Freedom, Morality, and Grace

Chapter 17

What is Freedom?

Buddy up: Work with one or two people to develop a working definition of freedom

FREEDOM

True Freedom is the ability and power to use one’s will to choose what is good and what God wills for us

ANDTo act or believe accordingly

Free will – the freedom to make choices – is at the heart of what distinguishes us from the animalsOur capacity for reasonTo understand and discern good from evilThe existence of our immortal souls

FREEDOM

Freedom does not mean we can do whatever we want as long as nobody gets hurt- this leads to moral relativism, the false belief that there is no objective good or evil

Freedom does not mean all options are equal; nor that our actions do not have consequences

With freedom comes responsibility

God allows us to choose and expects that we will make good decisions

Grounded in Truth

Grounded in eternal law, natural law, and divine lawEternal law is the foundation of all law– the principles

by which God directs the universeNatural law is the law “written on our hearts” which

recognizes the innate dignity of human beings and governs morality

Violation of natural law offends God (sin) Original Sin (and concupiscence) disobey natural

law

Divine law is given to us by God in the 10 Commandments and by Jesus in the Beatitudes

The “Old Law” and the “New Law”

FREEDOM IS…

Man’s voluntary choice to participate in God’s eternal law, conforming to the natural law and obeying the divine law.

Choosing good, seeking holiness and the perfection for which we were created by God

Choosing to return God’s love for us and love others

Freedom and God’s Will

Violating the moral law restricts our freedom

Choosing to do good helps form habits that make it easier to avoid becoming a slave to sin

The more you do good, the freer you become

We are obliged to recognize the freedom of others within the limits of law and the common good.

Freedom, Sin, and Grace

Grace points the way, but we must freely choose to do what is right

Cooperating with grace reduces our tendencies to sin, but we are all still sinners

Sin has consequences, and while certain factors may reduce our culpability, we bear some responsibility for our actions.

Avoiding sin and seeking holiness is counter-cultural

Grace does not reduce our freedom; it provides support for exercising it

What is morality?

The standards by which we judge actions to be good or evil

Objective morality: universal and applies to everyone, based on dignity of human person and sacredness of human life

Subjective morality: also referred to as moral relativism/situational ethics; no absolute standards of behavior

Objective morality makes us better human beings and leads us to true freedom and happiness

What is Conscience?

Derived from Latin words meaning “with knowledge”

A practical judgment regarding the good or evil of a particular act in light of objective moral standards

Each person is obligated to abide by their conscience; therefore each person’s conscience must be respected

“The souls of the soul is conscience” – Origen

Must be formed carefully

Formation of Conscience

Conscience is a gift from God designed to help us demonstrate our love for him by doing good and avoiding evil

We need to form our conscience using reason, the teachings of the church, scripture, facts/background information, etc.

Need to know the what (info) as well as the how (application)

Formation of Conscience

Learn the principles of morality

Learn how to apply conscience

Make concrete judgments about actions

Participate in sacraments, esp. Penance

Pray

Seek spiritual direction

Avoid what is harmful to our relationship with God

Formation of Conscience

If conscience is counter to Church teaching, your conscience is wrong (ill-formed)

A necessary and ongoing effort to correctly form conscience

An informed conscience applies God’s objective moral law to whether a particular action is good or evil

The Intellect, Free Will, and the Passions

God gave us intellect and free will to discern right from wrong

He also gave us passions: love, anger, fear, etc. which are neither good nor evil in themselves, but can influence our actions. If they contribute to good actions, they are good.

Because of Original Sin, we should not merely rely on our passions to make decisions.

We must strive to develop a conscience to help us do what is good and avoid evil.

Obligation of Conscience

Dual obligation: develop a well-formed conscience AND we must follow our consciences

If we strive to influence our conscience with the teachings of the Church, receive the sacraments regularly, and avoid temptation, then we are well-situated to make sound decisions.

Forming our conscience is a consistent, lifelong endeavor

Types of Conscience

Right conscienceErroneous conscience

Doubtful conscience

Types of conscience

Right conscience – aka - true conscienceCorrect judgments based on moral law

Erroneous conscience- aka- false conscienceMakes a false judgment Evil acts are judged to be goodDue to vincible or invincible ignorance

Vincible ignorance can be overcome through ordinary diligence, that is, learning the correct choice

Invincible ignorance involves a person having no way of making the correct moral choice, therefore they are not sinning

Types of conscience

Doubtful conscienceA conscience that is not sure of the morality of a

choice and therefore requires us to discover the truth before we act.

Failure to seek out truth shows that we don’t care about doing what is right

The Moral Act

There are three elements which comprise a moral act:The objective act (OBJECT)The intention (INTENT/END)The circumstances (CIRCUMSTANCES)

OBJECT: for an act to be morally good, the object must be morally good. Some actions are intrinsically evil (always wrong). Examples include: lying, killing the innocent, sins against marriage

The Moral Act

INTENTION/ENDThe motive behind a person performing an action.Can be good or evil. In order for an action to be

good, the intention must also be good. The intention can change the quality of an indifferent

act into a good or evil act The intention can increase or diminish the goodness of

an act The intention can increase or diminish the evil nature of

an act The intention can NEVER make an evil action a good one

The Moral Act

CIRCUMSTANCES: the factors that occur with the act and that contribute to the morality of the actAffect the morality in a lesser way than OBJECT and

INTENTION doStealing a car vs. blasphemy

The three-tiered system makes it clear that morality is not subjective or relative, and that there are actions that are always good or evil “The end does not justify the means”

The Cardinal Virtues

A virtue is “a habit or disposition to do good”

They shape the mind to control the passions and guide their conduct according to faith

Virtuous people imitate God’s goodness

Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance are called Cardinal Virtues after the Latin word “cardo” meaning “hinge”They are the virtues on which many other virtues

hinge

PRUDENCE

Enables a person to examine moral acts in terms of whether or not it will bring them closer to God

Put on the mind of God and allows Him to guide their decisions

We cultivate Prudence by examining our consciences and weighing our decisions accordingly

JUSTICE

Enables a person to desire what is right in terms of what is due to God and neighbor

Justice is true love of neighbor in action

Social Justice is based on attaining the common good

The pursuit of social justice is part of every Christian’s vocation

FORTITUDE

Enables a person to control the passion of fear so that he or she may perform good actions with courage regardless of circumstances

Helps one endure challenges bravely

Helps one act uprightly in the face of evil

TEMPERANCE

Enables a person to regulate pleasure and use creation in light of man’s ultimate good.

The opposite of “just do it” mentality

Not the avoidance of pleasure, but not the abuse of it either.