UNIT III.

CALLED TO THE FULLNESS OF LIFE LESSON A: Genuine freedom must be given emphasis in order to
GENUINE FREEDOM: THE PURSUIT OF THE GOOD straighten man’s path toward the awareness of one’s
fidelity to the dignity which was lost to sin.
Trisha never really liked Benjamin from the moment
they met at class. She feels that Benjamin in annoying in As man strives to become ‘like-God’, he/she is called to
every sort of way and so she doesn’t want to be around always be reminded that the more we become like God,
her even if Benjamin is just minding his own business. the more we become human, and the more we become
Feeding on her antipathy towards her unsuspecting humans, the more we should be like God.
classmate, Trisha thought about creating a fake social
Example: St. Mother Teresa has become an icon of
media account where she can spread untrue and mean
holiness because she exercised the genuine freedom
rumors about Benjamin in order embarrass the latter.
that Christians are all called to do: the works of God
Trisha knows that this is something that is doable but
she feels distressed thinking that just because she can
doesn’t mean she should, no matter how badly she
wants it to happen. 2. Dignity and Freedom: The Fulfillment and
Manifestation of God’s Presence in Man
Man’s Freedom
• Man’s life is from God and God alone has the sole
God created man a rational being, conferring on him right to take it away.
the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his
own actions. - CCC 1730 • Washing man’s inequities through the blood of Christ
makes man acceptable before God.
“Man is rational and therefore like God: he is created
with free will and is master over his acts.” - St Irenaeus • By virtue of baptism, as adopted sons and daughters
of God, man’s body becomes the temple of the Holy
❖ Freedom is the power rooted in reason and will, to Spirit.
act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform
• God’s presence in man makes him/her holy, sacred
deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility.
Authentic Freedom
❖ Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in
truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when It is not the right to say and do anything but to do good.
directed toward God, our beatitude. - CCC 1731 It is not my own individual private possession, but a
shared freedom with others in community. It is not
1. Freedom as Expression of Dignity: God’s Image and
found in prejudice, deceit, or ignorance but in truth.
Likeness in Man
- CCC 1740
Freedom is anchored on man’s dignity, i.e., being made
in the image and likeness of God Freedom towards the ASPECTS OF AUTHENTIC FREEDOM
good can only be achieved and perfected in God while
FREEDOM FROM
being totally aware of the call to be always faithful to
one’s dignity Freedom from everything that opposes our true
selfbecoming with others in community such as interior
• True (Authentic) freedom is a freedom only for the
obstacles like ignorance, disordered passions, bad
good.
habits, prejudices or psychological disturbances and
• Human person as the perfect and the crowning glory exterior forces such as violent force or violence.
of God’s creation must participate in Gods creative
works which are good.
SOURCES OF IMPEDIMENTS TO FREEDOM
• Thus, man is always expected to choose the good in
all his/her undertakings. • Biological

Include inherited handicaps and defects as well as

external substances like drugs
• Psychological
Interior compulsions, including those originating from
the unconscious
• Social Pressures
Such as the many economic, political, and cultural
obstacles which impede the right to freedom. All these
factors diminish our freedom and thus moral
imputability and responsibility
• Sin
The greatest single obstacle to authentic freedom.
Liberation to true freedom means first and foremost
liberation from the radical slavery of sin. Instruction on
Christian Freedom and Liberation 23
• FREEDOM FOR
Freedom for growing as full persons and children of
God, sharing in the life of Christ our Liberator through
his Spirit. It is the freedom found in authentic love.
Individually, this would consist of the freedom of choice
and fundamental freedom
• Freedom of Choice
It is the freedom by which I direct my moral acts. One
has the freedom to choose to act in this way or that
way, to do good or evil. But by consistently choosing to
do the good, we gradually become free loving persons. -
Veritatis Splendor 65-68
• Fundamental Freedom
By gradually becoming free-loving persons striving to
overcome the obstacles from within and without, we
gradually grow towards authentic, mature fundamental
freedom. Thus, freedom for is both a process and a
task.
• Now freedom enters here when man treats the other
with outmost respect and high regard for the presence
of God in each person.
• It is by virtue of our dignity that we are equal before
the eyes of God.
•Creation happened because of the unconditional,
undying and unending love of God.
•Man’s response to that overflowing love is
faithfulness.
•Cognition of one’s and other’s dignity must be the
basis of a person’s genuine exercise of genuine
freedom.
As man navigates the ins and outs of genuine freedom,
ideally, the good must always take precedence.
The responsibility in exercising freedom entails that a
person must always bear consciously and unconsciously
that he/she is the only one answerable and accountable
for all the actions he/she committed.
• The intrinsic goodness of man is exercised through the
aid his/her freewill and intellect.
• The election toward the good is only achieved if the
person is definitively bound to God and is totally aware
of the call to be always faithful to one’s dignity.
• Through this, man is able to perfect himself/herself
and is capable of arriving at the promised salvation of
Christ
• Freedom is our ability to be faithful to our dignity.
• Doing God-like actions: loving, showing mercy,
extending compassion, forgiving, etc.
• Therefore, freedom is the ability to choose the good.
• “The more we choose the good, the freer we
become.”
The beginning of freedom, Saint Augustine writes, is:
”To be free from crimes...such as murder, adultery,
fornication, theft, fraud, sacrilege and so forth. When
once one is without these crimes (and every Christian
should be without them), one begins to lift up one's
