Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Freedom and Conscience
- Man
- is free
- is a moral being
- is responsible for his own acts
- True Love
- a free gift of oneself
- leads to self-mastery
- Conscience
- The practical application of the objective
moral law to concrete circumstances
- Can be wrong or deformed.
- We have a duty to form our conscience
- How?
- Practice frequent and honest self-examination
- frequent the reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation
- 2 elements of sincere repentance: Contrition (sorrow for sin) and
purpose of amendment (the intention to avoid sin in the future)
- There is little point in acknowledging our sins if we don't intend to eliminate them
because they'll just come back! We have to be truthful and sincere to ourselves
- Spiritual direction is the counsel of some wise person (best to be a priest) who can advise
us on the progress of our spiritual lives and who will challenge us to live the steps and direct
us
- When conscience is repeatedly ignored, our
conscience becomes numb to wrongdoing and
ceases to function as it should
- We are all called by Baptism to become a saint:
fullness of conscience includes a clear awareness
of this
- applies moral truth, does not create it. NOT an
infallible guide and can be ignorant or blinded. It fails
when objective moral law is ignored or misunderstood
- the reality of it is witnessed in
Sacred Scriptures and through
human experience
- everyone has a duty and a right
to exercise our moral conscience
- Theology Quiz
- Love
- If love is taken or required it is no longer free
- Love is self-giving
- this is often hard, it may require overcominng
laziness, selfishness, sensuality, stinginess, etc.
- The Moral Act
- Freedom
- doing not whatever you want but doing what you ought
- Good moral actions make us freer.
- Bad moral actions make us a slave to sin
- Every Human...
- faces moral decisions and is morally
responsible for his or her own moral acts
- A moral act involves:
- An action, that results from a deliberate
choice between good and evil, or degrees of
goodness
- involves both deliberation and choice
- has moral content
- a personal act, involving the intellect and will, never leaving us
the same, affecting the character of the person who acts
- Freedom and Responsibility
- The more knowledge one possess, the more morally responsible one is for her/his own actions.
- There is no such thing as a freedom that is independent of responsibility
- The origin of moral evil is the free decision of a man to reject God's moral law
- The factors that lesson or remove moral fault:
- Habit
- Acting in an almost involuntary way because
of having done the same thing rrepeatedly
- A new lie told by someone
who is a pathological liar
- Inordinate attachment
- Desire for something that
goes beyond reason
- An alcoholic who continues drinking
even though he wants to stop
- Inadvertence
- Not noticing something
- Speeding because you don't see the
speed limit sign changing the speed limit
- Ignorance
- Not knowing something
- A person who has never heard
of the Christian messaige
- Fear
- Being afraid of something
- Lying about cheating for fear
of being expelled
- Duress
- Being put under force
- Being forced to drive a
get-away car at gun point
- Grace
- The Effects of the grace we receive through the sacraments
- through the grace of God, the person is enlightened about how
to fellow Christ and strengthened to perform actions that fulfill
God's plan
- Does grace diminish freedom?
- We align ourselves with God's will by obeying the prompting of
grace,and we grow in inner freedom and confidence
- How do we align our will with God's will?
- Grace does not diminish freedom, it helps us to see the truth more clearly and
gives us strength to conquer our passions so we can gradually align our will with
God's will
- We must continually seek God's grace, continually
respons to the actual graces God is working within
us, inclining us to turn to him and do good.
- The Prodigal Son Story
Characters
- Father: God. Forgiving, loving
- Youngest son: sinners who repent
- Older son: jealousy, ego, persons who try to be righteous but
end up sinning by being jealous of God's love for the sinners