UNIT I: The Gift of New Life in Christ

Introduction:
To witness to our new life in Christ is to live out in our daily life the teachings of Jesus
Christ on moral living, the love that He has for human beings and the grace that we
received in Baptism. This implies that we will deal with the basic concepts of morality
and connect it to our faith as Catholic Christians.

Morality is not just a religious concern. People from different organizations and
disciplines are also interested in knowing what is right and wrong. It is necessary to
define key terms before we begin the first unit to come up with a common
understanding since some terms are generic (being used also in other fields of studies).

What is Moral?
“Moral” came from the Latin word “mores” which means customs, habitual ways of
doing things (Knox, 2003). Customary ways of doing things can be either right or wrong,
good or evil. It varies from culture to culture.

What is Good?
Anything that contributes to the full actualization of human potential and the proper
development of the human person is good. Believers see God as the final end and
purpose of human life, the supreme good.

What is Evil?
Anything that frustrates or acts against the proper growth and development of humans
is considered to be evil. CCC 309-311 mentions two kinds of evil: physical evil and
moral evil. Physical evil is evil brought on by forces normally outside human control
such as natural disasters, sickness, accidents and the likes. Moral evil is evil brought by
free unjustified actions of other humans such as rape and murder.

How is Morality in general different with Christian Morality?

Morality in general sense makes use of reason as the standard for determining what is
right or wrong. However, what is reasonable to one group may not be reasonable to
another group of persons. So, morality in general can be viewed from different
perspective. Christian Morality, on the other hand, uses the message of Jesus Christ as
the standard for determining what is right or wrong. The main message of Jesus is that
we love one another with a truly self-sacrificing love, like His love for us. This kind of
love is the principal moral norm for Christians (Knox, p.291).

This book will spell out in detail why Jesus loves humans unconditionally, how He
showed his love to us so that we can imitate how to truly love our fellow humans, and
how we can obey his command that we must love one another.

This book is divided into two units. Unit I deals with the gift of new life in Christ and Unit
II deals with living the new life in Christ.
Unit I presents the many aspects of Christian morality as gifts since it begins from the
love of God and will end in eternal union with God. As recipients of this new life in
Christ, it is only proper to begin our lesson with the study of humans as moral persons.
As Knox emphasized in his book Theology for Teachers, the fundamental value in
morality is always the human person and the person in relationship with society. Lesson
1 focuses on the gift of being a moral person in Christ. It examines the nature of the
human person based on experience, explores why God loves humans so much, and
explains why humans have inherent dignity. Lesson 2 focuses on the gift of salvation in
Christ. Lesson 3 focuses on the gift of freedom God bestowed on us. It explains the
meaning of authentic freedom, how to exercise it responsibly and ultimately become our
free true self – children of God. Lesson 4 focuses on the Holy Spirit’s gift of grace to the
human person especially for the conversion of sinners. Lesson 5 focuses on the gift of
the person of Christ as moral norms which serve as objective criteria in determining
what is right or wrong. Lesson 6 focuses on the gift of being enlightened by the moral
teachings of Jesus. It specifically explains the Ten Commandments and the Eight
Beatitudes as the foundation of moral living. Lesson 7 focuses on the social teachings
of the Church. It presents key themes and principles that the church teaches to guide
the people in the social dimension of their moral life.