His hands are
constantly open to us, pouring out His grace, but He can
only give as much as we are willing to receive.
Why do religions have different
laws? Is it possible that more than one may be proclaiming
the truth?
As we
said before, man’s ability to know and follow truth has been
distorted by sin. We see this clearly with the presence of
so many different religions in the world. All claim that
they possess truth. However, it is easy to see that they
cannot all be true because many of their beliefs contradict.
For example, imagine two people are looking at a blue
sweater. One says it is blue, the other claims it is red.
One person must be wrong; it is impossible that both are
correct. (Now some people may say, “What if the person who
says it is red is color blind, and he sees it as red. Aren’t
both people right then? No. The sweater is still blue.
Though it may appear red to the color-blind man,
the sweater is still blue. This actually perfectly
illustrates the problem with man today. People see things,
and claim certain “truths” that are actually wrong; however,
they truly believe they are correct. But just like the color
blind man, the error lies not in truth itself, but in the
man. No matter how much we may “see” something as truth,
we must understand that truth never changes. The
error always comes from inside us, from an error in the way
we “see” and think.)
Therefore, we can quickly conclude that some of these
religions must be proclaiming things that are not true.
How do we know what
real right and wrong is, what God’s laws really are? In
other words, which religion, if any, has the right idea
about God?
If we
understand that some religions must be proclaiming false
ideas, we are led to a potential internal crisis – how do I
know what truth really is? This is truly a potentially
overwhelming question because our whole lives depend on it.
However, we can be at peace because there is a light to
follow.
First, God is Truth.
It can be no other way – if someone else were more “true”
than God, then that someone would be God.
Second, God wants us to know Truth.
If He did not, He would be a mean and terrible God because
He would be tricking us and making us believe lies. If this
is the case, then the conversation is over and we have no
hope for anything anymore. We are doomed to eternal misery.
Fortunately, this is not the case, for God is Love and
Truth.
Next, we have the ability to know and recognize truth.
We were created for it. God wants us to be able to
know Him so He created us with the ability to know and
understand Him. This is what our intellect is for. Again, if
this were not the case, we would be under the power of a
powerful, yet unloving God, who is content to allow us to
wonder aimlessly through life with no direction, no help,
and no knowledge. Again, we are thankful that God is Love
and this is not the case.
All
of this should give us hope, for we know that we have the
ability to know God and that He actually wants
us to know Him. This means that even if we have lost some
ability to understand truth because of sin, we have a God
who will help us in our need. Therefore, the first step in
finding truth is simply having a sincere desire to find it
and the perseverance to go out looking for it, knowing the
Lord is going to help us in our search. As long as we
continue to look and change our lives according to it when
we find it, the Lord will never cease to lead us to Him.
Many
great men have embarked on this journey in the search of
truth. And all men who persevered in this quest have found
the Catholic Church. Countless souls throughout history have
looked and have found what they are looking for in the
Church. Why? Because they find Truth there. The Truth
present in the Church is evident in a number of ways. First,
it is reasonable. Second, it is conforms to human
experience. It conforms to history. Our minds recognize
it as truth (remember our intellect is created to recognize
it). It has the power to change us. Last, it is cohesive.
What does this mean? It means that everything fits perfectly
together. St. John Henry Neumann once said that Truth is a
like a giant tapestry: if you pull out a thread from one
part, the entire thing will unravel. This is true about the
truths of our faith. Each one relies on and works together
with the others. This is where most other religions clearly
fail. They claim two truths, but those two things don’t make
sense with one another. Truth is cohesive, in that the whole
encompasses all the parts, and none of the parts contradict
one another.
If
you are searching, first pray with a sincere heart to a Lord
that is waiting for you to know Him. Then have courage to
embark on the search, and be willing to open your hearts to
what you find, knowing you will find neither the rest nor
the peace your heart desires until you have embraced it.
Did Jesus abolish the Law of the
Old Testament when He came? Do we have to still follow its
precepts? (CCC 1961-1974)
No,
Jesus did not abolish the Old Law, but instead, He fulfilled
it. What does this mean? In order to understand, we need to
look at the entire history of humanity as a single,
developing person. In the beginning humanity was a baby, a
small child. When children are small we give them rules.
These rules are meant for their safety and well-being. They
are basic, and they are meant to instill in them a sense of
right and wrong. However, the children may not fully
understand the rules or their purposes at the time. In the
beginning, parents need to develop a sense of obedience and
this often comes before understanding. In other words,
though a parent may try to explain a rule, they still expect
obedience to it, regardless of whether the child understands
it or not. Obviously, a mom is not going to wait to tell her
toddler not to touch the stove until the toddler is fully
capable of understanding why. This is a good lesson for us.
We need to obey first, and then understand, or else we risk
getting burned. This is the first way we can look at the Old
Law. It is given to a people not capable of understanding
the fullness of God’s laws. Therefore, the laws are more
basic and not complete or perfect. This is why it is said
that Christ came in the “fullness of time.” He came at a
moment in history in which humanity, the child, was capable
of understanding what He wanted to reveal. He wants us to
fully understand His laws, but He also realizes our
capabilities and works within them. He cannot give us
understanding until our mind is developed enough to receive
it.
Next,
the Old Law was meant to re-instill a sense of our need for
God. With the first sin and every sin, we claim (whether we
know it or not) that we do not need God. We basically tell
Him that we can figure things out on our own. However, this
is not true, and God needs us to realize it because we will
not return to God until we realize we need Him. The Old Law
helps us understand this. It does this by providing precepts
and rules that we are not capable of following with our own
strength. It shows us what we are supposed to do. However,
our fallen humanity cannot do it. We are in need of God’s
grace and strength. God gives the Israelites the Law; they
try to fulfill it; they cannot; therefore, they must turn to
the Lord for help. The Law creates in them the awareness
that they need God. In fact, they fall so many times that
they become desperate. This is when God sent His Son. Again,
in the “fullness of time” He sends His Son to fulfill
the Law. Now through Him, He gives us the grace to be
able to do the same. Sending His Son before we understood
that we needed Him would have been pointless – we will not
seek what we do not think we need. The Lord works the same
way in each of our lives today. Sometimes He allows us to
fall many times until we understand that we need His help.
This increases our humility and allows Him to help us. If He
gave us the graces before we understood that we cannot do it
on our own, we would become prideful thinking we were
fulfilling His law by our own strength.
In
conclusion, the New Law fulfills the Old Law and
provides the grace for us to fulfill it. It is the
Law of Love. It refines, surpasses and perfects the Old Law,
raising it to its intended level. The child has grown and
become a man. This new man in Christ can understand the
fullness of what God wants to reveal. Yes, we must follow
the precepts of the Old Law, but in their essence,
not their details. We must love our neighbor. In the Old Law
this entitled strict justice, maybe even and eye for an eye.
But the Jesus elevated love for neighbor to its intended
purpose – love to extreme of laying down your life. The New
Law elevates the Old Law to its intended level.
If someone else is not Catholic,
how can I require him to follow the same moral precepts as
myself if he has his own set of beliefs about what is right
and wrong? (CCC 1954-1960)
Reading the previous questions will lend more insight to
this answer so we keep this one brief and simple. If God’s
laws are intended to help us have happiness, fulfillment and
peace, then why wouldn’t someone want to follow them? If we
really love someone, we should help them find truth because
only truth satisfies the longings of every human heart. We
do this first by living out the truth in our own
lives – this is the best way to prove its efficacy. Second,
we speak the truth in love always. Third, we pray for people
to open their hearts to the truth. Very simply – truth is
love. Therefore, we must love them, for love always triumphs
in the human heart.
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