Conscience & Moral Law

7/31/2019 Conscience & Moral Law

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Opening Prayer:

Let Your commandments, Father, bea lamp for our feet and a light to our

path, so that we may understandand direct our lives in accordance

with Your will. Inspire us to followthe path Your light marks out forus. Amen.


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The Meaning of Law


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Objective

Morals: strive to obey, live-out,and keep the commandments;

Doctrine: understand themeaning of law;

Worship: take delight infollowing and in keeping thecommandments of God.


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ActivityWhat are moral laws?What are they for?

Are they prohibitions?Are they taboos or violations of

our freedom?How does Jesus look at the law?


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Sacred Scripture:

Matthew 5:17-20

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law orthe prophets. I have come not to abolish but tofulfill

Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these

commandments and teaches others to do so will becalled least in the kingdom of heaven


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"Christ is the end of the Law" (Rom.10:4)He did not come to do away with the laws,

but to interiorize their real meaning in

order to bring them to completion.The Decalogue is the basis for all moral laws

.

-Respect, or better still, reverence


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Church Teaching: Catechism for theFilipino Catholics 801

[Law] is an ordinance of reason,

promulgated by competent authority for thesake of the common good (St. Thomas, ST,I-II, 90, 4).


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Church Teaching: Catechism for theFilipino Catholics 801

[Law] is an ordinance of reason,promulgated by competent authority for thesake of the common good (St. Thomas, ST,I-II, 90, 4).

ordinance of reason

promulgated

by competent authority

for the common good


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ordinance of reason

-A law must always be a result of prudent and

serious reflection.promulgated

- A law has to be disseminated to those concerned

for it to be a law.by competent authority

-A law is made and must be communicated bythose who have legitimate power.

for the common good

-A just law must be for the benefit of thecommon ood


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Integration:Morals:

Moral laws are needed to lead persons

to community in the authentic exerciseof their freedom.


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Integration:DoctrineLaw is an ordinance of reason,

promulgated by competent authoritiesfor the sake of the common good.


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Integration:WorshipLaw even directs our prayer.

Read reflectively Psalm 19:8-10.

The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.The decree of the Lord is trustworthy, givingwisdom to the simple. The precepts of the Lord are

right, rejoicing the heart. The command of theLord is clear, enlightening the eye. The fear of theLord is pure, enduring forever. The statutes of the

Lord are true, all of them just.


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Conscience and MoralLaw


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Morals: listen attentively to theirconscience as they evaluate their moral

acts to particular situations;Doctrine: understand that our dignity

comes from acting in accordance with ourconscience following universal objectivemoral norms.

Worship: seek God in prayer as weexercise our conscience and inspiration aswe follow the law.


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Sacred Scripture: Mark 3:1-6 (A Manwith a Withered Hand)

He said to the man with a withered hand,Come up here before us. Then He said tothem, Is it lawful to do good on the

Sabbath rather than to do evil, to save liferather than to destroy it? But theyremained silent. Looking around them with

anger and grieved at their hardness of heart.He said to the man, Stretch out your hand.He stretched out and his hand was restored.


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For the Jews curing on a Sabbath wasabsolutely forbidden even though the

Law clearly stated that "every case whenlife is in danger supersedes the SabbathLaw.

He healed the man. Jesus knew the Lawwas for man not man for the law (Mk 3:

27)such was His Fathers love for man.His love for humanity is far beyond hisrespect for ritual Law.


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Jesus healed the paralytic and, inhealing him, gave him threethings:

He healed the man.

He also gave him back his hand(Mk. 3:5).

He gave him back his self-respect.


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CHURCH TEACHING:Gaudium et Spes 17Hence man's dignity demands that he acts

according to a knowing and free choice that ispersonally motivated and prompted from within,

neither under blind internal impulse nor by mereexternal pressure. Man achieves such dignitywhen, emancipating himself from all captivity to

passion, he pursues his goal in a spontaneouschoice of what is good, and procures for himselfthrough effective and skillful action, apt helps tothat end.


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Function: 1) To provide criteria for judging who we are and how we

should act,

2) to help in our moral development, especially in theformation of our conscience,

3) to provide stability and consistency in our lives, and 4) to challenge us by stretching us in view of an ideal.

Thus, moral laws provide us an explicit direction which

protects basic moral values for the common good. Theyfurther promote mutual respect among us and the abilityto collaborate with those in authority(CFC 803).


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Laws are universal;

They do not touch the fullreality of concrete individual

thoughts, words or deeds.It is only our conscience that

judges whether an individualmoral act violates a certain

law or not


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Conscience, therefore, is oursubjective moral norm;

It is our reason which applies auniversal objective moral normto a particular free act.

It is the faculty which judgeswhether a particular moral act isgood or evil in a particular

situation.


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conscience and moral

normsare always interrelated.

They are inseparable, but in the lastanalysis, conscience is the final lawgiver.

Conscience is not a law in itself;-It always refers to an objective moral norm.

-Moreover, No universal law applies itself. The Commandments do not operate by

themselves.

They need conscience to work.


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MoralsWe are morally obliged to follow our

formed conscience as we apply auniversal moral law to a concreteindividual thought, word and deed.


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DoctrineOur dignity as persons is the ultimate

basis for judging what is morally goodor evil.


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Worship

We pray to enlighten our conscience

and to form a truly Christianconscience.


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SUMMARY

Conscience is our ultimate and subjective norm

of morality. It is the faculty by which we applythe universal objective moral norms to our actualindividual free thoughts, words and deeds.

It is our personal moral guide by which we judgeour thought, words and deeds according toobjective moral norms.

Judging the morality of anything is always basedon an objective universal moral norm (the law)and our subjective moral norm, which is ourconscience.

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Conscience & Moral Law