Christian Morality
Section 1: Foundational Principles
for Christian Morality
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• God made us to live in loving communion with Him
and with one another so as to experience true
happiness and peace.
• The core of Scriptures tells us that humans were
created to be in loving relationship with Him.
• Humans were not created by gods to feed upon their
egos or for their amusement; if so, humans would be
at the mercy of the changing whim of the gods, be
self-centered, be in competition with each other
always, and love would not be freely given.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• The effects of Original Sin make it difficult for
some people to know or understand God’s plan.
• Idolatry is the primary sin against the First
Commandment and the most prevalent in our
world.
• God made us in His image and likeness, bringing
us into even deeper communion with who He
truly is and calls us to be.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• God gave us three gifts that allow us to be with
Him for all eternity, which are our:
▫ Soul
▫ Intellect
▫ Free Will
• Our soul is our spiritual principal that is
immortal and which makes us most like God.
• Our soul is created by God, united with our body
at conception and is the seat of human
consciousness and freedom.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• Our soul and our body form one nature called
human nature and are not separate.
• Intellect is the divine gift that allows us to
understand and see the order of God’s creation
and understand God through that order.
• We understand how to be in communion with
God by knowing what is truly good and what
only appears to be good.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• Free Will is a gift from God that allows us to
choose from various actions, for which we are
accountable for.
• Free will is the basis for moral responsibility.
• Our free will shows God is not manipulative and
does not force us to love Him.
• Our soul, intellect, and free will orient us toward
God and a loving relationship with Him;
however, intellect and free will can also separate
us from God if not used properly
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• Every person who has ever lived is free to accept the
will of God and His love or reject it.
• Adam and Eve chose their freedom to reject God
when they disobeyed His command to them not to
eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
• Pursuits of popularity, pleasure, and wealth all are
evils that can distract us from true happiness.
• Unlike animals, whose instinct drives their actions,
we can analyze an action as wither good or bad
before acting.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand since
we must be responsible for all actions we freely take,
whether right or wrong.
• Some situations, such as fear, side effects of
prescription drugs, or social pressures affect our
moral choices and do not allow us to make perfectly
free choices on our part.
• Our basic human right of free will is built into us
and no one can take it from us, even if it is lessened
by outside agents (though they are not excuses for
acting badly).
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• Original Sin is the sin of Adam and Eve, the first
humans, who disobeyed God’s will by choosing
their own will, losing holiness and becoming
subject to death.
• Original Sin is also the fallen nature that affects
every person born into this world except Jesus
Christ and Mary, His Mother.
• Original holiness is the original state of humans
in communion with God, sharing in the divine
life in full relationship with Him.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• Adam and Eve sinned not just against
themselves, but all human nature, since their
state of original holiness was for all their
descendants as well.
• Original sin weakens human nature, making us
concupiscent, or the tendency toward sin as a
result of Original sin.
• The most serious loss of all due to Original Sin is
that humans now experience death, something
God never intended for life.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• Change can be a very difficult thing to
accomplish and we sometimes give up on
changing something in our life when it just
seems too difficult.
• God did not give up on humanity after the fall of
Adam and Eve; instead, He called humanity to
change from sin and turn to Him.
• God formed covenants with humanity, gave the
10 Commandments, provided leaders for the
Israelites, a people He chose as His own.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• At first, when God allowed for a new leaf to be
turned off, the Israelites rejoiced and tried to
follow God; however, within one generation, the
people God called His own has strayed from His
ways again, just as Adam and Eve did.
• God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to complete
salvation history, or the specific events in human
history that revealed God’s presence and saving
actions.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• Through Christ’s Paschal Mystery, which was the
work of salvation by His death, Resurrection, and
Ascension, we are called to new life in Christ; to turn
a new leaf away from the death of the Old Adam to
life in the New Adam, who is Christ Himself.
• When we place our trust in Christ, we are called to
live the life of the Beatitudes, which are our
vocations as Christians and the goal of our existence.
It is truly blessedness and happiness experiences
partially on Earth and fully in Heaven.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• The Beatitudes show us the paradox nature of
God’s wisdom in comparison to what we hold
true.
• The Beatitudes teach that by embracing the
hardships of life, we gain meaning to our moral
choices.
• We will not experience full happiness in life on
Earth when living by the Beatitudes, but will do
so only in Heaven.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• Through Scripture and Tradition, we are given
direction to live as disciples.
