(Lesson 13)
What is Sin?
“… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23
Discussion Guide:
Sin is an offense against God. If we sin against our neighbor, we also sin against God. The Bible tells us that all unrighteousness is sin. Sin can be in the form of words, deeds, thoughts and omissions. There are two kinds of sin: original sin and actual sin. Original sin is inherited from our first parents and its effects lead us to commit actual sin. Actual sin is every sin that we ourselves commit through our own fault. There are also two kinds of actual sin. They are called venial sin and mortal sin. Mortal sin is a grievous offense against God. It is called mortal because it kills the life of grace in the soul. If mortal sin is not repented of and confessed, it can lead to eternal punishment. Venial sin is an offense against God that does not kill the supernatural life of the soul. Venial sins can lead to mortal sins and should not be taken lightly. Venial sins are less serious or less deliberate in nature than mortal sins. Satan entices us to commit sin. There is nothing that pleases Satan more than to lead a soul into mortal sin. If we commit a mortal sin we can repent and seek forgiveness at the foot of the cross. Jesus gave us the sacrament of confession to restore grace to our soul. Christ conquered sin and death but we must cooperate with his grace.
Discussion Points:
· All unrighteousness is sin
· Life is much happier and more satisfying when we avoid sin
· Society does not have the same moral standards that we must have as Christians. We must follow God no matter what is common in society
· The two broad categories of sin are venial and mortal sin
· There are seven deadly vices (Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth) that lead to sin
· There are six sins against the Holy Spirit (Presumption, Despair, Resisting the Known truth, Envy of spiritual goods, Obstinacy in sin, Final impenitence)
· Sin is a serious matter; it was the reason Christ died for us
· God is forgiving if we repent and have contrition
· We deceive ourselves when we fail to obey Church teachings regarding sin
· We cannot pick and choose what is a sin and what is not a sin. If we have faith, we will obey the teachings of Jesus Christ
· Try to avoid the things that lead us into temptation
The Imitation of Christ
Resisting Temptation
Thomas A. Kempis
So long as we live in this world we cannot escape suffering and temptation. Whence it is written in Job: "The life of man upon earth is a warfare." Everyone, therefore, must guard against temptation and must watch in prayer lest the devil, who never sleeps but goes about seeking whom he may devour, find occasion to deceive him. No one is so perfect or so holy but he is sometimes tempted; man cannot be altogether free from temptation.
Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them, while those who could not resist became reprobate and fell away. There is no state so holy, no place so secret that temptations and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us -- in sin we were born. When one temptation or trial passes, another comes; we shall always have something to suffer because we have lost the state of original blessedness.
Many people try to escape temptations, only to fall more deeply. We cannot conquer simply by fleeing, but by patience and true humility we become stronger than all our enemies. The man who only shuns temptations outwardly and does not uproot them will make little progress; indeed they will quickly return, more violent than before.
Little by little, in patience and long-suffering you will overcome them, by the help of God rather than by severity and your own rash ways. Often take counsel when tempted; and do not be harsh with others who are tempted, but console them as you yourself would wish to be consoled.
The beginning of all temptation lies in a wavering mind and little trust in God, for as a rudderless ship is driven hither and yon by waves, so a careless and irresolute man is tempted in many ways. Fire tempers iron and temptation steels the just. Often we do not know what we can stand, but temptation shows us what we are.
Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks.
Someone has said very aptly: "Resist the beginnings; remedies come too late, when by long delay the evil has gained strength." First, a mere thought comes to mind, then strong imagination, followed by pleasure, evil delight, and consent. Thus, because he is not resisted in the beginning, Satan gains full entry. And the longer a man delays in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the strength of the enemy grows against him.
We should not despair, therefore, when we are tempted, but pray to God the more fervently that He may see fit to help us, for according to the word of Paul, He will make issue with temptation that we may be able to bear it. Let us humble our souls under the hand of God in every trial and temptation for He will save and exalt the humble in spirit.
What is Sin?
“… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23
Opening Prayer:
Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner! Amen
Theme:
We are all sinners in need of a savior. What is a sin? What is the difference between a venial sin and a mortal sin?
Bible Readings:
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 1:6-10 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 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. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Matt 5:17-22 "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
"You have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire.
Matt 5:27-30 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
1 John 5:16-17 If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal.
Explanation of the Bible readings: Romans 3:23 makes it clear that every one of us is a sinner. To one degree or another, every human being, because of our fallen nature, is a sinner. There is a tendency to believe that we are all “good people” and not guilty of any sin. If we examine our consciences in reference to Jesus Christ and his gospel, we will quickly find ourselves agreeing with St. Paul that “we all fall short of the glory of God”.
St. John first tells us that there is hope in Christ. We must first admit that we are sinners. If we say we have no sin, we make a liar out of God! If we seek God with a contrite heart and ask for forgiveness, we will receive that forgiveness. When we confess our sins in the sacrament of reconciliation, we receive forgiveness through the merits of Jesus Christ. If our sins are mortal, we must confess them in the sacrament. St. John clearly states that there is a difference between venial and mortal sins.
St. Matthew tells us that there are sins of the heart. Not only is it wrong to commit an evil deed, it is also a sin to have evil intentions, thoughts and desires. Jesus wants us to seek his grace in order to purify our hearts. These sins can lead to evil deeds and a restless conscience. Jesus also makes it plain that Hell is a real place and there is a real possibility of going there if we die in a state of mortal sin. Any sin can be forgiven and we must never despair. We need to take advantage of the free grace that God gives to us through faith, repentance, and the sacraments of the Catholic Church.
Sirach 10:12-13 Pride is the beginning of sin
James 4:17 If you do not do what you know is right, it is a sin. (Omission)
Luke 12:45-48 Some sins are worse than others.
Teaching:
The Bible makes it clear that all of us have sinned and are in need of a savoir. It also makes clear that we must repent from our sins. Repentance is a life long process. As we grow in faith and grow in knowledge of the Church’s teachings, we should also grow in holiness of life. We should never deceive ourselves into believing that we are good enough to conquer sin on our own. We need to call upon Jesus everyday for his grace, attend Mass on Sundays, receive the sacraments frequently, and read the Sacred Scriptures to grow closer to the Lord. If we do these things, we will grow in holiness; if we do not do these things, we may easily fall into mortal sin. The Church gives us the revelation of Jesus Christ handed down through the ages. Its teachings regarding sin must be followed with faith and should never be ignored for any reason. If any person tells another that it is all right to disobey Church teachings in any area, that person is guilty of the grave sin of scandal. Never confirm anyone in his or her sins and do not let yourself be deceived by anyone when it comes to following what the Church teaches.
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
1849 Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law."
1850 Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight." Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it….
1852 There are a great many kinds of sins. Scripture provides several lists of them. The Letter to the Galatians contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit: "Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God."
1853 Sins can be distinguished according to their objects, as can every human act; or according to the virtues they oppose, by excess or defect; or according to the commandments they violate. They can also be classed according to whether they concern God, neighbor, or oneself; they can be divided into spiritual and carnal sins, or again as sins in thought, word, deed, or omission. The root of sin is in the heart of man, in his free will, according to the teaching of the Lord: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a man." But in the heart also resides charity, the source of the good and pure works, which sin wounds.
The Gravity of Sin: Mortal and Venial Sin
1854 Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity. The distinction between mortal and venial sin, already evident in Scripture, became part of the tradition of the Church. It is corroborated by human experience.
1855 Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him.
Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.
1856 Mortal sin, by attacking the vital principle within us - that is, charity - necessitates a new initiative of God's mercy and a conversion of heart which is normally accomplished within the setting of the sacrament of reconciliation:
When the will sets itself upon something that is of its nature incompatible with the charity that orients man toward his ultimate end, then the sin is mortal by its very object . . . whether it contradicts the love of God, such as blasphemy or perjury, or the love of neighbor, such as homicide or adultery. . . . But when the sinner's will is set upon something that of its nature involves a disorder, but is not opposed to the love of God and neighbor, such as thoughtless chatter or immoderate laughter and the like, such sins are venial.
1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent."
1858 Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: "Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother." The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.
1859 Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God's law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.
1860 Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man. The promptings of feelings and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders. Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest.
1861 Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God.
1862 One commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete consent.
1863 Venial sin weakens charity; it manifests a disordered affection for created goods; it impedes the soul's progress in the exercise of the virtues and the practice of the moral good; it merits temporal punishment. Deliberate and unrepented venial sin disposes us little by little to commit mortal sin. However venial sin does not break the covenant with God. With God's grace it is humanly reparable. "Venial sin does not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace, friendship with God, charity, and consequently eternal happiness."