head towards freedom. But this is only the beginning of
freedom, not perfect freedom..." VS, 13
3. FREEDOM AND LAW
• "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you
shall not eat" (Gen 2:17)
• In the Book of Genesis, we read: "The Lord God
commanded the man, saying, 'You may eat freely of
every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the
day that you eat of it you shall die' " (Gen 2:16-17). VS,
35.
a. The Imagery of Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil:
• Revelation teaches that the power to decide what is
good and what is evil does not belong to man, but to
God alone.
• Man is certainly free, inasmuch as he can understand
and accept God's commands. And he possesses an
extremely far-reaching freedom, since he can eat "of
every tree of the garden".
• But his freedom is not unlimited: it must halt before
the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil", for it is
called to accept the moral law given by God. In fact,
human freedom finds its authentic and complete
fulfilment precisely in the acceptance of that law.
• God, who alone is good, knows perfectly what is good
for man, and by virtue of his very love proposes this
good to man in the commandments. VS, 35
• God's law does not reduce, much less do away with
human freedom; rather, it protects and promotes that
freedom.
• In contrast, however, some present-day cultural
tendencies have given rise to several currents of
thought in ethics which center upon an alleged conflict
between freedom and law.
• These doctrines would grant to individuals or social
groups the right to determine what is good or evil.
• Human freedom would thus be able to "create values"
and would enjoy a primacy over truth, to the point that
truth itself would be considered a creation of freedom.
• Freedom would thus lay claim to a moral autonomy
which would actually amount to an absolute
sovereignty. VS, 35
• In response to the encouragement of the Second
Vatican Council, there has been a desire to foster
dialogue with modern culture, emphasizing the rational,
and thus universally understandable and
communicable, character of moral norms belonging to
the sphere of the natural moral law. VS, 36
• Some people, however, disregarding the dependence
of human reason on Divine Wisdom and the need, given
the present state of fallen nature, for Divine Revelation
as an effective means for knowing moral truths, even
those of the natural order, have actually posited a
complete sovereignty of reason in the domain of moral
norms regarding the right ordering of life in this world.
Such norms would constitute the boundaries for a
merely "human" morality; they would be the expression
of a law which man in an autonomous manner lays
down for himself and which has its source exclusively in
human reason.
In no way could God be considered the Author of this
law, except in the sense that human reason exercises its
autonomy in setting down laws by virtue of a primordial
and total mandate given to man by God.
These trends of thought have led to a denial, in
opposition to Sacred Scripture (cf. Mt 15:3-6) and the
Church's constant teaching, of the fact that the natural
moral law has God as its author, and that man, by the
use of reason, participates in the eternal law, which it is
not for him to establish.
b. God left man in the power of his own counsel" (Sir
15:14)
The Second Vatican Council explains the meaning of
that "genuine freedom" which is "an outstanding
manifestation of the divine image" in man:
"God willed to leave man in the power of his own
counsel, so that he would seek his Creator of his own
accord and would freely arrive at full and blessed
perfection by cleaving to God". VS, 38
The exercise of dominion over the world represents a
great and responsible task for man, one which involves
his freedom in obedience to the Creator's command:
"Fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28).
In view of this, a rightful autonomy is due to every man,
as well as to the human community. This is the
autonomy of earthly realities, which means that
"created things have their own laws and values which
are to be gradually discovered, utilized and ordered by
man".
• Not only the world, however, but also man himself
has been entrusted to his own care and responsibility.
God left man "in the power of his own counsel" (Sir
15:14), that he might seek his Creator and freely attain
perfection.
• Attaining such perfection means personally building
up that perfection in himself. Indeed, just as man in
exercising his dominion over the world shapes it in
accordance with his own intelligence and will, so too in
performing morally good acts, man strengthens,
develops and consolidates within himself his likeness to The more one does what is good, the freer one
God. VS, 39 becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service
of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do
At the heart of the moral life, we thus find the principle
evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to the “slavery of
of a "rightful autonomy" of man, the personal subject of
sin”. – CCC 1733
his actions.
Man’s freedom is limited and fallible…by refusing God’s
The moral law has its origin in God and always finds its
plan of love, he deceived himself and became a slave to
source in him: at the same time, by virtue of natural
sin. – CCC 1739
reason, which derives from divine wisdom, it is a
properly human law. VS, 40. “By deviating from the moral law man violates his own
freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts
The rightful autonomy of the practical reason means
neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine truth.”
that man possesses in himself his own law, received
– CCC 1740
from the Creator. Nevertheless, the autonomy of
reason cannot mean that reason itself creates values “I am the way, the truth and the life.” - (John 14:6)
and moral norms.
“And the truth shall set you free…” - (John 8:32)
Were this autonomy to imply a denial of the
“For freedom Christ has set us free.” - (Gal. 5:1)
participation of the practical reason in the wisdom of
the divine Creator and Lawgiver, or were it to suggest a
freedom which creates moral norms, on the basis of
historical contingencies or the diversity of societies and
cultures, this sort of alleged autonomy would contradict
the Church's teaching on the truth about man.

