Christian Morality: Living Like Jesus PDF

- Christian morality is all about ***living like Jesus***. The focus of Christian morality is ***our response to a God who created us out of love*** and keeps us in being every moment of every day and never ceases to love us unconditionally. - Christian morality is the faith lived i...

- Christian morality is all about ***living like Jesus***. The focus of Christian morality is ***our response to a God who created us out of love*** and keeps us in being every moment of every day and never ceases to love us unconditionally. - Christian morality is the faith lived in the daily circumstances of our lives. It is about appropriate and inappropriate responses to a God who loves us. - To be created in the image and likeness of God means that every human person in our global family, born or unborn, is endowed with infinite dignity and should be treated with reverence and respect. - Because we are created in God's image, we are blessed with intellect and will. Because we have an intellect, we can distinguish good from evil. Because we have a will, we can freely choose to follow God's law of love. - 1\. Christian morality is all about living like Jesus. The focus of Christian morality is our response to a God who created us out of love and keeps us in being every moment of every day and never ceases to love us unconditionally. - - 2\. Christian morality is the faith lived in the daily circumstances of our lives. It is about appropriate and inappropriate responses to a God who abandons us. - - 3\. Because we are created in God\'s image, we are blessed with intellect and will. Because we have an intellect, we can distinguish good from evil. - - 4\. The Catechism tells us that the beatitude or happiness that God offers us \"confronts us with decisive moral choices\" (C1723). It teaches us that the key to happiness is following the law of love as spelled out in the Ten Commandments, the beatitudes and the teachings of the Church. - - 5\. Freedom is not the freedom to do as we want, but to do as we ought as creatures of God. When we abuse our freedom to do only as we want, we will gradually become slaves to selfishness, sin and evil. - 6\. A good intention can never make an intrinsically evil act good. For example, the killing of an unborn child to protect the mother\'s reputation is always seriously wrong. - - 7\. Humans have self-awareness and self-knowledge. Humans are capable of knowing God and freely returning God\'s love. - 8\. Mortal sin fatally damages the relationship between us and God. The Catechism states that \"mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man. 9. Venial sin wounds but does not destroy our relationship with God. \"All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly\". - 10\. Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more\" (Rom 5:18). We cannot speak about sin without speaking about God\'s mercy. - The Catechism calls this "our vocation to beatitude," a word which means happiness. The problem is that because of the influences of the world, our own tendency towards sin and the temptations of the flesh, we may believe that true happiness is not found in a life committed to God, but rather in the passing things that the world holds out to us. - The Catechism tells us that the beatitude or happiness that God offers us "confronts us with decisive moral choices" (C 1723). It teaches us that the key to happiness is following the law of love as spelled out in the Ten Commandments, the beatitudes and the teachings of the Church. - The beatitudes (Mt 5:3-12) are at the heart of Jesus' teaching. Many scholars tell us that the eight beatitudes are summed up in the first one: "Blessed are the poor in Spirit" (Mt 5:3). The "poor in spirit" are those who know their absolute need for God and living their lives in radical trust and dependence on God. - Freedom is not the freedom to do as we want, but to do as we ought as creatures of God. When we abuse our freedom to do only as we want, we will gradually become slaves to selfishness, sin and evil. - The fourth block or foundation stone of Catholic morality concerns the three elements of a moral act: the act (what we do), the intention (why we are doing this act), and the circumstances in which we perform a particular act (where, when, how, with whom, etc.) - ***Objective act (what we do).*** For an individual act to be morally good, the object, or what we are doing, must be objectively good. Some acts, irrespective of the motive or intention for doing it, are always wrong because they go against a fundamental or basic human good that ought never to be compromised, e.g., the direct killing of an innocent person, torture or rape. "Such acts are called ***intrinsically evil acts***, meaning that they are wrong in themselves, apart from the reason they are done or the circumstances surrounding them" - ***Intention or motive (why we are doing this act)***. This - is usually called the subjective element of a moral act because the intention for doing the act lies within - Two things should be noted here: - A good intention can never make an intrinsically evil act good. For example, the killing of an unborn child to protect the mother's reputation is always seriously wrong. Hence, the saying: "The end does not justify the means." - A bad intention can turn a good deed into an evil one, e.g., giving money to a charitable organization for the sole purpose of being recognized and praised. - ***Circumstances surrounding the act***. Circumstances can and do contribute to increasing or diminishing goodness or evil of the act, e.g., how much money was stolen. Circumstances can also lessen or increase a person's blame worthiness for a particular act. - In summary, for an act to be morally good, all three elements: the act (what I do), the intention (why I do it), and the circumstances surrounding the act, must be good. - "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (Jn 1:8-9) - - "Conscience 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" (C 1778). - The voice of true conscience is like a law written in the core of our being by God calling us to do good and avoid evil. This inner voice helps us to distinguish right from wrong and nudges us to do what we believe to be good. - Venial sin wounds but does not destroy our relationship with God. "All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly" (1 Jn 5:17). All sin should be avoided for it weakens our relationship with God. - The seven capital sins. Some sins are called "capital" or "deadly"' because they can lead us to other sins (C 1866). They come from the writings of St. John Cassian who lived in the fourth century. - "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Rom 5:18). We cannot speak about sin without speaking about God's mercy. His mercy is always greater than our capacity to sin. - In order to receive God's mercy, we must first sincerely repent of sin. The above scripture readings are wonderful stories about God's mercy and about people turning from sin. -