Faith words:
Sin: Sin is a morally bad act; an act not in accord with reason informed by the Divine law. An act that is contrary to an informed conscience.
Unintentional Ignorance: When an individual sincerely does not know that an objectively sinful action is wrong.
Grave matter: Grave matter refers to the breaking of any of the Ten Commandments as interpreted by the Catholic Church.
Reflection Questions:
List some examples of sins of the heart?
Describe a situation that would entail a sin of omission.
Which one of the seven deadly vices is the most difficult for you to overcome? (Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth)
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
"Here, then, I have today set before you life and
prosperity, death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his
ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.
If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not
listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you
will not have a long life on the land which you are crossing
the Jordan to enter and occupy.
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:
I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may
live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and
holding fast to him.
For that will mean life for you, a long
life for you to live on the land which the LORD swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
Monday, November 27, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
Lesson 14 - The Redemption
(Lesson 14)
The Redemption
“He himself bore our sins….By his wounds you’ve been healed” 1 Peter 2:24
Discussion Guide:
In short, the meaning of the redemption is that Jesus Christ died for our sins. Jesus offered his suffering and death on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. He is the redeemer of the entire human race. There is no other redeemer. No one comes to the Father except through the Son (John 14:6) whether they believe it or not. He regained the right for us to become children of God and heirs of heaven. This was a condition that was lost because of the original sin that our first parents committed. He offered atonement for all sins throughout all time. Our heavenly Father accepts the sacrifice of his Son because it is the perfect sacrifice. He died for us because he loves us. We must be eternally grateful for the love that Jesus showed when he willingly gave up his life to redeem a sinful world. In the sacrifice of the Mass, the redemption is perpetually made present. His resurrection on the third day was the definitive victory over Satan, sin and death. The Catholic faith teaches that the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is an historical fact “…it is impossible not to acknowledge that it is an historical fact” (CCC 639,643). Jesus is the eternal high priest who reigns forever in Heaven and on earth. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!
Discussion Points:
· Our sins are the reason that Christ chose to redeem us on the cross
· Jesus died on Good Friday for the sins of the world
· His suffering is commonly referred to as the Passion of Christ
· Jesus willingly gave up his life out of love for us
· The place where they crucified Christ is called Golgotha
· Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor who executed Jesus
· The crowd handed Jesus over to the Romans for crucifixion
· A guilty man (Barabbas) was set free and Christ was unjustly punished
· Jewish people should not be held collectively responsible for the death of Jesus
· All sinners were the authors of the Passion of Christ
· When we sin, it is an offense against the crucified Lord
· On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead
· Jesus won the victory over sin and death
· The Catholic Church teaches that the resurrection of Christ is an historical fact
Matthew 27:27-50
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe upon him, and plaiting a crown of thorns they put it on his head, and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they spat upon him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him.
As they went out, they came upon a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; this man they compelled to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull), they offered him wine to drink, mingled with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots; then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, "This is Jesus the King of the Jews." Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lama sabach-thani?" that is, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And some of the bystanders hearing it said, "This man is calling Elijah." And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
The Redemption
“He himself bore our sins….By his wounds you’ve been healed” 1 Peter 2:24
Opening Prayer:
Father God, we thank You for giving us Your dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ. We thank You for the forgiveness of our sins and the love that was demonstrated on the cross at Calvary. We thank You for the atonement of our sins. Amen
Theme:
Jesus died for our sins. He freely went to the cross because he loved us and he wanted us to have a pathway to heaven. He defeated the powers of Satan, evil, and death. His resurrection from the dead is an historical fact.
Bible Readings:
John 3:16-21 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.
1 John 1:5-10 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 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. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John 2:1-4 My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says "I know him" but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
Hebrews 2:17 Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people.
Explanation of the Bible readings: John 3:16-21 summarizes how the death of Jesus Christ is the supreme sign of God’s love for mankind. We are all offered a great gift from God. It is our duty to respond to this free gift of salvation. St. John tells us that faith and repentance are necessary if we are truly going to become followers of Christ and be saved. As St. Augustine said, “God created us without us, but he will not save us without us”. We must cooperate with grace at every stage of our lives. 1 John 1:5-10 emphasizes the difference between walking in the light and walking in the darkness. If we do not make an effort to repent of our former sins, we walk in darkness. Often, it takes great strength to form our lives according to the teachings of the Catholic Church. When we fall, we have an advocate in Jesus Christ. If we say we have no sin, it usually means that we do not accept Church teaching. That is the quickest road to perdition. If you think you know what is objectively sinful better then the Church does, think again! That attitude reveals tremendous arrogance and an unwillingness to repent! Do not let yourselves be deceived by false teachers. We must walk by faith in Christ and never by our own likes and dislikes. Following the teachings of the Catholic Church as revealed by God Himself is the best way to do this! 1 John 2:1-4 tells us that Jesus died for everyone on earth. There is no one that is beyond the saving power of God. Even the worst sinner can come to the knowledge of Christ and be saved. Heb 2:17 tells us that his human nature was perfect and made the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. Jesus was human in every way except sin! At the same time he was the eternal God incarnate. What a great and awesome mystery of the faith!
John 1:39 Jesus was the Lamb of God
John 8:21-30 We must believe in Jesus Christ
Luke 23:49 Faith and repentance can save anybody at any time
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
CHRIST'S REDEMPTIVE DEATH IN GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION
"Jesus handed over according to the definite plan of God"
599 Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: "This Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God."…
"He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures"
601 The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin… Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life and death in the light of God's suffering Servant. After his Resurrection he gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles.
602 Consequently, St. Peter can formulate the apostolic faith in the divine plan of salvation in this way: "You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers. . . with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake." Man's sins, following on original sin, are punishable by death. By sending his own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin, God "made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
God takes the initiative of universal redeeming love
604 By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." God "shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
605 At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." He affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer."
Christ's whole life is an offering to the Father
606 … The sacrifice of Jesus "for the sins of the whole world" expresses his loving communion with the Father. "The Father loves me, because I lay down my life", said the Lord, "[for] I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father."
607 The desire to embrace his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus' whole life, for his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation…
609 By embracing in his human heart the Father's love for men, Jesus "loved them to the end", for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men….
614 This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices…
615 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous." By his obedience…Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father.
639 The mystery of Christ's resurrection is a real event, with manifestations that were historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness. In about A.D. 56 St. Paul could already write to the Corinthians: "I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. . ."
643 Given all these testimonies, Christ's Resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an historical fact. It is clear from the facts that the disciples' faith was drastically put to the test by their master's Passion and death on the cross, which he had foretold. The shock provoked by the Passion was so great that at least some of the disciples did not at once believe in the news of the Resurrection. Far from showing us a community seized by a mystical exaltation, the Gospels present us with disciples demoralized ("looking sad") and frightened. For they had not believed the holy women returning from the tomb and had regarded their words as an "idle tale". When Jesus reveals himself to the Eleven on Easter evening, "he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen."
Faith words:
Atonement: In Catholic theology, the Atonement is the Satisfaction of Christ, whereby God and the world are reconciled or made to be at one.
Redemption: In the New Testament, it is the term designating the "great price" which the Redeemer paid for our freedom from sin.
Reflection Questions:
Why do we make the sign of the cross?
Why do we refer to the day of the crucifixion as Good Friday?
What must we do to benefit from the redemption that Jesus accomplished on the cross?
The Redemption
“He himself bore our sins….By his wounds you’ve been healed” 1 Peter 2:24
Discussion Guide:
In short, the meaning of the redemption is that Jesus Christ died for our sins. Jesus offered his suffering and death on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. He is the redeemer of the entire human race. There is no other redeemer. No one comes to the Father except through the Son (John 14:6) whether they believe it or not. He regained the right for us to become children of God and heirs of heaven. This was a condition that was lost because of the original sin that our first parents committed. He offered atonement for all sins throughout all time. Our heavenly Father accepts the sacrifice of his Son because it is the perfect sacrifice. He died for us because he loves us. We must be eternally grateful for the love that Jesus showed when he willingly gave up his life to redeem a sinful world. In the sacrifice of the Mass, the redemption is perpetually made present. His resurrection on the third day was the definitive victory over Satan, sin and death. The Catholic faith teaches that the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is an historical fact “…it is impossible not to acknowledge that it is an historical fact” (CCC 639,643). Jesus is the eternal high priest who reigns forever in Heaven and on earth. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!