It would be the death of true freedom: "But of the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for
in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Gen 2:17)

Man's genuine moral autonomy in no way means the

rejection but rather the acceptance of the moral law, of
God's command: "The Lord God gave this command to
the man..." (Gen 2:16).

Human freedom and God's law meet and are called to

intersect, in the sense of man's free obedience to God
and of God's completely gratuitous benevolence
towards man.

Hence obedience to God is not, as some would believe,

a heteronomy, as if the moral life were subject to the
will of something all-powerful, absolute, extraneous to
man and intolerant of his freedom. VS, 41

By forbidding man to "eat of the tree of the knowledge

of good and evil", God makes it clear that man does not
originally possess such "knowledge" as something
properly his own, but only participates in it by the light
of natural reason and of Divine Revelation, which
manifest to him the requirements and the promptings
of eternal wisdom.

Human Freedom
LESSON A: LAW: ABIDING IN TRUTH (AQUINAS)
1. SENSE OF LAW
Law is not limited to:
• A legislative or judicial domain
• Commands, obligations, moral imperatives
• Controlling what other people are free to do.
Law is a teacher
= It is about a rational or reasonable principle of order
by which things are directed to their ends. In this way,
law is a teacher.
Law is a Ruler
= A measure of human acts
= A guide in drawing straight lines.
➢ The straightness and length of the rule is also the
measure of the line you’ve drawn.
➢ The law guides us in our actions to make sure that
they are upright and ordered to the common good.
➢ It also gives us a way to judge our actions. It
measures them, whether we have conformed our
actions to the standard of the law.
2. DEFINITION OF LAW
Aquinas’ Definition of Law
• An ordination of reason for the common good from
him who has care of the community, which is
promulgated or made known. (ST lallae, Q, 90, a.4)
LAW- is an ordinance of reason for the common good,
made by him who has care of the community, and
promulgated.
Two Elements:
• Law is an ordination of reason
➢ law involves some kind of ordering and specifically
an ordering according to reason.
➢ Law is not a command of the will of the superior.
➢ Law is an expression of his (superior) reason
consisting in a kind of reasoned plan or ordering of
things towards the common good.
• Law is an Ordering to the Common Good
➢ Common good is the end that law aims at and serves.
➢ Common good is a good of radically different kind
because it is an end and it can be shared by many
without loss or diminishment, e.g. truth, justice. Goods
that can be shared by many, it is higher and nobler.
➢ It is not a private property of none of them and yet it
is genuinely good for each of them because it is a
common good.
➢ The common good is the explanation of why a law
exists and what it is doing.
✓ law is an ordering based on reason for the sake of
and directing the community towards the common
good.
✓ Common good can be found in the right ordering to
God as the common good and final end of all that is.
LAW is for the common good of the society, not just for
the good of the individual
A Law is a rule of reason, made and promulgated by one
who has charge of the community or society.
*Philosophy of Law (CHRISTIAN VISION OF THE HUMAN
PERSON – THY1)
The LAW aims to make men and society good. It directs
men through reason and virtue to their true end in life.
It aims at what is good for the people. Law makes us
good!
3. TYPES OF LAW
= These are arranged as a hierarchy where the lower
law types of law participate in and make more specific
the higher types.
Four Types of Law
• Eternal Law
The order of creation as it preexists in the divine mind.
➢ Ultimately, that creation would reflect and share in
the glory and splendor of God.
➢ Aquinas begins with the Highest possible level: God
himself, who not only is the creator of the universe but
also its end, the source of its order, and who governs it
by his providential plan.
➢ This plan of order emerges from God’s divine reason
as an idea in God’s mind and like God himself this plan
is eternal. Thus, eternal law
➢ Eternal law is not only in God’s mind but is in the
things that God makes.
➢ Because God has created all things according to a
plan as coming from him and ordered back to him, he
imprints on their very being, in their very nature an
inclination for creatures towards their proper acts and
ends. So, they will tend to their perfection and
fulfillment precisely as the kinds of things they are
according to the nature God has given them.
• Natural Law
The rational creature’s participation in the eternal law.
➢ The way that rational creatures, like human beings,
participate in God’s plan, i.e., in the eternal law.
➢ Unlike lower creatures, we human beings are not
only moved to our end from the outside, but we use our
reason, minds, to actively participate in directing
ourselves, ordering ourselves, and ordering and
directing others towards their ultimate end and we do
this insofar as we understand what kind of beings we
are and what is really good for us and so act accordingly
➢ This eternal law, this plan of God is implanted in
rational creatures in a special way, Aquinas calls this the
natural law.
➢ Thus, we are capable of understanding the world
around us, grasping with our minds, what is good for us
to do and moving ourselves to do it according to this
rational desire called, will.
Human beings have a higher participation in God’s
providential plan than other creatures do because we
can understand it and become willing agents in bringing
it to completion for ourselves, for others, and for our
communities.
➢ Endowed with the power of reason means that we
are not simply moved by brute force or instinct. The
precepts of the natural law follow the order of our
natural inclination.
➢ This means that as we understand the inclinations of
our spiritual nature, we come to grasp what God made
a human being to be and what human life is ordered to.
And so, we come to know what a human being ought to
do and avoid.
Five Principles of Natural Inclinations:
• To good (to what perfects us)
• To self-preservation
• To sexual union
• To knowing the truth
• To Living in society (justice, truth, fairness towards
others)
➢ These inclinations are features of the kind of beings
that we are.
➢ They give us a fundamental orientation towards
what will make us increasingly happy and increasingly
free.
➢ Natural law does not impose on us, it is rather the
very design of our being. As we come to know this with
our minds, we are able to participate intentionally and
freely in this plan.
➢ We order ourselves, our actions according to this
plan by the use of our freedom. This is the purpose of
our freedom, that we be the creatures that order
ourselves freely and knowingly to God according to his
plan.
Properties of the Natural Law
• Universal. Binds all men at all times and in all places,
for it is the very nature of men.
• Indispensable. Man has no authority over natural law.
God is the source of natural law.
• Immutable and Dynamic. Exists for as long as human
nature exists. Changes in the condition of man results in
modified or new demands of the Natural Law.
Relation between Human Law and Natural Law
• Human law is only just in accord with the natural law
and that laws that conflict with the natural law are not
morally binding.
✓ The natural law is most clear with respect to certain
general and negative precepts, e.g., decalogue: theft,
murder, adultery…these are wrong always and
everywhere because they are contrary to what the
natural law teaches us is the good for human beings,
e.g., self-preservation, sexual union, and the raising of
children
✓ The important job of lawmakers is to specify and
apply the general precepts of the natural law in a
particular context and for a particular community.
✓ Then, always respecting what the natural law
demands in its negative precepts, human lawmakers
should make laws that order their communities towards
its common good.
• Divine Positive Law
What God has revealed through divine revelation in the
OT and NT about how human beings should live in order
to come to the supernatural good of heaven
➢ These are things that we could not have discovered
on our own since knowing and travelling on the way to
the triune God completely exceeds what our nature is
capable of by its own power
• Human Law
Application or determination of the natural law on
various levels in particular community.
➢ Also, an ordination of reason for the common good,
in this case the common good of a nation, of the state,
of the city.
➢ More particular and specific than the natural law.
➢ It does not apply everywhere like the natural law
does but only in this jurisdiction and it aims to direct