• By Baptism, Eucharist, and the Sacraments, we
are given God’s grace and strength to follow
through on change.
• We grow closer to the Holy Trinity when we
make moral choices when we are called forth by
the Father, guided by the Holy Spirit, and taught
by Christ the Son.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• God calls us to enter through the narrow gate,
the path less trodden, since the wide open gate
leads to destruction and death, pot hole filled
and ridden with pain.
• God never gives up on us; He did not give up on
Adam and Eve and their descendants, us men
and women, since He sent for us to die His only,
beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• We are saved through God’s works, not our own.
• Our primary goal then is to collaborate with
God’s grace and not just try to earn our way to
Heaven.
• Justification is the process by which God frees us
from our sins and sanctifies us.
• Original Justice is the state our first parents,
Adam and Eve, had with their inner self, with
each other, and with creation.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• In Baptism we united ourselves with Christ as
original sin is washed away, though its effects
remain.
• Justification starts with conversion on our part
as we realize we do need God, in both good and
bad times.
• At the end of the justification process, we
become sanctified, or holy people, like the saints,
by giving praise to God through our lives.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• Saint Ignatius of Loyola
wanted to be a nobleman when
he was younger; yet these
dreams were dashed when he
was hit by a cannonball at age
30. During recuperation,
Ignatius learned about the
saints and read about Christ,
thus beginning his conversion.
Ignatius was sanctified by
God’s grace and achieved true
holiness thereafter.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• Merit is God’s reward for those who love Him
and follow Christ’s law of love.
• To have merit means you are justified in the
sight of God, freed from sin and sanctified by
His graces.
• We do not earn merit on our own; it is a free gift
to us from God due to the grace of Christ in us.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
• Merit is first and foremost God’s free gift to us, then
secondly, our acceptance of His gift and
participation in His saving plan, for nothing we do
can earn merit in God’s sight.
• So why should we be good?
▫ Because that is how God made us to be.
▫ We should be good not to impress others or earn our
way to Heaven because this puts US at the center of
our deeds and not God.
• God justifies and sanctifies us so that we can live in
perfect communion with Him.
Part 1: Moral Choices and God’s Plan
Part 2: The Law of God
• God is the source of all true law.
• Moral laws govern how people should be in
relationships with one another and with God.
• We are the only creatures that can cause chaos
and disaster to the order of the universe God has
set in place, as well as support and strengthen
the natural order of creation.
Part 2: The Law of God
• There is always a price to pay when going
against God’s natural order, such as when telling
one lie after another.
• The Eternal Law is the order in creation that
reflects God’s will and purpose; it is eternal
because it is always true and never changes.
• All other laws have their basis in the Eternal Law
and are only true laws when they reflect the
truth of the Eternal law.
Part 2: The Law of God
• In general, law is a rule of behavior that is made
by a competent authority for the sake of the
common good.
• Moral law is established by God and is a rational
expression of the Eternal Law.
• Moral law reflects God’s wisdom and is the
teaching that leads us to the blessed life He
wants for us.
• It is our conscience that allow everyone to know
the moral law.
Part 2: The Law of God
Part 2: The Law of God
• Through the gift of reason, all people can follow
moral laws.
• Natural law is the moral law that can be
understood through the use of reason; it gives
our God-given ability to understand what it
means to be in right relationship with God, other
people, the world, and ourselves.
• The basis for natural law is our participation in
God’s wisdom and goodness because we are
created in the divine likeness.
Part 2: The Law of God
• The Golden Rule is an example of natural moral
law.
• People of all faiths and non-faiths hold fast to
the Golden Rule, showing that it goes beyond
laws and into the gift of human reasoning.
• The natural moral law is an expression of the
Eternal law, meaning that they do not change
with time, culture, or beliefs.
Part 2: The Law of God
• To be moral is to be fully human since natural
law is part of our nature as human beings.
• Laws based in custom, according to Aristotle, are
true to a particular place and time, but natural
laws are true everywhere for everyone.
• Saint Paul says that knowledge of God and of
moral law is evident to every person through
creation.
Part 2: The Law of God
• Saint Augustine
compared how all people
of all religions know in
their hearts what is right
based on natural moral
law to how a king stamps
a royal seal into wax like
God stamps the Law into
our hearts.