Discussion Points:
· Our sins are the reason that Christ chose to redeem us on the cross
· Jesus died on Good Friday for the sins of the world
· His suffering is commonly referred to as the Passion of Christ
· Jesus willingly gave up his life out of love for us
· The place where they crucified Christ is called Golgotha
· Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor who executed Jesus
· The crowd handed Jesus over to the Romans for crucifixion
· A guilty man (Barabbas) was set free and Christ was unjustly punished
· Jewish people should not be held collectively responsible for the death of Jesus
· All sinners were the authors of the Passion of Christ
· When we sin, it is an offense against the crucified Lord
· On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead
· Jesus won the victory over sin and death
· The Catholic Church teaches that the resurrection of Christ is an historical fact
Matthew 27:27-50
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe upon him, and plaiting a crown of thorns they put it on his head, and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they spat upon him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him.
As they went out, they came upon a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; this man they compelled to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull), they offered him wine to drink, mingled with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots; then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, "This is Jesus the King of the Jews." Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lama sabach-thani?" that is, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And some of the bystanders hearing it said, "This man is calling Elijah." And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
The Redemption
“He himself bore our sins….By his wounds you’ve been healed” 1 Peter 2:24
Opening Prayer:
Father God, we thank You for giving us Your dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ. We thank You for the forgiveness of our sins and the love that was demonstrated on the cross at Calvary. We thank You for the atonement of our sins. Amen
Theme:
Jesus died for our sins. He freely went to the cross because he loved us and he wanted us to have a pathway to heaven. He defeated the powers of Satan, evil, and death. His resurrection from the dead is an historical fact.
Bible Readings:
John 3:16-21 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.
1 John 1:5-10 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 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. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John 2:1-4 My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says "I know him" but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
Hebrews 2:17 Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people.
Explanation of the Bible readings: John 3:16-21 summarizes how the death of Jesus Christ is the supreme sign of God’s love for mankind. We are all offered a great gift from God. It is our duty to respond to this free gift of salvation. St. John tells us that faith and repentance are necessary if we are truly going to become followers of Christ and be saved. As St. Augustine said, “God created us without us, but he will not save us without us”. We must cooperate with grace at every stage of our lives. 1 John 1:5-10 emphasizes the difference between walking in the light and walking in the darkness. If we do not make an effort to repent of our former sins, we walk in darkness. Often, it takes great strength to form our lives according to the teachings of the Catholic Church. When we fall, we have an advocate in Jesus Christ. If we say we have no sin, it usually means that we do not accept Church teaching. That is the quickest road to perdition. If you think you know what is objectively sinful better then the Church does, think again! That attitude reveals tremendous arrogance and an unwillingness to repent! Do not let yourselves be deceived by false teachers. We must walk by faith in Christ and never by our own likes and dislikes. Following the teachings of the Catholic Church as revealed by God Himself is the best way to do this! 1 John 2:1-4 tells us that Jesus died for everyone on earth. There is no one that is beyond the saving power of God. Even the worst sinner can come to the knowledge of Christ and be saved. Heb 2:17 tells us that his human nature was perfect and made the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. Jesus was human in every way except sin! At the same time he was the eternal God incarnate. What a great and awesome mystery of the faith!
John 1:39 Jesus was the Lamb of God
John 8:21-30 We must believe in Jesus Christ
Luke 23:49 Faith and repentance can save anybody at any time
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
CHRIST'S REDEMPTIVE DEATH IN GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION
"Jesus handed over according to the definite plan of God"
599 Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: "This Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God."…
"He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures"
601 The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin… Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life and death in the light of God's suffering Servant. After his Resurrection he gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles.
602 Consequently, St. Peter can formulate the apostolic faith in the divine plan of salvation in this way: "You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers. . . with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake." Man's sins, following on original sin, are punishable by death. By sending his own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin, God "made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
God takes the initiative of universal redeeming love
604 By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." God "shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
605 At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." He affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer."
Christ's whole life is an offering to the Father
606 … The sacrifice of Jesus "for the sins of the whole world" expresses his loving communion with the Father. "The Father loves me, because I lay down my life", said the Lord, "[for] I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father."
607 The desire to embrace his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus' whole life, for his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation…
609 By embracing in his human heart the Father's love for men, Jesus "loved them to the end", for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men….
614 This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices…
615 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous." By his obedience…Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father.
639 The mystery of Christ's resurrection is a real event, with manifestations that were historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness. In about A.D. 56 St. Paul could already write to the Corinthians: "I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. . ."
643 Given all these testimonies, Christ's Resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an historical fact. It is clear from the facts that the disciples' faith was drastically put to the test by their master's Passion and death on the cross, which he had foretold. The shock provoked by the Passion was so great that at least some of the disciples did not at once believe in the news of the Resurrection. Far from showing us a community seized by a mystical exaltation, the Gospels present us with disciples demoralized ("looking sad") and frightened. For they had not believed the holy women returning from the tomb and had regarded their words as an "idle tale". When Jesus reveals himself to the Eleven on Easter evening, "he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen."
Faith words:
Atonement: In Catholic theology, the Atonement is the Satisfaction of Christ, whereby God and the world are reconciled or made to be at one.
Redemption: In the New Testament, it is the term designating the "great price" which the Redeemer paid for our freedom from sin.
Reflection Questions:
Why do we make the sign of the cross?
Why do we refer to the day of the crucifixion as Good Friday?
What must we do to benefit from the redemption that Jesus accomplished on the cross?
Lesson 15 - What is Faith?
(Lesson 15)
What is Faith?
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” Heb 11:1
Discussion Guide:
Faith can be described as trusting in God and in the teachings of his Church. It is a gift from God and it brings us into a personal relationship with the Holy Trinity. Like the good Father that he is, God shows us the way to live our lives. We believe in Jesus Christ as the God and Savior of the world. We trust him with our eternal salvation. Keep in mind that faith does not just consist of believing that God exists. After all, even Satan believes that God exists and no one would dare say that he has faith. True faith not only consists of believing in the existence of God, but also believing in whatever he reveals.
Believing in the Catholic Church as the one Church that was established by Jesus is essential to our faith. We believe that the Church has been entrusted with what is called the “deposit of faith”. These truths have been handed down to us from the time of the apostles. Truth is not something that we make up as we go along! God reveals the truth to us. As Catholics, we believe that the teachings of God reach us in two ways: Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture. The Catholic Church was established by Jesus Christ and that its teachings are guided by the Holy Spirit throughout all time. We must also have faith that the Sacred Scriptures have God as their primary author. Christianity contains many mysteries that are beyond human understanding. We believe it because we believe that it is God who revealed it. There is no way that we could ever fully comprehend some of the mysteries of God. A doctrine such as the Holy Trinity had to be revealed to us by God because we would have never figured it out on our own. Moral teachings are also a part of the deposit of the faith. These are usually understandable by means of the human intellect.
Discussion points:
· We need to constantly pray for an increase of faith
· Faith is a gift from God that we must accept and cooperate with
· Without faith, it is impossible to please God
· We do not need to understand everything that God reveals to us
· We do need to accept all that the Church teaches with faith
· There are aspects of our faith that are beyond human reason
· There is never a contradiction between true faith and true science
· Morality is directly related to faith
· By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God (CCC 143)
The Letter to the Hebrews Chapter 11:1-31
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old received divine approval. By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he received approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts; he died, but through his faith he is still speaking. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, took heed and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which comes by faith. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your descendants be named." He considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead; hence, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his burial. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful; and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered abuse suffered for the Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king; for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the first-born might not touch them. By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land; but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given friendly welcome to the spies.
What is Faith?
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” Heb 11:1
Opening Prayer:
Come Holy Spirit. Increase our faith and help us to believe all the truths that God has revealed. Help us to walk by faith and not by sight. Help us to place our trust in the Eternal Word, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Theme:
Discuss the meaning of faith and explain the meaning of the “deposit of faith”. Faith must manifest itself in the form of action. If faith is not demonstrated by good deeds, it is a dead faith. There is an unbreakable connection between faith, deeds, and morality. Faith in Jesus Christ must change your heart.
Bible Readings:
John 20:26-29 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."
James 2:24, 26 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone…. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.
2 Corinthians 5:7-10 So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight….For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.
Explanation of the Bible readings: St. John’s account of “doubting Thomas” gives us a great insight into the way that Jesus Christ views faith. The Master says that Thomas would have been more blessed had he not required physical evidence in order to believe. By faith, he should have accepted the testimony of the other apostles regarding the resurrection. We often want to see concrete results or some kind of proof before we trust in God. Sometimes we say things like, “Lord, before I can believe in you, I want to see a sign” or “If you do this for me, I will start to go to church”. This is similar to the way that Thomas initially reacted. It did not please the Lord 2,000 years ago and I doubt it pleases him today! We need to accept the Catholic faith because we love God and we want to serve his Church. We need to ask God, “What can I do for you and for your people”? As St. Paul teaches us, we need to demonstrate our faith by our works. If faith does not manifest itself in good works done for the love of God, it is surely a dead faith.