this particular community and its members to their
proper common good.
Church Laws the Six Commandments of the Church
• To hear mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.
• To fast and abstain on the days appointed.
• To confess at least once a year.
• To receive the Holy Eucharist during Easter Time.
• To contribute to the support of the Church.
• To never violate laws concerning marriage.
Traditional Norms: Law
CLASSIFICATIONS OF LAW
- Origin- Divine and Human
= Divine when the law comes directly from God
= Human when God delegates law-making to men by
virtue of their responsibilities and positions in society.
Civil when they refer to secular society and
Ecclesiastical when they refer to the Church.
- Duration- Eternal and Temporal
= Eternal is that objective and universal law whereby
God orders, directs and governs the whole world and
the ways of the human community according to the
plan of wisdom and love. This law has no end and co-
exists with God.
= Temporal are laws subject to time and therefore can
be changed, abrogated, amended or superseded by
other laws. Human laws are temporal laws.
- Manner of Promulgation -Positive and Natural
= Positive when the laws are directly promulgated
whether human or divine.
= Natural when they are indirectly promulgated or is
found in the nature of creation. It is the law that guides
creatures towards their end.
• Natural law applied to irrational creatures is called
physical law or law of nature while the moral law or
natural law guides rational creatures.
• Natural Law is the participation of the eternal law in
rational creatures.
- Effect- Moral, Penal and Mixed
PRESCRIPTIONS
= Penal when the transgression of the law entails a
punishment.
= Moral when the transgression of the law entails sin or
a fault.
= Mixed when the transgression of the law entails both
a sin and a punishment.
THREE LAWS THAT MAKE US GOOD
• DIVINE LAW OF GOD
• NATURAL LAW OF BEINGS
• HUMAN LAW OF SOCIETY
The DIVINE LAW is the eternal law of GOD. It is a divine
wisdom that directs all our acts and movements in life.
The Divine Law - the Law of Yahweh - works for the
good of all mankind. It brings them to heaven in
holiness.
“Good men follow God’s Divine law and bad men
disobey it.”
THE NATURAL LAW It is the human awareness of the
Divine Law. It consists in recognizing the requirements
of doing good and avoiding evil. Natural Law is
sometimes referred to as Law of Morality.
The HUMAN LAW Human Laws are community laws.
These are the laws of our society, of our government
and of our community
It is a reflection of both the Divine Law and the Natural
Law.
Human Law and Civil Law should be virtuous, just,
according to the customs of a country, suitable in place
and time, necessary for what is good, useful, clearly
expressed, framed for no private benefits, but for the
common good of all the people.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD HUMAN LAW
• Reasonable
• Honest
• Useful
• Relatively permanent
• Duly promulgated
Much as we dislike civil laws, they are essential for
existence. The good civil laws are reflections of God’s
Laws and good human morality.
We cannot live without civil laws but neither can we live
with them unless they are good laws. Civil law must be
aimed at holiness, morality and the good of all people.
Hierarchy of Laws
As a matter of principle, where there is a conflict
between a lower law and a higher law, the higher law
must prevail over the lower law.
Ex. The President cannot issue an Executive Order that
is contrary to the provisions of the Constitution, being
the highest law of the land. Otherwise, people can
question its constitutionality before the Supreme Court,
which then decides whether in fact, it is constitutional
or not.
Thus, where the Civil (State) Law contradicts the Moral
Law, a Christian must in good conscience obey the
moral law which is higher and universal over the civil
law which is local and limited.
ETERNAL LAW > NATURAL LAW > MORAL LAW:
-ECCLESIASTICAL LAW or -CIVIL LAW
CONSCIENCE
Man’s Sanctuary
The relationship between man's freedom and God's law
is most deeply lived out in the "heart" of the person, in
his moral conscience. Vatican II observed:
In the depths of his conscience man detects a law which
he does not impose on himself, but which holds him to
obedience. Always summoning him to love good and
avoid evil, the voice of conscience can, when necessary,
speak to his heart more specifically: 'do this, shun that'.
For man has in his heart a law written by God. To obey
it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be
judged (cf. Rom 2:14-16)" VS, 54
Moral conscience, present at the heart of the person,
enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and
to avoid evil.
It judges particular choices, approving those that are
good and denouncing those that are evil. It bears
witness to the authority of truth in reference to the
supreme Good to which the human person is drawn,
and it welcomes the commandments.
When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can
hear God speaking. CCC, 1777
= is a judgment of reason whereby the human person
recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is
going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has
already completed. (CCC, 1778)
= A judgment of the practical reason on the morality of
a concrete action commanding to do what is good and
to avoid what is evil.
= “It is the most secret core and sanctuary of man.
There he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his
depths.” (GS 16)
“Conscience summons us to love good and avoid
evil…for in our heart is a law written by God. To obey
this law is the very dignity of man.”
In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow
faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the
judgment of his conscience that man perceives and
recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law. CCC,
1778
”The sanctuary of man, where he is alone with God
whose voice echoes within him". This voice, it is said,
leads man not so much to a meticulous observance of
universal norms as to a creative and responsible
acceptance of the personal tasks entrusted to him by
God.”
Conscience, broken down into its root terms, means
“with knowledge” (conscientia).
•Conscience is not a mere feeling, and still less is it a
private preference
•Conscience is a power for knowing right from wrong in
particular circumstances. It works through sound rules
and reasoning.
Conscience cannot come to us from the rulings of
society; otherwise, it would never reprove us when
society approves us, nor console us when society
condemns.” – Cardinal Fulton Sheen
Functions of conscience
Conscience gives us three things:
▪ an awareness of good and evil
▪ a desire for good and aversion to evil
▪ a feeling of joy and peace and rightness at having done
good, and of unease and guilt at having done evil
These three functions of conscience work in the three
parts of the soul:
❖ the mind, or intellect, or reason (an awareness of
good and evil)
❖ the will (a desire for good and aversion to evil)
❖ the emotions, or feelings (a feeling of joy and peace
and rightness at having done good, and of unease and
guilt at having done evil)
Some common errors:
1) Conscience is just a feeling. It is first of all a knowing,
an awareness of the truth about good and evil.
2.) Conscience is not infallible. It can err, like anything in
us. It can mistake what is evil for good, or good for evil.
Therefore, one of the first things consciences obligates
us to do is to educate and inform our conscience
“A human being must always obey the certain judgment
of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against
it, he would condemn himself” (C 1790).
❖ Ignorance resulting in errors of conscience may be
either vincible ignorance or invincible ignorance.
❖ Conscience is not merely negative but positive.
3.) Conscience is not a passive “given,” but can be
trained.
An indispensable exercise is honest listening to the
Word of God. “It is important for every person to be
sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and
follow the voice of his conscience” (C 1779).
Conscience, as the judgment of an act, is not exempt
from the possibility of error. VS, 62
• As the Council puts it, "not infrequently conscience
can be mistaken as a result of invincible ignorance,
although it does not on that account forfeit its dignity;
• but this cannot be said when a man shows little
concern for seeking what is true and good, and
conscience gradually becomes almost blind from being
accustomed to sin".
• In these brief words the Council sums up the doctrine
which the Church down the centuries has developed
with regard to the erroneous conscience.
DIVISIONS OF CONSCIENCE
- Right or erroneous
RIGHT
It is when conscience is in conformity with reality. It is