Part 2: The Law of God
• In the Bible, the most dramatic and aweinspiring appearance of God was right before He
gave Moses the 10 Commandments, using the
signs of lightning, thunder, and earthquakes as
ways to make the Israelites “pay attention.”
• Natural moral law is not obeyed by everyone, as
we can see today in certain hot topics of debate
where one side says they are fighting for morals,
yet in reality go against it.
Part 2: The Law of God
• It is for this reason God gave us His own law
through Scripture and Tradition.
• The Old Law was the Divine Law revealed in the
Old Testament to Moses in the 10
Commandments.
• The 10 Commandments are also called the
Decalogue.
• The 10 Commandments make perfectly clear the
natural law God already had placed in nature.
Part 2: The Law of God
• The 10 C0mmandments are part of the Old
Covenant, or Original Covenant God first made
with the Israelites, sometimes called the Sinai
Covenant.
• The covenant was a loving relationship between
God and His people.
• God wanted to restore a loving communion
between Himself and His creation, starting with
the Israelites, then with all the Earth.
Part 2: The Law of God
• The Pentateuch are the first five books in the
Bible, or the sacred Scripture of the Jewish
people.
• A Catechism is a book that summarizes Catholic
doctrine and teachings used for formal programs
and classes.
• The 10 Commandments are the framework for
teaching Christian morality in the Catechism
because they answer and address all sorts of
moral issues.
Part 2: The Law of God
• The Old Law does not restore
us to Original Holiness, but
rather shows us away from sin
to eternal happiness.
• The Old Law shows us what we
must do, but the graces and
strength to actually keep the
Law is from the Holy Spirit
and Jesus, the fulfillment of
the Old Law, at His coming.
• The Old Law is preparation for
the Gospel.
Part 2: The Law of God
• When Jesus established the New Covenant, He also
established the New Law, or Divine Law revealed in
the New Testament through the life and teaching of
Jesus.
• The New Law fulfills the Old Law and is known as
the “Law of Love.”
• Jesus’ New Law is found throughout the Gospel, but
specifically at the Sermon on the Mount, for Moses
received the 10 Commandments on a mountain, and
Jesus delivered His from a mountain too.
Part 2: The Law of God
• Jesus starts the Sermon on the Mount with the
Beatitudes, values like poverty of spirit,
meekness, peacemaking, etc., thing that we must
possess to live a moral life.
• Jesus then says we must be “salt of the earth”
and the “light of the world.”
• Jesus quotes the Old Law and then teaches what
the true meaning of the law is.
Part 2: The Law of God
• “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” was the
Old Law that limited revenge you could take on
someone who hurt you.
• Jesus teaches that the New Law preaches love
and forgiveness, not of revenge.
• Who can live such a life of forgiveness?
▫ Those who follow and live by the Beatitudes.
• The Great Commandments were Jesus’
summary of the entire Divine Law to love God
and neighbor.
Part 2: The Law of God
• The first three Commandments can be
summarized in the first Great Commandment
from Jesus; the last seven Commandments can
be summarized in the second Great
Commandment from Jesus.
• The Law of Love becomes the basis for
interpreting all moral laws.
• The New Law shows us why God did not treat us
with revenge for disobeying Him, but rather with
love by sending us His Son.
Part 2: The Law of God
• The love Jesus preaches though is not love we
have for a boyfriend or girlfriend; rather, it is
loving in which we forgive others and work at
being holy people; a sacrificial love.
• God wrote the natural law in man’s heart, made
in clear through the revelation of the 10
Commandments, and even sent Jesus to guide
us and give us the Holy Spirit to fulfill the Law of
Love, the Great Commandments.
Part 2: The Law of God
Part 2: The Law of God
• As Christians, we are called to live a life of
holiness and be examples for others, not by
judging one another for shortcomings, but by
continuously striving to do good.
• “How can you see the splinter in your neighbor’s
eye when you have a beam in your own?”
• The Church has two sets of laws:
▫ Precepts
▫ Canon Law
Part 2: The Law of God
• Precepts of the Church are sometimes called the
commandments of the Church, which ate basic
obligations of Catholics that are dictate by the
laws of the Church.
• Canon Law is the official body of laws that
provide good order to the visible body of the
Church.
• The Precepts are the minimum requirements of
Catholics to participate in the life of the Church.
Part 2: The Law of God
• Catholics are obligated to follow the Precepts of
the Church, but should do so as reminders of our
faith and who we are.