Hebrews 11:6 We need faith to please God
Romans 3:28-31 We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ
Leviticus 6:1 Sin is a breach of faith
Teaching:
If we have faith, we will believe the teachings of the Church. Although it is perfectly acceptable to ask questions in order to seek understanding, true faith does not doubt the reliability of what God has revealed through his Church. It is accepted not because it makes sense to us, but because we trust the source. To disregard or dismiss any Church teaching as being “not from God” or “man-made” is not only arrogant, but displays a lack of faith, a lack of knowledge, or perhaps an unwillingness to repent. We cannot change the deposit of faith, especially regarding moral issues, to suit our own desires. People often compromise their faith because they have family members who are living in sinful lifestyles and they do not want to view people they love as sinful. We should pray for these people and we should certainly be there for them, but we must never believe that the Church is in error about its moral teachings because of our personal feelings. Faith and morality go hand in hand. If we have strong faith, we will always look to Catholic teaching for guidance in our decision making process. Only there can we always find the answer to the popular question, “What would Jesus do?”
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
1814 Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God." For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's will. "The righteous shall live by faith." Living faith "works through charity."
142 By his Revelation, "the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company." The adequate response to this invitation is faith.
143 By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred Scripture calls this human response to God, the author of revelation, "the obedience of faith".
144 To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to "hear or listen to") in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God…
146 Abraham thus fulfills the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen":7 "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Because he was "strong in his faith", Abraham became the "father of all who believe".
148 The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith. By faith Mary welcomes the tidings and promise brought by the angel Gabriel, believing that "with God nothing will be impossible" and so giving her assent….
149 Throughout her life and until her last ordeal when Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary's faith never wavered. She never ceased to believe in the fulfillment of God's word. And so the Church venerates in Mary the purest realization of faith.
150 Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed…..
151 For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his "beloved Son", in whom the Father is "well pleased"; God tells us to listen to him….
152 One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to men who Jesus is. For "no one can say "Jesus is Lord", except by the Holy Spirit”…. The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
153 When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood", but from "my Father who is in heaven". Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.'"
154 Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason.
155 In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace: "Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace."
156 What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe "because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived". So "that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit." Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability "are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all"; they are "motives of credibility" (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the mind".
157 Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but "the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives." "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt."
159 Faith and science: "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason….
160 To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and. . . therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. The act of faith is of its very nature a free act…..
161 Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. "Since "without faith it is impossible to please [God]" and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life 'But he who endures to the end.'"
162 Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith…..
2087 Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us….
2088 There are various ways of sinning against faith:
Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.
2089 Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him."
Faith words:
Deposit of faith: The teachings of the faith that are entrusted to the Catholic Church and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit throughout time
Faith: The theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief
Heresy: The obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same
Incredulity: The neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it
Reflection Questions:
Can you think of a time when you needed to rely on faith in another person?
Give an example of a situation where a person would look to God with faith?
Describe a circumstance where a person can have his or her faith put to the test.
Pope John Paul II
General Audience March 18, 1998
3. In what does faith consist? The Constitution Dei Verbum explains that by faith, "man freely commits his entire self to God, making 'the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals'" (n. 5). Thus faith is not only the intellect's adherence to the truth revealed, but also a submission of the will and a gift of self to God revealing himself. It is a stance that involves one's entire existence.
The Council also recalls that this faith requires "the grace of God to move man and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth'" (ibid.). In this way we can see how, on the one hand, faith enables us to welcome the truth contained in Revelation and proposed by the Magisterium of those who, as Pastors of God's People, have received a "sure charism of truth" (Dei Verbum) , n. 8). On the other hand, faith also spurs us to true and deep consistency, which must be expressed in all aspects of a life modeled on that of Christ.
4. As a fruit of grace, faith exercises an influence on events. This is wonderfully seen in the exemplary case of the Blessed Virgin. Her faith-filled acceptance of the angel's message at the Annunciation is decisive for Jesus' very coming into the world. Mary is the Mother of Christ because she first believed in him….The faith of the Caananite woman was also bold and insistent. Jesus countered this woman, who had come to seek the cure of her daughter, with the Father's plan which restricted his mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Caananite replied with the full force of her faith and obtained the miracle: "O woman! Great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire" (Mt 15:28).
5. In many other cases the Gospel witnesses to the power of faith. Jesus expresses his admiration for the centurion's faith: "Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith" (Mt 8:10). And to Bartimaeus: "Go your way your faith has made you well" (Mk 10:52). He says the same thing to the woman with a hemorrhage (cf. Mk 5:34).
His words to the father of the epileptic who wanted his son to be cured are no less striking: "All things are possible to him who believes" (Mk 9:23).
The role of faith is to co-operate with this omnipotence. Jesus asks for this co-operation to the point that upon returning to Nazareth, he works almost no miracles because the inhabitants of his village did not believe in him (cf. Mk 6:5-6). For Jesus, faith has a decisive importance for the purposes of salvation.
St Paul will develop Christ's teaching when, in conflict with those who wished to base the hope of salvation on observance of the Jewish law, he forcefully affirms that faith in Christ is the only source of salvation: "We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law" (Rom 3:28). However, it must not be forgotten that St Paul was thinking of that authentic and full faith which "works through love" (Gal 5:6). True faith is animated by love of God, which is inseparable from love for our brothers and sisters.
What is Faith?
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” Heb 11:1
Discussion Guide:
Faith can be described as trusting in God and in the teachings of his Church. It is a gift from God and it brings us into a personal relationship with the Holy Trinity. Like the good Father that he is, God shows us the way to live our lives. We believe in Jesus Christ as the God and Savior of the world. We trust him with our eternal salvation. Keep in mind that faith does not just consist of believing that God exists. After all, even Satan believes that God exists and no one would dare say that he has faith. True faith not only consists of believing in the existence of God, but also believing in whatever he reveals.
Believing in the Catholic Church as the one Church that was established by Jesus is essential to our faith. We believe that the Church has been entrusted with what is called the “deposit of faith”. These truths have been handed down to us from the time of the apostles. Truth is not something that we make up as we go along! God reveals the truth to us. As Catholics, we believe that the teachings of God reach us in two ways: Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture. The Catholic Church was established by Jesus Christ and that its teachings are guided by the Holy Spirit throughout all time. We must also have faith that the Sacred Scriptures have God as their primary author. Christianity contains many mysteries that are beyond human understanding. We believe it because we believe that it is God who revealed it. There is no way that we could ever fully comprehend some of the mysteries of God. A doctrine such as the Holy Trinity had to be revealed to us by God because we would have never figured it out on our own. Moral teachings are also a part of the deposit of the faith. These are usually understandable by means of the human intellect.
Discussion points:
· We need to constantly pray for an increase of faith
· Faith is a gift from God that we must accept and cooperate with
· Without faith, it is impossible to please God
· We do not need to understand everything that God reveals to us
· We do need to accept all that the Church teaches with faith
· There are aspects of our faith that are beyond human reason
· There is never a contradiction between true faith and true science
· Morality is directly related to faith
· By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God (CCC 143)
The Letter to the Hebrews Chapter 11:1-31
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old received divine approval. By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he received approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts; he died, but through his faith he is still speaking. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, took heed and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which comes by faith. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your descendants be named." He considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead; hence, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his burial. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful; and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered abuse suffered for the Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king; for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the first-born might not touch them. By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land; but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given friendly welcome to the spies.
What is Faith?
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” Heb 11:1
Opening Prayer:
Come Holy Spirit. Increase our faith and help us to believe all the truths that God has revealed. Help us to walk by faith and not by sight. Help us to place our trust in the Eternal Word, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Theme:
Discuss the meaning of faith and explain the meaning of the “deposit of faith”. Faith must manifest itself in the form of action. If faith is not demonstrated by good deeds, it is a dead faith. There is an unbreakable connection between faith, deeds, and morality. Faith in Jesus Christ must change your heart.
Bible Readings:
John 20:26-29 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."
James 2:24, 26 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone…. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.
2 Corinthians 5:7-10 So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight….For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.