an agreement with the objective norms of morality.
ERRONEOUS
They can either be:
• Lax conscience
on insufficient grounds is inclined to judge a thing lawful
when it is not; something light when it is grave.
- Certain, doubtful or perplexed
CERTAIN
It is when conscience passes judgment without any fear
of error. For moral certainty it suffices that all
reasonable fear be excluded.
A certain conscience must always be obeyed when it
commands or forbids. It may always be followed when
it permits something. Conscience is that appropriate
faculty of man which tells him his moral duties.
DOUBTFUL
If conscience is in a state of uncertainty as to the
lawfulness of an action, whether it suspends its
judgment or whether it inclines to one side but with the
fear that the contrary might be equally true.
In practical doubt about the lawfulness of an action one
may never act. The action must be postponed until
certainty can be reached.
Practical certainty can be gained by:
- Directly Solving the doubt through reflection on the
case in the light of general principles, through
consultation with experts, books, etc.
- Indirectly Through reflex principles.
Reflex Principles
Rules of prudence which do not solve a doubt
concerning the existence of a law, moral principle or
fact by intrinsic or extrinsic evidence, but only indicate
where, in cases of unsolvable doubt, the greater right is
usually to be found and the lesser evil to be feared.
• In doubt, the condition of the possessor is the better.
• In doubt, favor the accused.
• Crime is not presumed, it is proven.
• In doubt, presumption stands on the side of the
superior.
• In doubt, stand for the validity of an act.
• In doubt, amplify the favorable, restrict the
unfavorable.
• In doubt, presumption stands for the usual and the
ordinary.
• A dubious law does not bind.
PERPLEXED
A type of conscience that is confronted with two
alternatives and fears sin in whatever choice it takes.
One must postpone first the action in order to obtain
information and deliberate on it. But, if the decision
cannot be postponed, one must choose what appears
to be the lesser evil or – if this is impossible to settle –
either of the alternatives.
- Lax or scrupulous
• Scrupulous conscience
due to:
• Temporary crises in life
• Obsessive-compulsive
Consists in disturbance and inhibition of psychic
development, resulting from a person’s inability to
integrate certain basic drives and values of life into the
structure of his personality obstructed by unconscious
factors built up in early childhood.
Such scrupulosity is caused by the unilateral and
inconsistent moral and spiritual education, the infantile
past (over perfectionistic, too demanding, sternly rigid
parents) and the rigorism of educators.
DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIENCE
= Everyone is obliged to use serious diligence to possess
in all occasions a true conscience. The proper cultivation
of the integrity of conscience includes:
= Awareness of the Spirit
= Careful knowledge of the norms
= Removal of obstacles of sin
In the formation of conscience, the Christian ought to
attend carefully to the sacred and certain doctrine of
the Church. ( Dignitates Humanae, 14)
Formation of Conscience We are called to form our
conscience, to make it the object of a continuous
conversion to what is true and to what is good.
Saint Paul exhorts us not to be conformed to the
mentality of this world, but to be transformed by the
renewal of our mind (cf. Rom 12:2). It is the "heart"
converted to the Lord and to the love of what is good
which is really the source of true judgments of
conscience
Indeed, in order to "prove what is the will of God, what
is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12:2),
knowledge of God's law in general is certainly
necessary, but it is not sufficient:
What is essential is a sort of "connaturality" between
man and the true good. Such a connaturality is rooted
in and develops through the virtuous attitudes of the
individual himself:
Prudence and the other cardinal virtues, and even
before these the theological virtues of faith, hope and
charity. This is the meaning of Jesus' saying: "He who
does what is true comes to the light" (Jn 3:21). VS, 64.
Christians have a great help for the formation of
conscience in the Church and her Magisterium. As the
Council affirms: "In forming their consciences the
Christian faithful must give careful attention to the
sacred and certain teaching of the Church.
For the Catholic Church is by the will of Christ the
teacher of truth. Her charge is to announce and teach
authentically that truth which is Christ, and at the same
time with her authority to declare and confirm the
principles of the moral order which derive from human
nature itself ".
It follows that the authority of the Church, when she
pronounces on moral questions, in no way undermines
the freedom of conscience of Christians.
This is so not only because freedom of conscience is
never freedom "from" the truth but always and only
freedom "in" the truth, but also because the
Magisterium does not bring to the Christian conscience
truths which are extraneous to it; rather it brings to
light the truths which it ought already to possess,
developing them from the starting point of the
primordial act of faith.
The Church puts herself always and only at the service
of conscience, helping it to avoid being tossed to and
fro by every wind of doctrine proposed by human deceit
(cf. Eph 4:14), and helping it not to swerve from the
truth about the good of man, but rather, especially in
more difficult questions, to attain the truth with
certainty and to abide in it.
“In the formation of conscience, the Word of God is the
light for our path; we must assimilate it in faith and
prayer and put it into practice”
The two most important keys to hearing it are these:
• We must honestly and passionately will to hear it, to
know the truth.
• We must be alone with ourselves and God to hear this
gentle voice.
It can easily be drowned out by external noise. “This
requirement of interiority [an inner life] is all the more
necessary as life often distracts us from any reflection,
self-examination or introspection” (C 1779), especially
in our complex modern society
UNIT IV. Called to Holiness A. Following Christ as the
Primordial and Essential Foundation of Christian
Morality
Dennis, being a perfectionist, wants to accomplish all
works meticulously. There is only one way that he
knows how to do things: his way. Because of this,
Dennis tends to be very strict, short-tempered, and
critical of others. He always gets angry at people who
do not meet his expectations. People are afraid to be
around him because of his attitude. Nobody wants to be
friends with him. Realizing his excesses and
shortcomings, he turned to God in prayer to ask for the
grace that would give him the strength to change for
the better. Once in a while, he slips into his old grumpy
self. But he recovers because he is determined to be
good for God. Thus, every day, he prays in thanksgiving
to God for those successful daily bouts with his
imperfections.
Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem, A Report on
the Banality of Evil.
For when I speak of the banality of evil, I do so only on
the strictly factual level, pointing to a phenomenon
which stared one in the face at the trial…Except for an
extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal
advancement, he had no motives at all. And this
diligence in itself was in no way criminal; He merely, to
put the matter colloquially, never realized what he was
doing.
In principle he knew quite well what it was all about,
and in his final statement to the court he spoke of the
“revaluation of values prescribed by the [Nazi]
government.”
He was not stupid. It was sheer thoughtlessness –
something by no means identical with stupidity – that
predisposed him to become one of the greatest
criminals of that period.
And if this is “banal” and even funny, if with the best
will in the world one cannot extract any diabolical or
demonic profundity from Eichmann, that is still far from
calling it commonplace. It surely cannot be so common
that a man facing death, and, moreover, standing
beneath the gallows, should be able to think of nothing
but what he has heard at funerals all his life, and that
these “lofty words” should completely becloud the
reality – of his own death.
That such remoteness from reality and such
thoughtlessness can wreak more havoc than all the evil
instincts taken together which, perhaps, are inherent in
man – that was, in fact, the lesson one could learn in
Jerusalem. But it was a lesson, neither an explanation of
the phenomenon nor a theory about it.
The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many
were like him, and that the many were neither
perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are,
