Freedom, Morality, and Grace

Freedom,
Morality, and
Grace
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
AND
 To act or believe accordingly
 Free will – the freedom to make choices – is at the
heart of what distinguishes us from the animals
 Our capacity for reason
 To understand and discern good from evil
 The 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 law

 Eternal law is the foundation of all law– the principles by
which God directs the universe
 Natural 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)
 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
 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 conscience
Erroneous
conscience
Doubtful
conscience
Types of conscience
 Right conscience – aka - true conscience

 Correct judgments based on moral law
 Erroneous conscience- aka- false conscience
 Makes a false judgment
 Evil acts are judged to be good
 Due 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 conscience
 A 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/END
 The 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 act
 Affect the morality in a lesser way than OBJECT and
INTENTION do
 Stealing 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.

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Freedom, Morality, and Grace

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Freedom,

Buddy up: Work with one

 True Freedom is the ability and power to use one’s

 Freedom does not mean we can do whatever we want

 Grounded in eternal law, natural law, and divine law

 Divine law is given to us by God in the 10 Commandments

 Man’s voluntary choice to participate in God’s eternal

 Violating the moral law restricts our freedom

 Grace points the way, but we must freely choose to do

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

 Derived from Latin words meaning “with knowledge”

 Conscience is a gift from God designed to help us

 Learn the principles of morality

 If conscience is counter to Church teaching, your

 Dual obligation: develop a well-formed conscience AND

 Right conscience – aka - true conscience

 There are three elements which comprise a moral act:

 CIRCUMSTANCES: the factors that occur with the act

 The three-tiered system makes it clear that morality is

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

 Enables a person to examine moral acts in terms of

 Enables a person to desire what is right in terms of what

 Enables a person to control the passion of fear so that

 Enables a person to regulate pleasure and use creation

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