Explanation of the Bible readings: St. John’s account of “doubting Thomas” gives us a great insight into the way that Jesus Christ views faith. The Master says that Thomas would have been more blessed had he not required physical evidence in order to believe. By faith, he should have accepted the testimony of the other apostles regarding the resurrection. We often want to see concrete results or some kind of proof before we trust in God. Sometimes we say things like, “Lord, before I can believe in you, I want to see a sign” or “If you do this for me, I will start to go to church”. This is similar to the way that Thomas initially reacted. It did not please the Lord 2,000 years ago and I doubt it pleases him today! We need to accept the Catholic faith because we love God and we want to serve his Church. We need to ask God, “What can I do for you and for your people”? As St. Paul teaches us, we need to demonstrate our faith by our works. If faith does not manifest itself in good works done for the love of God, it is surely a dead faith.
Hebrews 11:6 We need faith to please God
Romans 3:28-31 We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ
Leviticus 6:1 Sin is a breach of faith
Teaching:
If we have faith, we will believe the teachings of the Church. Although it is perfectly acceptable to ask questions in order to seek understanding, true faith does not doubt the reliability of what God has revealed through his Church. It is accepted not because it makes sense to us, but because we trust the source. To disregard or dismiss any Church teaching as being “not from God” or “man-made” is not only arrogant, but displays a lack of faith, a lack of knowledge, or perhaps an unwillingness to repent. We cannot change the deposit of faith, especially regarding moral issues, to suit our own desires. People often compromise their faith because they have family members who are living in sinful lifestyles and they do not want to view people they love as sinful. We should pray for these people and we should certainly be there for them, but we must never believe that the Church is in error about its moral teachings because of our personal feelings. Faith and morality go hand in hand. If we have strong faith, we will always look to Catholic teaching for guidance in our decision making process. Only there can we always find the answer to the popular question, “What would Jesus do?”
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
1814 Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God." For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's will. "The righteous shall live by faith." Living faith "works through charity."
142 By his Revelation, "the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company." The adequate response to this invitation is faith.
143 By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred Scripture calls this human response to God, the author of revelation, "the obedience of faith".
144 To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to "hear or listen to") in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God…
146 Abraham thus fulfills the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen":7 "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Because he was "strong in his faith", Abraham became the "father of all who believe".
148 The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith. By faith Mary welcomes the tidings and promise brought by the angel Gabriel, believing that "with God nothing will be impossible" and so giving her assent….
149 Throughout her life and until her last ordeal when Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary's faith never wavered. She never ceased to believe in the fulfillment of God's word. And so the Church venerates in Mary the purest realization of faith.
150 Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed…..
151 For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his "beloved Son", in whom the Father is "well pleased"; God tells us to listen to him….
152 One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to men who Jesus is. For "no one can say "Jesus is Lord", except by the Holy Spirit”…. The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
153 When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood", but from "my Father who is in heaven". Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.'"
154 Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason.
155 In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace: "Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace."
156 What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe "because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived". So "that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit." Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability "are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all"; they are "motives of credibility" (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the mind".
157 Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but "the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives." "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt."
159 Faith and science: "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason….
160 To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and. . . therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. The act of faith is of its very nature a free act…..
161 Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. "Since "without faith it is impossible to please [God]" and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life 'But he who endures to the end.'"
162 Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith…..
2087 Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us….
2088 There are various ways of sinning against faith:
Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.
2089 Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him."
Faith words:
Deposit of faith: The teachings of the faith that are entrusted to the Catholic Church and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit throughout time
Faith: The theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief
Heresy: The obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same
Incredulity: The neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it
Reflection Questions:
Can you think of a time when you needed to rely on faith in another person?
Give an example of a situation where a person would look to God with faith?
Describe a circumstance where a person can have his or her faith put to the test.
Pope John Paul II
General Audience March 18, 1998
3. In what does faith consist? The Constitution Dei Verbum explains that by faith, "man freely commits his entire self to God, making 'the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals'" (n. 5). Thus faith is not only the intellect's adherence to the truth revealed, but also a submission of the will and a gift of self to God revealing himself. It is a stance that involves one's entire existence.
The Council also recalls that this faith requires "the grace of God to move man and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth'" (ibid.). In this way we can see how, on the one hand, faith enables us to welcome the truth contained in Revelation and proposed by the Magisterium of those who, as Pastors of God's People, have received a "sure charism of truth" (Dei Verbum) , n. 8). On the other hand, faith also spurs us to true and deep consistency, which must be expressed in all aspects of a life modeled on that of Christ.
4. As a fruit of grace, faith exercises an influence on events. This is wonderfully seen in the exemplary case of the Blessed Virgin. Her faith-filled acceptance of the angel's message at the Annunciation is decisive for Jesus' very coming into the world. Mary is the Mother of Christ because she first believed in him….The faith of the Caananite woman was also bold and insistent. Jesus countered this woman, who had come to seek the cure of her daughter, with the Father's plan which restricted his mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Caananite replied with the full force of her faith and obtained the miracle: "O woman! Great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire" (Mt 15:28).
5. In many other cases the Gospel witnesses to the power of faith. Jesus expresses his admiration for the centurion's faith: "Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith" (Mt 8:10). And to Bartimaeus: "Go your way your faith has made you well" (Mk 10:52). He says the same thing to the woman with a hemorrhage (cf. Mk 5:34).
His words to the father of the epileptic who wanted his son to be cured are no less striking: "All things are possible to him who believes" (Mk 9:23).
The role of faith is to co-operate with this omnipotence. Jesus asks for this co-operation to the point that upon returning to Nazareth, he works almost no miracles because the inhabitants of his village did not believe in him (cf. Mk 6:5-6). For Jesus, faith has a decisive importance for the purposes of salvation.
St Paul will develop Christ's teaching when, in conflict with those who wished to base the hope of salvation on observance of the Jewish law, he forcefully affirms that faith in Christ is the only source of salvation: "We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law" (Rom 3:28). However, it must not be forgotten that St Paul was thinking of that authentic and full faith which "works through love" (Gal 5:6). True faith is animated by love of God, which is inseparable from love for our brothers and sisters.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Lesson 16 - The Beatitudes
(Lesson 16)
The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” Matt 1:8
Discussion Guide:
I once heard a priest say that the Beatitudes need to “be” our “attitudes”. Let that little saying stick in your mind. The word beatitude literally means blessedness or a state of bliss. The first part of what is commonly known as the “Sermon on the Mount” begins with a number of beautiful and spiritual declarations called the Beatitudes. In these statements, Jesus makes it clear that the most important things in this life are the spiritual things. All of the beatitudes apply to all followers of Christ. They are rooted in the fact that true blessedness does not come from earthly sources but from heavenly sources. The Sermon on the Mount introduces some radical ideas that run counter to our fallen human nature and the norms of our society. It is difficult to bless those who persecute us and to love our enemies, to practice what we preach and to correct our own faults instead of judging others. It is also difficult to keep the commandments and to teach others to do the same. Only with the grace of God are these things made possible. Jesus, being God incarnate, has the authority to illuminate the meaning of the Ten Commandments. He tells his disciples that sin does not only consist in evil deeds, but in evil thoughts and intentions as well. We all need to pray that the Holy Spirit helps us to purify our intentions as well as our actions.
Discussion Points:
· The Beatitudes and the Ten Commandments complement each other
· The Beatitudes did not replace the Ten Commandments
· The Beatitudes show us the proper dispositions that we should have as Christians
· Jesus Christ did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it
· The Sermon on the Mount is the most perfect teaching ever revealed to mankind
· Our thoughts and intentions can be sinful as well as our deeds
· We need to practice what we preach and be good witnesses to the Lord
· The faith should never be viewed as only a series of rules and regulations
· We should strive to live by the principles revealed in the Sermon on the Mount
· The question “What Would Jesus Do?” is best answered somewhere in Matt 5-7
· “So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them” (Matt 7:12)
· “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction” (Matt 7:13)
· “Beware of false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt 7:15)
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
5:1-12
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.
The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” Matt 1:8
Opening Prayer:
Holy Spirit, help us to live our lives in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Help us to love our enemies and forgive those who have wronged us. Help us to cleanse our hearts of bad intentions. Give us the grace to be good witnesses to our faith. Amen
Theme:
The Beatitudes need to be written on our hearts. The Sermon on the Mount should direct our actions and our intentions. Jesus gave us the most perfect teaching ever revealed and we need to pray for the grace to follow it. The “Our Father” is contained in this sermon.
Bible Readings:
Matthew 5:14-17 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:27-30 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Matthew 5:38-46 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matthew 7:1-5 "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Explanation of the Bible readings: Rather than attempt to make a lengthy commentary on Matthew chapters 5 through 7, I will just recommend that everyone take the time to prayerfully read these chapters in their entirety. Many of the Lord’s most well known sayings are contained in these three chapters so read them carefully. Take notice that the Lord’s Prayer (The Our Father) is contained in this section of the Bible. I personally believe that the Sermon on the Mount reveals the essence of Christian morality and needs to become “written on our hearts”.