terribly and terrifyingly normal.
From the viewpoint of our legal institutions and of our
moral standards of judgment, this normality was much
more terrifying than all the atrocities put together, for it
implied — as had been said at Nuremberg over and
over again by the defendants and their counsels — that
this new type of criminal, who is in actual fact hostis
generis humani, commits his crimes under
circumstances that make it well-nigh impossible for him
to know or to feel that he is doing wrong
1.Man as Disfigured by Sin
VICE - A settled habit caused by sinful action which
disposes to further sinful action.
- happens in us when we follow the inclination of our
animal nature against the order of our reason. We were
created to be men and women following our reason
because our reason is to be aligned with the reality that
is created and sustained by God who is truth, goodness,
and love itself
We become enamored with vice and imprisoned to vice
when we commit sin routinely in one or two areas of
our life. These are the temptations we face.
Our temptations are all individualized according to our
carnal dispositions, e.g., others are more tempted to
gluttony, others to the sins of the flesh. etc.
Vice is the condition St. Paul is referring to when he
said. “I do not do the good that I want to do, but I do
the very evil that I hate. Romans 7:19
The person stuck in a vice continues to sin and justifies
that sin. But when you are living in grace, grace frees
you to see your vice clearly and to see that it must go.
Routine sins develop vice within us.
SIN- Inordinate action that discords with truth and
goodness in its intention, object, and circumstances.
• Every sin for Saint Thomas is an inordinate act.
• An act that is not properly ordered nor lined up with
the reality of truth and goodness in its intention, object,
and its circumstances.
Sin (ccc)- offense against truth and certain and correct
conscience it can be an utterance, deed, or desire
contrary to the eternal law
DEVIATION
Voluntary turning away or departure from the right
order
CONTRADICTION
It is an internal conflict between the true nature of man
as oriented to God and his earthly pre-occupations and
tendencies.
SIN IS FAILURE TO LOVE
• In general, sin is failure to live the Great
Commandment to love God, others, and self.
• The Confiteor, which we pray at the beginning of the
Mass, offers us a good description of sin:
➢ “I confess to Almighty God and to you, my brothers
and sisters (a recognition that sin is not only an offense
against God but it also wounds the Body of Christ and
our church community), that I have sinned through my
own fault (I take responsibility for the wrong I have
done), in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have
done (sins of commission), and in what I have failed to
do (sins of omission).”
• Sin is an evil human act, wanting in the perfection it
should have, because it is out of conformity with its
proper norm or standard, which is human rational
nature and man as image of God.
• Sin is an act directed to some lesser or merely
apparent good, falling short of the real good which is
integral human fulfillment, that is, fulfillment in respect
to all the goods in an ideal human community
2. DIMENSIONS OF SIN
PERSONAL- Sin that destroys one’s inner wholeness
SOCIAL- Sin that affects and causes harm to one’s
neighbor
REJECTION OF GOD- Sin that rejects and Ignores the
structures established by God “religious dimension of
sin”
Distinctions in the ways that we Sin
• We can sin against God, our neighbor, and ourselves.
• Some sins are sins of thought, some sins are sins of
word, some are sins of deed.
Sins of Commission
Sins of action, whether in thought, word, or deed.
Sins of Omission
Sins of inaction, whether in thought, word, or deed, e.g.
omitting to care for someone, like a child or against an
elderly. Such sins constitute sin against God and against
our neighbor.
GRAVITY OF SIN: MORTAL AND VENIAL SIN
• Not all sins are equal. Saint Thomas agrees with the
distinction of mortal and venial sin that the church still
teaches today.
Mortal Sins
• Those sins that turn us directly away from God.
➢ When we choose something serious with full intent
and freedom in place of God as our highest and best
good.
➢ Takes away the very principle of order
➢ Destroys/cuts off our relationship with God
➢ Brings about the death of the soul
Three Conditions for a Sin to be Mortal:
• Grave matter:
= As specified by the Ten Commandments, “Do not kill,
do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false
witness, do not defraud, Honor your father and your
mother” CCC 1858
Full knowledge:
= It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of
the act, of its opposition to God’s law.
Complete consent
= It implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a
choice, i.e., we freely and under no duress choose to do
the evil.
Venial Sins
• One commits venial sin when:
➢ In a less serious matter, he does not observe the
standard prescribed by the moral law.
➢ He disobeys the moral law in a grave matter but
without full knowledge or without complete consent.
• We are not turned away from God when we sin
venially, but we are just slightly off in some choice that
doesn’t keep us away from God but keeps us from going
straightaway to God.
• E.g., for Saint Thomas, every lie that we speak are at
least venial sins, even if you lie because you are afraid
to tell the truth or because you are afraid to hurt
someone else’s feelings. You may have a good intention
there, but the activity of lying is always wrong for Saint
Thomas.
• All sins should be avoided for it weakens our
relationship with God.
• Ignoring venial sin is like ignoring a minor cancer that
can become a serious one. “Deliberate and unrepented
venial sin disposes us little by little to commit mortal
sin” (CCC 1863)
• We know the truth of this statement as we consider
how a gradual neglect of a relationship can eventually
led to divorce.
THE PROLIFERATION OF SIN
• Sin creates a proclivity to sin; it engenders vice by
repetition of the same acts.
Capital Sins
• They are called “capital” because they engender other
sins, other vices.
• The list comes from the writings of St. John Cassian
and St. Gregory.
• The seven capital sins are pride, avarice (greed), envy,
wrath, sloth, lust, gluttony.
Sins that Cry to Heaven (CCC, 1867):
• The blood of Abel
• The cry of the oppressed in Egypt
• The sin of the Sodomites
• The cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan
• Injustice to the wage earner
Sin is a Personal Act (CCC, 1868)
• We have a responsibility for the sins committed by
others when we cooperate in them:
➢ By participating directly and voluntarily in them.
➢ By ordering, advising, praising, or approving them.
➢ By not disclosing or hindering them when we have an
obligation to do so.
➢ By protecting evil doers.
Structures of Sin (CCC, 1869)
• Sin gives rise to social situations and institutions that
are contrary to the divine goodness.
• Structures of sin are the expression and effect of
personal sins.
• They lead their victims to do evil in their turn.
• In an analogous sense, they constitute a social sin.
EFFECTS OF SIN
= IT INJURES HUMAN SOLIDARITY
= IT WOUNDS THE NATURE OF MAN
= MAN IS DEPRIVED OF THE GLORY OF IMAGE OF GOD
IMPACT OF A SINFULLY DISTORTED WORLD
Man is often turned away from doing good and urged to
evil by the social environment in which he lives and in
which he is immersed since the day of his birth
2. Conversion and Holiness
Conversion
• In the Synoptics, John the Baptist calls people to
conversion and repentance.
➢ Actual Greek word: Metanoia
➢ Luke 5:32: Jesus proclaims: “I have come to call not
the righteous but sinners.
Metanoia
• Total change or turn of heart.
• Turning away from sin and turning towards God.
• An experience of being in love with God without
reservations.
• Reorientation of one’s life to Christ who is made the
center and model of one’s life.
Call to Holiness
• By asking us to follow him, Jesus is inviting all of us to
become saints, no less.
• Holiness or Sanctity can be achieved by following
Jesus faithfully in our daily life, in all its trials and
challenges “taking up our crosses daily”
• Holiness is loving God and loving our neighbor.
• Conversion does not happen overnight:
➢ It is a particular act
➢ A lifelong process
➢ A daily event
The Holy Spirit and Grace
• Conversion is God’s gift.
➢It happens through help of the Holy Spirit.
➢However, God also needs our cooperation: “God Who
created us without us will not save us without us.”
- St. Augustine of Hippo
Conversion and Prayer
• For us to grow in grace, we need to pray always
especially to the Holy Spirit.
• We need to train ourselves to listen to his promptings
in our conscience and to obey his guidance in our life.
• In every moment of life let us say, Come, Holy Spirit!