• Each law of the church is called a canon, which
means “rule.”
• Canon Law governs issues such as norms for the
celebration of Sacraments, Catholic education,
rights and responsibilities of the ordained, and
has penalties when the law is broken.
Part 2: The Law of God
• The Magisterium is the Church’s living teaching
office, composed of the world’s bishops in
communion with the Pope.
• The Magisterium’s purpose is to teach the
fullness of the New Law of Christ first to the
Church, then to the entire world.
• The Magisterium uses the natural law when
speaking out on such issues as abortion and
embryotic research so as to speak to people of all
faiths.
Part 2: The Law of God
• When the Pope and bishops speak on a matter of
faith and morals, they do so infallibly, meaning the
Holy Spirit guides them to speak without error.
• Infallibility is the gift of the Holy Spirit to the entire
Church by which her leaders are protected from
fundamental error when speaking on topics of faith
and morals.
• To be clear though, not every word spoken from a
bishop or the Pope’s mouth in daily life are
infallible, as some people believe.
Part 2: The Law of God
• The moral law taught by the Church is not her
invention, but that of God’s universal law meant for
all people.
• The Church public speaks its teachings, but accepts
a person’s right to reject her teachings outside of the
Catholic faith.
• The Church has an obligation to public opinion and
laws to help establish a just society for God’s people.
• The Church does not want to take over the state; it
just wants to assure the safety of all God’s creation.
Part 2: The Law of God
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• Sin is any action that is contrary to God’s will.
• There are serious, mortal sins, and sins that are
less serious, that are called venial sins.
• Sins mostly harm ourselves, but never just
ourselves, since we are a relational people.
• The result of sin is that we are further alienated
from God with the ultimate consequence of sin
being death.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• The central focus of salvation history is how God
saves us from sin and death.
• From the covenants with Abraham, Noah, and
David, to the sending of Christ, God show us
how His saving love for us can defeat death.
• In the Old Testament, one key concept of sin is
that it involves rebelling against God.
• Adam and Eve rebelled against the will of God
by eating from the tree they were told not to
touch.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• The Israelites rebelled against
God in the desert after God
saved them from slavery in
Egypt by speaking and
grumbling against Him, as
well as worship a golden calf
as a god that they created,
directly breaking the First
Commandment just after
Moses received the
Commandments.
• Moses in turn shattered the
slates of Commandments in
disgust and anger.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• People rebel against God because they want life
to be different than it is; they want God to be
different than He is.
• People want to be in control of their own life.
• But that is why Jesus taught that people must
have faith in God like a child has faith in their
parents: they are always watching out for us,
loving us, and want what is best for us.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• Sin is also seen in the Old Testament as “missing
the point” that our life’s goal is to be in
communion with God.
• This is different than seeing sin as rebellion
because it shows people trying to do good, but
just missing on that goal.
• Some of the Kings of Israel, such as David and
Solomon, were faithful to God many times, but
feel short at different times as well into sin.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• The Holy Spirit can come to
our aid and help us hit the
mark of life’s goal when we
continually miss, showing us
that we cannot get through
this life on our own.
• When we realize we have done
wrong, it is then a moment of
grace, because we can realize
we need help from God to
achieve life’s goal of
communion with Him.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• The New Testament continues that idea that sin
is “falling short” of the moral mark.
• The New Testament also adds the ideas that sin
is also breaking the natural law written on every
human’s heart.
• This leads to lawlessness in society where people
are greatly harmed by others and life begins to
lose its deepest meaning, that of communion of
creation and Creator.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• The happiness that comes from sin is fleeting
and does not last; usually after indulging in one
sin, one needs more of it because they are not
satisfied.
• People sin in darkness, or in secret, and avoid
the light, which reveals their sins to all, the light
that is Jesus Christ.
• Whoever lives in the light then, their works are
seen by God and are not trying to hide from God
what God sees no matter what.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• Jesus is centrally concerned with sin and how to
conquer it, which is through God’s forgiving
love.
• Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors and
came to “call the sinner,” not the rich, the
powerful, or the pompous.
• Jesus preached loving forgiveness, which can be
summed up as “forgive us our trespasses as we
forgive those who trespass against us.”
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• We must be willing to forgive people who hurt us
infinitely, which is obviously extremely difficult,
but is what God does exactly for us every time we
sin against Him.
• God does not want to condemn the creatures He
loves and created; He wants to save us from our
sins, which can only be done if we accept Him.