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
The Beatitudes
1716 The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus' preaching. They take up the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. The Beatitudes fulfill the promises by ordering them no longer merely to the possession of a territory, but to the Kingdom of heaven:
1717 The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity….they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ's disciples; they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.
1718 The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it:
We all want to live happily; in the whole human race there is no one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is fully articulated.
How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you. God alone satisfies.
1719 The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts: God calls us to his own beatitude. This vocation is addressed to each individual personally, but also to the Church as a whole, the new people made up of those who have accepted the promise and live from it in faith.
1721 God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature" and of eternal life. With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ and into the joy of the Trinitarian life.
1722 Such beatitude surpasses the understanding and powers of man. It comes from an entirely free gift of God: whence it is called supernatural, as is the grace that disposes man to enter into the divine joy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." It is true, because of the greatness and inexpressible glory of God, that "man shall not see me and live," for the Father cannot be grasped. But because of God's love and goodness toward us, and because he can do all things, he goes so far as to grant those who love him the privilege of seeing him….For "what is impossible for men is possible for God."
1723 The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement - however beneficial it may be - such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love:
All bow down before wealth. Wealth is that to which the multitude of men pay an instinctive homage. They measure happiness by wealth; and by wealth they measure respectability. . . . It is a homage resulting from a profound faith . . . that with wealth he may do all things. Wealth is one idol of the day and notoriety is a second. . . . Notoriety, or the making of a noise in the world - it may be called "newspaper fame" - has come to be considered a great good in itself, and a ground of veneration.
1724 The Decalogue, the Sermon on the Mount, and the apostolic catechesis describe for us the paths that lead to the Kingdom of heaven. Sustained by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we tread them, step by step, by everyday acts. By the working of the Word of Christ, we slowly bear fruit in the Church to the glory of God.
The New Law or the “Law of the Gospel”
1965 The New Law or the Law of the Gospel is the perfection here on earth of the divine law, natural and revealed. It is the work of Christ and is expressed particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. It is also the work of the Holy Spirit and through him it becomes the interior law of charity: "I will establish a New Covenant with the house of Israel. . . . I will put my laws into their hands, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
1966 The New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit given to the faithful through faith in Christ. It works through charity; it uses the Sermon on the Mount to teach us what must be done and makes use of the sacraments to give us the grace to do it:
If anyone should meditate with devotion and perspicacity on the sermon our Lord gave on the mount, as we read in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, he will doubtless find there . . . the perfect way of the Christian life. . . . This sermon contains . . . all the precepts needed to shape one's life.
1968 The Law of the Gospel fulfills the commandments of the Law. The Lord's Sermon on the Mount, far from abolishing or devaluing the moral prescriptions of the Old Law, releases their hidden potential and has new demands arise from them: it reveals their entire divine and human truth. It does not add new external precepts, but proceeds to reform the heart, the root of human acts, where man chooses between the pure and the impure, where faith, hope, and charity are formed and with them the other virtues….
1969 The New Law practices the acts of religion: almsgiving, prayer and fasting, directing them to the "Father who sees in secret," in contrast with the desire to "be seen by men." Its prayer is the Our Father.
1970 ….The entire Law of the Gospel is contained in the "new commandment" of Jesus, to love one another as he has loved us.
2014 Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called "mystical" because it participates in the mystery of Christ through the sacraments - "the holy mysteries" - and, in him, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God calls us all to this intimate union with him, even if the special graces or extraordinary signs of this mystical life are granted only to some for the sake of manifesting the gratuitous gift given to all.
2015 The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes:
Faith words:
Almsgiving: When charitable gifts are given to the poor for the love of God
Ascesis: Man's struggle to keep the commandments of Christ
Beatitude: Literally means blessedness or a state of bliss
Idol: Any thing that is “set up to be worshipped” instead of God, or an actual false God
Mortification: Self-denial. Mortification is an attempt to gain self-control and to free us from minor or harmful things to devote our attention and energy to the things that are really important in life.
Reflection Questions:
What changes can we make in our attitudes that will enhance our spiritual growth?
Which teaching contained in the Sermon on the Mount is the most difficult for you to keep?
Has there ever been a time when you felt like a hypocrite? Explain.
Homily of Pope John Paul II
Israel – Korazim, Mount of the Beatitudes Friday, 24 March 2000--Mass for Youth
2…The Ten Commandments of Sinai may seem negative: “You will have no false gods before me; . . . do not kill; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness...” (Ex 20:3, 13-16). But in fact they are supremely positive. Moving beyond the evil they name, they point the way to the law of love which is the first and greatest of the commandments: “You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. . . You will love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:37, 39). Jesus himself says that he came not to abolish but to fulfill the Law (cf. Mt 5:17). His message is new but it does not destroy what went before; it leads what went before to its fullest potential. Jesus teaches that the way of love brings the Law to fulfillment (cf. Gal 5:14). And he taught this enormously important truth on this hill here in Galilee.
3. “Blessed are you!”, he says, “all you who are poor in spirit, gentle and merciful, you who mourn, who care for what is right, who are pure in heart, who make peace, you who are persecuted! Blessed are you!” But the words of Jesus may seem strange. It is strange that Jesus exalts those whom the world generally regards as weak. He says to them, “Blessed are you who seem to be losers, because you are the true winners: the kingdom of heaven is yours!” Spoken by him who is “gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29), these words present a challenge which demands a deep and abiding metanoia of the spirit, a great change of heart.
You young people will understand why this change of heart is necessary! Because you are aware of another voice within you and all around you; a contradictory voice. It is a voice which says, “Blessed are the proud and violent, those who prosper at any cost, who are unscrupulous, pitiless, devious, who make war not peace, and persecute those who stand in their way”. And this voice seems to make sense in a world where the violent often triumph and the devious seem to succeed. “Yes”, says the voice of evil, “they are the ones who win. Happy are they!”
4. Jesus offers a very different message. Not far from this very place Jesus called his first disciples, as he calls you now. His call has always demanded a choice between the two voices competing for your hearts even now on this hill, the choice between good and evil, between life and death. Which voice will the young people of the twenty-first century choose to follow? To put your faith in Jesus means choosing to believe what he says, no matter how strange it may seem, and choosing to reject the claims of evil, no matter how sensible or attractive they may seem.
In the end, Jesus does not merely speak the Beatitudes. He lives the Beatitudes. He is the Beatitudes. Looking at him you will see what it means to be poor in spirit, gentle and merciful, to mourn, to care for what is right, to be pure in heart, to make peace, to be persecuted. This is why he has the right to say, “Come, follow me!” He does not say simply, “Do what I say”. He says, “Come, follow me!”
You hear his voice on this hill, and you believe what he says. But like the first disciples at the Sea of Galilee, you must leave your boats and nets behind, and that is never easy – especially when you face an uncertain future and are tempted to lose faith in your Christian heritage. To be good Christians may seem beyond your strength in today’s world. But Jesus does not stand by and leave you alone to face the challenge. He is always with you to transform your weakness into strength. Trust him when he says: “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9)!
The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” Matt 1:8
Discussion Guide:
I once heard a priest say that the Beatitudes need to “be” our “attitudes”. Let that little saying stick in your mind. The word beatitude literally means blessedness or a state of bliss. The first part of what is commonly known as the “Sermon on the Mount” begins with a number of beautiful and spiritual declarations called the Beatitudes. In these statements, Jesus makes it clear that the most important things in this life are the spiritual things. All of the beatitudes apply to all followers of Christ. They are rooted in the fact that true blessedness does not come from earthly sources but from heavenly sources. The Sermon on the Mount introduces some radical ideas that run counter to our fallen human nature and the norms of our society. It is difficult to bless those who persecute us and to love our enemies, to practice what we preach and to correct our own faults instead of judging others. It is also difficult to keep the commandments and to teach others to do the same. Only with the grace of God are these things made possible. Jesus, being God incarnate, has the authority to illuminate the meaning of the Ten Commandments. He tells his disciples that sin does not only consist in evil deeds, but in evil thoughts and intentions as well. We all need to pray that the Holy Spirit helps us to purify our intentions as well as our actions.