Christ Our Model (VS 20)

• Jesus asks us to follow him and to imitate him along
the path of love, a love which gives itself completely to
the brethren out of love for God: "This is my
commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you" (Jn 15:12).
➢ The word "as" requires imitation of Jesus and of his
love, of which the washing of feet is a sign. Jesus' way of
acting and his words, his deeds and his precepts
constitute the moral rule of Christian life
➢ The word "as" also indicates the degree of Jesus'
love, and of the love with which his disciples are called
to love one another.
• After saying: "This is my commandment, that you love
one another as I have loved you" (Jn 15:12), Jesus
continues with words which indicate the sacrificial gift
of his life on the Cross, as the witness to a love "to the
end" (Jn 13:1): "Greater love has no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn 15:13).

This is what Jesus asks of everyone who wishes to

follow him: "If any man would come after me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mt
16:24).
B. The Spirit Configures Us to Christ through the Virtues
1. The Holy Spirit and the Virtues 2. Theological Virtues
3. Cardinal Virtues
Malou is in Claire’s send-off party to the married life. All
their friends from way back college days are present. It
is indeed a great time to enjoy friendship and a time
away from work stress. Alcoholic beverages are aplenty,
and Malou finds this as an excellent opportunity to
drink some, just for fun. However, Malou knows that
she can only drink a bottle or two, after which she gets
tipsy and would then be sleepy. She remembered her
previous experience waking up in the morning after
drinking beyond her limits. It was the worst hangover
for her, and the discomfort bothered her for two days.
Learning from this untoward experience, she resolved
to consume only what her body can take. When the
party was over, Malou had such a great time with
friends, and the relaxation energized her. Not only that,
she was happy that she was able to control herself
during the party.
For Aristotle, “virtue is a state of character which makes
a man good and makes him do his work well.”
Moral virtues allow us to feel emotions:
• At the right times
• Towards the right objects
• With the right motives
• In the right way
Courage: Regulates fear and confidence.
Temperance: Regulates bodily pains and pleasures.
Generosity: Helps us give and spend money well.
• Virtue is characterized by what is Mean or
Intermediate.
• Mean depends on agents and circumstances.
• Some actions and feelings have no mean; they are
always wrong. E.g., the act of murder and the emotion
of spite.
• We become virtuous through the constant repetition
or practice of good actions.
• A truly virtuous person finds the practice of virtue
pleasant and natural. Hence, it is a character that is
both external and internal.
• We need moral guides to help who would help us
attain an excellent life.
1. The Holy Spirit and the Virtues
The Holy Spirit: Source and Means of Moral Life
• God is love and love is his primary gift, containing all
others, through the Holy Spirit.
• In Baptism, he restores in us the divine likeness lost
due to sin and makes us children of God
• In our daily life, the Holy Spirit helps us to grow in
holiness and enter more deeply in the life of the Trinity
-CCC 733-736
Living by the Spirit
• By this power of the Spirit, God's children can bear
much fruit.
• He who has grafted us onto the true vine will make us
bear "the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-
control.” CCC 736
"We live by the Spirit"; the more we renounce
ourselves, the more we "walk by the Spirit."
The Holy Spirit and the Virtues
• Christ's gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary
to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues.
• Everyone should always ask for this grace of light and
strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the
Holy Spirit, and follow his calls to love what is good and
shun evil. (CCC 1811)
2. Theological Virtues
Moral Virtues According to St. Thomas
-Moral virtue disposes us to act well and it requires
more than simply knowing what the right thing and
good thing to know is.
-For instance, we need to have our passions in line. If
we know the right thing to do but we are scared to do
it, we won’t do it. if we know the right thing to do but
do it with excessive anger, we won’t do it morally
Moral virtue moderates our passions so that we can act
according to reason for the true good. Moral virtues do
not subdue our passions.
Passions are good for St Thomas. The more virtuous a
person is, the more they feel, and the more they feel
rightly. Because the virtuous person is not afraid of his
or her feelings. The more perfect the virtue is the more
passionate the person becomes.
Definition of Virtue
• Virtue is a good quality of the mind by which we live
righteously of which no one can make bad use, which
God works in us and without us.
-St. Thomas Aquinas (from Saint Augustine) ST, IlaIIae,
Q. 55, a.4
• Virtue lives in the human soul, it lives in the mind and
the will, in our thinking, and in our choosing.
• Virtue confers on us, when we have it, the ability to
think rightly on what we should do but the ability to do
it.
• It is one thing to know the right thing to do, it is
another thing to do it, and to do it well. That is what
virtue gives.
The Theological virtues
• The theological virtues are infused in us by God.
• These virtues elevate our powers of intellect and will
so that by acts of these virtues: believing, hoping, and
loving, we can, by grace, reach beyond our natural
goods, to possess our final and supernatural good, our
theological good, God himself.
Aquinas’ Method of inquiry of Theological virtues:
• In terms of their subject, object, proper act.
VIRTUE OF FAITH
Definition of Faith (Heb 11:1). The assurance of things
hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Aquinas. Faith is a habit of the mind, whereby eternal
life is begun in us, making the intellect assent to what is
not apparent. ST, IlaIIae Q, 4, a. 1
I believe whatever the son of God has said, Adoro Te
Devote
Object of Faith
• Material Object of Faith - God himself.
• Formal object of faith
- God as first truth revealing himself to the world.
- Those truths about God himself that he has revealed
to us
• The object of faith, therefore, is the true God and the
truths of God (collected and summarized by the church
in the articles of faith.
• By assenting to the articles of faith, the believer
comes to possess God’s truth and thus, God himself.
Various ways in which the act of faith ends and rests in
God.
Threefold dynamic of faith:
• Believing in a God (Credere Deum)- We believe that
there is a God.
• Believing God (Credere Deo)- We believe in God as the
trustworthy
witness of his truth.
• Believing unto God (Credere in Deum) - We believe in
faith in God, unto union with him in the knowledge that
he establishes with us
Subject of Faith (where the virtue is infused in us)
• Faith is infused in and perfects that human power
concerned with truth: the intellect.
• Faith elevates and perfects the functioning of human
reason so that the human agent, without seeing or
proving their reality, can apprehend, understand, and
judge to be true, the articles of faith.
• Choosing to assent to the articles of faith as true,
involves a graced active belief, which brings us to
Aquinas’ description of the act of faith.
The Act of Faith
• Belief is the act that is proper to faith.
• By believing, we affirm the truth of a proposition
without seeing or demonstrating its truth.
• Belief holds confidently and firmly to the truth of the
proposition.
• This confidence arises from the testimony of another
or an expert in the matter
• By believing God and what he says, the believer
shares intimately in the knowledge of God.
• In the light of faith, seeing is not believing but
believing is seeing, i.e., seeing God and what he sees,
because he tells us what he sees.
• In faith, therefore, the believer comes to know what
God knows. Thus, faith marks the beginning of eternal
life in us. By participating in God’s eternal knowing.
• Faith is only for this world, once the believer enters
heaven belief in God’s truth gives way to vision of God’s
truth. That which was once merely believed is now
known face to face.
Interior act of faith: Belief
Exterior act of faith: Confession or profession
Sins against belief (interiorly) unbelief, heresy, apostasy
Sins against belief (exteriorly): Blasphemy
Two Gifts of the Holy Spirit that Perfect the Act of Faith:
The gift of understanding