• Saint Paul speaks of sins ultimate end: death;
however, death is not the end in the New
Testament thanks to Jesus’ Paschal Mystery.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• However, just because Jesus died for us all doesn’t
mean that everyone gets into Heaven. Those who sin
and reject God without remorse are destined for
Hell.
• Jesus also teaches that God does not cause bad
things to happen to people when they sin, as people
thought happened to the sick.
• Just because a person is rich and healthy does not
mean they are leading lives pleasing to God; just
because a person is poor and lowly does not mean
God has punished them.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• Sin is an offense against God as well as a fault
against reason, truth, and right conscience. Sin is a
deliberate thought, word, deed, or omission contrary
to the Eternal Law of God. In judging the gravity of
sin, it is customary to distinguish between moral
and venial sins.
• Three objects determine the morality of any human
act:
▫ Object (the thought, word, or deed the person is doing)
▫ Intention (intended outcome of the object)
▫ Circumstances (conditions affecting the decision)
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• For an action to be morally good, both the intent
and object must be good. Circumstances play a
secondary role.
• Doing the right thing for morally wrong reasons
does not make the act morally good in the end.
• Some actions are just always morally wrong,
such as murder, rape, etc., no matter what the
situation is, i.e. being peer pressured to act in
some way.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• Sins of Commission are sins that directly result
of freely chosen thought, word, or deed.
• Sin of Omission is a result of failing to do
something required by God’s moral law.
• When we see something stealing an item, and do
not want to be the person who rats out the thief,
we are committing a sin of omission against the
Eight Commandment.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• Sins have different degrees of severity, such as
mortal and venial.
• A Mortal Sin is an action contrary to the will of
God that results in complete separation from
God and His grace. A result of that separation is
eternal death.
• A Mortal Sin consists of:
▫ Involving a grave matter
▫ Knowing the action is evil
▫ Full consent is given to act in such a way
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• Venial sins are less serious offenses against God
and diminishes one’s personal character and
weakens, but does not rupture, our relationship
with God.
• Vice is a habit that leads a person to sin; Virtue
is a habit to do good.
• One vice leads to another or repetition of the
same vice over and over, leading to sin.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• Capital sins are seven sins that are particularly
harmful because they reinforce other vices.
• The Capital Sins are:
▫
▫
▫
▫
▫
▫
▫
Pride
Greed
Envy
Anger
Gluttony
Lust
Sloth
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• Christian Morality is being the
person God created us to be: a
person who chooses to do
good.
• Acting morally allows us to:
▫ Have greater self esteem
▫ Form healthier relationships
▫ Form a deeper sense of God’s
love for us in our own life
• Practice makes perfect when it
comes to fighting sin actions,
thoughts, and deeds, since
failure happens along the way;
But don’t give up!
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• Some sins infect our society and become accepted as
normal by large numbers of people in society.
• Social sins are the collective effect of many personal
sins over time, which corrupts society and its
institutions by creating “structures of sin.”
• Social justice is the defense of human dignity by
ensuring that essential human needs are met and
that essential human rights are protected, fighting
against social sin.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• Since all people are made in the image and
likeness of God, all people have infinite worth
and dignity.
• The term “state” in Church documents refers to
political authority , such as countries, kingdoms,
or nations.
• Our human communities should reflect the love
and life of the Holy Trinity, living with and for
one another.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• Common good is social conditions that allow all
citizens to meet basic needs and achieve
fulfillment and the goal of our human
communities.
• Common good addresses the needs of humans
life food, clothing, education, employment,
respect, etc.
• Mandating any religion as a national religion
goes against the common good since God does
not force us to believe in Him or not (free will).
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• States and governments have the responsibility
to defend and promote the common good of its
citizens; it is the primary reason they exist.
• A society that practices the common good is
participating in social justice.
• Racism, sexism, and ageism are all results of
social sins, i.e. when multiple people judge and
are paid based on race or gender.
• Social sins occur when sinful attitudes become
normal.
Part 3: Sin and Its Consequences
• When numerous people
commit a personal sin, i.e. an
employer paying less money to
female employees than male
employees, and numerous
companies do so, the personal
sin forms into a social sin
because it has become an
institutional structure.
• Social sins can be fought
though and overcome, like
racism by Martin Luther King,
Jr.
• Sin does not have the final say
thanks to moral choices.