Discussion Points:
· The Beatitudes and the Ten Commandments complement each other
· The Beatitudes did not replace the Ten Commandments
· The Beatitudes show us the proper dispositions that we should have as Christians
· Jesus Christ did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it
· The Sermon on the Mount is the most perfect teaching ever revealed to mankind
· Our thoughts and intentions can be sinful as well as our deeds
· We need to practice what we preach and be good witnesses to the Lord
· The faith should never be viewed as only a series of rules and regulations
· We should strive to live by the principles revealed in the Sermon on the Mount
· The question “What Would Jesus Do?” is best answered somewhere in Matt 5-7
· “So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them” (Matt 7:12)
· “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction” (Matt 7:13)
· “Beware of false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt 7:15)
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
5:1-12
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.
The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” Matt 1:8
Opening Prayer:
Holy Spirit, help us to live our lives in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Help us to love our enemies and forgive those who have wronged us. Help us to cleanse our hearts of bad intentions. Give us the grace to be good witnesses to our faith. Amen
Theme:
The Beatitudes need to be written on our hearts. The Sermon on the Mount should direct our actions and our intentions. Jesus gave us the most perfect teaching ever revealed and we need to pray for the grace to follow it. The “Our Father” is contained in this sermon.
Bible Readings:
Matthew 5:14-17 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:27-30 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Matthew 5:38-46 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matthew 7:1-5 "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Explanation of the Bible readings: Rather than attempt to make a lengthy commentary on Matthew chapters 5 through 7, I will just recommend that everyone take the time to prayerfully read these chapters in their entirety. Many of the Lord’s most well known sayings are contained in these three chapters so read them carefully. Take notice that the Lord’s Prayer (The Our Father) is contained in this section of the Bible. I personally believe that the Sermon on the Mount reveals the essence of Christian morality and needs to become “written on our hearts”.
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
The Beatitudes
1716 The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus' preaching. They take up the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. The Beatitudes fulfill the promises by ordering them no longer merely to the possession of a territory, but to the Kingdom of heaven:
1717 The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity….they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ's disciples; they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.
1718 The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it:
We all want to live happily; in the whole human race there is no one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is fully articulated.
How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you. God alone satisfies.
1719 The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts: God calls us to his own beatitude. This vocation is addressed to each individual personally, but also to the Church as a whole, the new people made up of those who have accepted the promise and live from it in faith.
1721 God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature" and of eternal life. With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ and into the joy of the Trinitarian life.
1722 Such beatitude surpasses the understanding and powers of man. It comes from an entirely free gift of God: whence it is called supernatural, as is the grace that disposes man to enter into the divine joy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." It is true, because of the greatness and inexpressible glory of God, that "man shall not see me and live," for the Father cannot be grasped. But because of God's love and goodness toward us, and because he can do all things, he goes so far as to grant those who love him the privilege of seeing him….For "what is impossible for men is possible for God."
1723 The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement - however beneficial it may be - such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love:
All bow down before wealth. Wealth is that to which the multitude of men pay an instinctive homage. They measure happiness by wealth; and by wealth they measure respectability. . . . It is a homage resulting from a profound faith . . . that with wealth he may do all things. Wealth is one idol of the day and notoriety is a second. . . . Notoriety, or the making of a noise in the world - it may be called "newspaper fame" - has come to be considered a great good in itself, and a ground of veneration.
1724 The Decalogue, the Sermon on the Mount, and the apostolic catechesis describe for us the paths that lead to the Kingdom of heaven. Sustained by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we tread them, step by step, by everyday acts. By the working of the Word of Christ, we slowly bear fruit in the Church to the glory of God.
The New Law or the “Law of the Gospel”
1965 The New Law or the Law of the Gospel is the perfection here on earth of the divine law, natural and revealed. It is the work of Christ and is expressed particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. It is also the work of the Holy Spirit and through him it becomes the interior law of charity: "I will establish a New Covenant with the house of Israel. . . . I will put my laws into their hands, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
1966 The New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit given to the faithful through faith in Christ. It works through charity; it uses the Sermon on the Mount to teach us what must be done and makes use of the sacraments to give us the grace to do it:
If anyone should meditate with devotion and perspicacity on the sermon our Lord gave on the mount, as we read in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, he will doubtless find there . . . the perfect way of the Christian life. . . . This sermon contains . . . all the precepts needed to shape one's life.
1968 The Law of the Gospel fulfills the commandments of the Law. The Lord's Sermon on the Mount, far from abolishing or devaluing the moral prescriptions of the Old Law, releases their hidden potential and has new demands arise from them: it reveals their entire divine and human truth. It does not add new external precepts, but proceeds to reform the heart, the root of human acts, where man chooses between the pure and the impure, where faith, hope, and charity are formed and with them the other virtues….
1969 The New Law practices the acts of religion: almsgiving, prayer and fasting, directing them to the "Father who sees in secret," in contrast with the desire to "be seen by men." Its prayer is the Our Father.
1970 ….The entire Law of the Gospel is contained in the "new commandment" of Jesus, to love one another as he has loved us.
2014 Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called "mystical" because it participates in the mystery of Christ through the sacraments - "the holy mysteries" - and, in him, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God calls us all to this intimate union with him, even if the special graces or extraordinary signs of this mystical life are granted only to some for the sake of manifesting the gratuitous gift given to all.
2015 The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes:
Faith words:
Almsgiving: When charitable gifts are given to the poor for the love of God
Ascesis: Man's struggle to keep the commandments of Christ
Beatitude: Literally means blessedness or a state of bliss
Idol: Any thing that is “set up to be worshipped” instead of God, or an actual false God
Mortification: Self-denial. Mortification is an attempt to gain self-control and to free us from minor or harmful things to devote our attention and energy to the things that are really important in life.
Reflection Questions:
What changes can we make in our attitudes that will enhance our spiritual growth?
Which teaching contained in the Sermon on the Mount is the most difficult for you to keep?
Has there ever been a time when you felt like a hypocrite? Explain.
Homily of Pope John Paul II
Israel – Korazim, Mount of the Beatitudes Friday, 24 March 2000--Mass for Youth
2…The Ten Commandments of Sinai may seem negative: “You will have no false gods before me; . . . do not kill; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness...” (Ex 20:3, 13-16). But in fact they are supremely positive. Moving beyond the evil they name, they point the way to the law of love which is the first and greatest of the commandments: “You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. . . You will love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:37, 39). Jesus himself says that he came not to abolish but to fulfill the Law (cf. Mt 5:17). His message is new but it does not destroy what went before; it leads what went before to its fullest potential. Jesus teaches that the way of love brings the Law to fulfillment (cf. Gal 5:14). And he taught this enormously important truth on this hill here in Galilee.
3. “Blessed are you!”, he says, “all you who are poor in spirit, gentle and merciful, you who mourn, who care for what is right, who are pure in heart, who make peace, you who are persecuted! Blessed are you!” But the words of Jesus may seem strange. It is strange that Jesus exalts those whom the world generally regards as weak. He says to them, “Blessed are you who seem to be losers, because you are the true winners: the kingdom of heaven is yours!” Spoken by him who is “gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29), these words present a challenge which demands a deep and abiding metanoia of the spirit, a great change of heart.
You young people will understand why this change of heart is necessary! Because you are aware of another voice within you and all around you; a contradictory voice. It is a voice which says, “Blessed are the proud and violent, those who prosper at any cost, who are unscrupulous, pitiless, devious, who make war not peace, and persecute those who stand in their way”. And this voice seems to make sense in a world where the violent often triumph and the devious seem to succeed. “Yes”, says the voice of evil, “they are the ones who win. Happy are they!”
4. Jesus offers a very different message. Not far from this very place Jesus called his first disciples, as he calls you now. His call has always demanded a choice between the two voices competing for your hearts even now on this hill, the choice between good and evil, between life and death. Which voice will the young people of the twenty-first century choose to follow? To put your faith in Jesus means choosing to believe what he says, no matter how strange it may seem, and choosing to reject the claims of evil, no matter how sensible or attractive they may seem.
In the end, Jesus does not merely speak the Beatitudes. He lives the Beatitudes. He is the Beatitudes. Looking at him you will see what it means to be poor in spirit, gentle and merciful, to mourn, to care for what is right, to be pure in heart, to make peace, to be persecuted. This is why he has the right to say, “Come, follow me!” He does not say simply, “Do what I say”. He says, “Come, follow me!”
You hear his voice on this hill, and you believe what he says. But like the first disciples at the Sea of Galilee, you must leave your boats and nets behind, and that is never easy – especially when you face an uncertain future and are tempted to lose faith in your Christian heritage. To be good Christians may seem beyond your strength in today’s world. But Jesus does not stand by and leave you alone to face the challenge. He is always with you to transform your weakness into strength. Trust him when he says: “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9)!