• Gives the believer a spirit taught insight into the
essence of the articles of faith.
• Allows the believer to develop a vision of God in faith
purified of unnecessary earthly imagery and analogies.
The gift of knowledge
• Gives the believer a spirit taught judgment regarding
the truth of created things in view of God
VIRTUE OF HOPE
• Hope is a graced confidence that God will give eternal
life to me and to those whom I love because he is
omnipotent and merciful.
• Hope leans on God’s help amidst the experience of
human inability and insufficiency.
• We believe and trust that eternal life is made
available to us because Christ has undone the
primordial sin and unlocked the gates of heaven for us.
• The virtue of hope builds on the passion of hope: by
hope we are moved to pursue an arduous good which
we apprehend as possible to obtain.
• Hope in this sense is just a movement of the irascible
power. That power which supplies the appetitive energy
for difficult goods.
• But beyond a mere bodily response hope has spiritual
dimension and so it is appropriate to locate it in the will.
• Hope, understood as a theological virtue, concerns
our ultimate end, eternal life with God.
• Here the moral virtues are insufficient. We do not, of
our own power, have the wherewithal to conceive of
this good, much less to pursue it well.
• So, God has infused the theological virtue of hope,
raising our minds and hearts to him so that we can
respond generously to his offer of beatitude.
• Thus, hope is first the work of God and it principally
concerns the end.
Hope is the virtue of the “Already but Not Yet”
Already
Hope has an orientation to fulfillment won for us in
Christ. It is rooted in the revelation of God and the
promise of salvation. It imparts a kind of certitude
flowing from the certitude of faith
Not Yet
It is given during the time of non-fulfillment. Hope
steels our nerves to withstand temptations against the
vigilance and perseverance…
• As with faith, there is an inherent imperfection with
hope since it approaches God from a distance and
cannot yet lay hold of its object.
• And so, hope will not endure as does charity. In
heaven, there will simply be no need for hope as the
souls of the just will possess God without fear of loss or
diminishment.
Sins against Hope
Presumption
• The cavalier assurance that God will save me
regardless of whether or not I consent and cooperate
with his grace.
• The presumptuous man refuses to make use of the
means that God appoints for salvation. E.g., persevering
prayer or sacramental confession.
Despair
• the denial that God’s promises apply to me or a fear
that he will deny pardon event to the repentant.
• Sets aside the uncertainty of the way in favor of the
certainty of the damned.
“One must cultivate a hope that is humble enough,
ready to pray and, at the same time, magnanimous
enough to wait cooperatively for the fulfillment of its
prayer.” Josef Pieper
Gift of the Holy Spirit with Hope: The Fear of the Lord
• Aquinas distinguishes what is meant by fear. The fear
under consideration is a disposition that in its initial
stages (servile fear) fears God’s punishment and in its
mature stages fears to offend God in any way (filial or
chaste fear).
• This fear perfects hope by imparting to the soul a
supernatural sensitivity for what aids us and what
hinders us in our pursuit of the vision of God.
• As we ascend by many movements to the vision of
God, we must be encouraged lest we lose heart in
pursuit of this great and arduous good. For there is
nothing so difficult to attain nor anything so worthy of
the effort as the unfailing vision of God. For our help is
in the name of the lord.
“Submit to God” 1Peter 2:21
VIRTUE OF CHARITY
• The seat of charity in the human person: the will.
• Charity Perfects the human power concerned with
loving: the will.
Two-Fold Dynamic of Love
Love of Concupiscence.
We love some good for their own sake. The love with
which we love the goods that keep us alive and help us
to grow in virtue. We love these goods for the benefit
that they offer us.
Love of Benevolence (friendship).
We love some good not for our sake but for another
sake. This is the love that constitutes friendship. It
regards the other as another self. Wills the good of the
other for his sake.
Grace elevates both love towards God
• Hope elevates the love of concupiscence such that we
can love God himself as final end and good for me.
• Charity elevates the love of benevolence such that we
love God himself for his own sake as a friend, not for
our sake.
Aquinas sees the whole reality and work of the virtue of
charity through the lens of friendship.
Aquinas produces a theology of charity that reflects
deeply on Christ’s words to his disciples at the last
supper: no, longer do I call you servants…I have called
you friends (john 15:15).
Object of Charity, Materially and Formally
God as our best friend befriending us. Charity is nothing
other than our loving response to the friendship offered
to us by God.
Every other good thing that can be loved for God’s sake.
In charity we love God as well as what he loves, which is
everything that he has made, especially other persons.
Thus, in charity, we love God for God’s sake and we love
neighbor for God’s sake.
The Act of Charity
The act produced by the virtue charity is the love of God
for his sake above all things.
Charity does not introduce the preferential love of God
into the world but rather it elevates this preferential
love written into the very fabric of creation and into the
very heart of men unto a union of real friendship with
God.
Therefore, because everything naturally inclines to
higher good more than lower goods…every creature,
including the human creature, naturally loves God more
than itself.
In man, therefore, charity rescues this love from the
perversion of sin and divinizes it unto a real union of
love with God. Not only as he is our highest good in
cause but because he is our best friend.
That is why, unlike faith and hope which passes away
when one reaches heaven, charity endures in beatitude.
The Duration of the Theological Virtues.
Faith Gives way to vision
Hope Gives way to possession
Charity Abides in perfection.
The Exercise of the Virtue of Charity
Internal effects of charity Joy, peace, and mercy
External effects of charity Beneficence, almsgiving,
fraternal correction
Sins against Charity
In general Hatred
Against joy Sloth, envy
Against peace Discord, contention, schism, war, strife,
sedition.
Against beneficence: Scandal
Wisdom is the gift of virtue that perfects charity.
• Peacemaking is the work of charity perfected by
wisdom.
• With wise charity, the Christian orders himself toward
peace from which inner charitable peace, he can work
for peace with others and among others.
3. Cardinal Virtues
THE CARDINAL VIRTUES
Borrowed by St. Thomas from Cicero
Prudence
• An intellectual virtue that that perfects the practical
reason. It is right reason about things to be done (recta
ratio agibilium).
• The most important moral virtue, it’s the charioteer of
virtue. It directs all the virtues. E.g. Prudence
determines the courageous thing to do in this moment
is or what the temperate thing to do is and to enjoy at
this moment. It says what is the just thing to do at this
moment.
• It is prudence which tells the virtues how to be
themselves.
• We become prudent by learning from our elders, from
those who have lived long enough to learn from their
mistakes and so more time to grow in prudence.
• We become prudent by experience, by living life, by
being self-reflective, by making choices and seeing how
they turn out and looking back and trying to figure out
how we could have done that differently…
• The moral life is not something that we engage alone,
it is something we engage in the community.
Justice
• The perpetual and constant perpetual will to render
each one his due.
• Giving what is due to God (religion) and to fellowman.
• Justice and mercy always go together: “The Lord is
merciful and just” (Ps 116: 5)
Temperance
• The virtuous moderation of sense pleasure: pleasures
of the flesh, food, drink, all of which can be good when
experienced in accord with reason.
• The virtue of temperance is in between intemperance,
which is simply a pursuit of pleasure, one after another,
and insensibility or frigidity or unwillingness to
experience pleasure.
Fortitude
The stable disposition to do the right thing in the face of
fear.
• That virtue which you need to get the good things in
your life.
• Keeps us shrinking away from great difficulties but
also keeps us from rushing in in foolishness.
• It is Right between being a coward and being a fool on
the other.