Lesson 17 - Gifts of the Holy Spirit
(Lesson 17)
Grace, Virtues and Gifts of the Holy Spirit
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; …” 1 Corinthians 12:4
Discussion Guide:
The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church as the source of its life and sanctifies souls through the gift of grace. In a mysterious way, the Holy Spirit also dwells within each one of us. Grace is a supernatural gift of God bestowed on the faithful though the merits of Jesus Christ for the sake of our salvation. Grace is a free gift from God and it cannot be earned. It is possible for us to resist this grace by hardening our hearts and turning from God. The sacraments of the Church provide the greatest source of grace. Faith, hope and charity are known as the three theological virtues. These virtues are gifts from God and are a result of his grace. Faith means that we believe everything that God has said simply because he has said it. Hope means that we trust God to help us at all times and we should never despair. Charity is the virtue that enables us to love God above all things and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. The gifts of the Holy Spirit equip us to live our everyday lives in a way that is pleasing to God. These gifts enable us to do things that would not be possible on our own. They help us to live out the precepts that Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes. They help us to draw people near to our Lord by trying to imitate his love for others. There are special gifts of the Holy Spirit that are known as charisms. These are outward manifestations of the Holy Spirit that God uses to build up the Church. Prophecy, miracles, healing, and speaking in tongues are examples of these gifts. St. Paul speaks of these charisms in chapter 12 of the first letter to the Corinthians.
Discussion Points:
· Grace is a free gift from God that we can not earn
· Sanctifying grace is a share in the divine life in our souls
· The sacraments are a source of grace
· Grace proceeds from the Holy Spirit
· The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church and within believers
· Faith, hope, and charity are the three theological virtues
· Our good deeds must be done for the love of God if they are to have any merit
· The gifts of the Holy Spirit are cultivated by the sacraments, prayer and other pious activities. (Bible reading, fellowship, acts of charity…etc.)
· Some people are given special gifts called charisms to build up the church. This is sometimes referred to as “Baptism in the Holy Spirit”
· We must use our gifts for the life of the Church
1 Corinthians Chapter 12
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were heathen, you were led astray to dumb idols, however you may have been moved. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus be cursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you.” and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
Grace, Virtues and Gifts of the Holy Spirit
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; …” 1 Corinthians 12:4
Opening Prayer:
Holy Spirit, fill us with faith, hope, and charity as we advance on our journey toward heaven. Give us the wisdom to discern Your gifts in our hearts. Give us the courage to use those gifts for the life of the Church. Amen.
Theme:
Grace is a participation in the life of God. It is a free gift from God that comes to us through the Holy Spirit. The sacraments of the Catholic Church confer sanctifying grace. Faith, hope, and charity are the three theological virtues. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Charisms are special gifts of the Holy Spirit given to some people for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ.
Bible Readings:
Romans 5:15 For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
Galatians 5:16-25 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.
1 Corinthians Chapter 13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Explanation of the Bible readings: St. Paul explains that grace is a free gift from God. Although we do not earn that grace, we are obligated to cooperate with it to grow in holiness. With the help of God’s grace, we can overcome any sin. If we walk by the spirit, we will do what God wants us to do. The virtues that God freely gives us through his grace will manifest themselves in the fruits of the Spirit that are mentioned in Galatians chapter 5. He also warns us about the works of the flesh. These works of the flesh encompass all types of sins and bad attitudes. Since God leaves our free will intact, we can always choose to turn our backs on his grace and commit sin. St. Paul clearly says that if we bear rotten fruit, we will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. If we are not walking in the Spirit, we need to repent and confess our sins. Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians is known as the love chapter and is often read at weddings. It is all about the virtue of charity. According to the apostle, love is the greatest of the virtues. If we do not do our good works for the love of God and neighbor, they gain nothing.
1 Peter 5:5 God grace to the humble
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 God’s grace is sufficient for you
John 14:26 The Holy Spirit teaches us
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Grace
1996 Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.
1997 Grace is a participation in the life of God….
1998 This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God's gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect and will, as that of every other creature.
1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification:
Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.
2000 Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God's call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.
2002 God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into the communion of love….
2003 Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit." Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church.
2005 Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and works to conclude that we are justified and saved….
Faith
1814 Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God."
1815 The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. But "faith apart from works is dead": when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body.
1816 The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: "All however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks." Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: "So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."
Hope
1817 Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit….
1818 The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement…
1821 We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will….
Charity
1822 Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
1823 Jesus makes charity the new commandment…And again: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
1824 Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the commandments of God and his Christ: "Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."
1825 Christ died out of love for us, while we were still "enemies." The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ himself…
1827 The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which "binds everything together in perfect harmony" it is the form of the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.
1829 The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence…..
THE GIFTS AND FRUITS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
1830 The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
1831 The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord….
1832 The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: "charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity."
Faith words:
Charisms: a theological term denoting extraordinary graces given to individual Christians for the good of others.
Sanctify: consecrate: render holy by means of religious rites
Supernatural: not existing in nature or subject to explanation according to natural laws; not physical or material
Reflection Questions:
What should your disposition be when you receive a free and wonderful gift?
What can you do to comfort someone who may be losing hope?
Name a few ways that you can cooperate more fully with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
The Cardinal Virtues
(CCC 1806 -1809)
Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; "the prudent man looks where he is going." "Keep sane and sober for your prayers.” Prudence is "right reason in action," writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.
Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the "virtue of religion." Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor. "You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor." "Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven."
Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause. "The Lord is my strength and my song." "In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will's mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable. The temperate person directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion: "Do not follow your inclination and strength, walking according to the desires of your heart." Temperance is often praised in the Old Testament: "Do not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites." In the New Testament it is called "moderation" or "sobriety." We ought "to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world."
Grace, Virtues and Gifts of the Holy Spirit
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; …” 1 Corinthians 12:4
Discussion Guide:
The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church as the source of its life and sanctifies souls through the gift of grace. In a mysterious way, the Holy Spirit also dwells within each one of us. Grace is a supernatural gift of God bestowed on the faithful though the merits of Jesus Christ for the sake of our salvation. Grace is a free gift from God and it cannot be earned. It is possible for us to resist this grace by hardening our hearts and turning from God. The sacraments of the Church provide the greatest source of grace. Faith, hope and charity are known as the three theological virtues. These virtues are gifts from God and are a result of his grace. Faith means that we believe everything that God has said simply because he has said it. Hope means that we trust God to help us at all times and we should never despair. Charity is the virtue that enables us to love God above all things and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. The gifts of the Holy Spirit equip us to live our everyday lives in a way that is pleasing to God. These gifts enable us to do things that would not be possible on our own. They help us to live out the precepts that Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes. They help us to draw people near to our Lord by trying to imitate his love for others. There are special gifts of the Holy Spirit that are known as charisms. These are outward manifestations of the Holy Spirit that God uses to build up the Church. Prophecy, miracles, healing, and speaking in tongues are examples of these gifts. St. Paul speaks of these charisms in chapter 12 of the first letter to the Corinthians.
Discussion Points:
· Grace is a free gift from God that we can not earn
· Sanctifying grace is a share in the divine life in our souls
· The sacraments are a source of grace
· Grace proceeds from the Holy Spirit
· The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church and within believers
· Faith, hope, and charity are the three theological virtues
· Our good deeds must be done for the love of God if they are to have any merit
· The gifts of the Holy Spirit are cultivated by the sacraments, prayer and other pious activities. (Bible reading, fellowship, acts of charity…etc.)
· Some people are given special gifts called charisms to build up the church. This is sometimes referred to as “Baptism in the Holy Spirit”
· We must use our gifts for the life of the Church
1 Corinthians Chapter 12
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were heathen, you were led astray to dumb idols, however you may have been moved. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus be cursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you.” and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
Grace, Virtues and Gifts of the Holy Spirit
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; …” 1 Corinthians 12:4
Opening Prayer:
Holy Spirit, fill us with faith, hope, and charity as we advance on our journey toward heaven. Give us the wisdom to discern Your gifts in our hearts. Give us the courage to use those gifts for the life of the Church. Amen.
Theme:
Grace is a participation in the life of God. It is a free gift from God that comes to us through the Holy Spirit. The sacraments of the Catholic Church confer sanctifying grace. Faith, hope, and charity are the three theological virtues. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Charisms are special gifts of the Holy Spirit given to some people for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ.
Bible Readings:
Romans 5:15 For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
Galatians 5:16-25 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.
1 Corinthians Chapter 13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Explanation of the Bible readings: St. Paul explains that grace is a free gift from God. Although we do not earn that grace, we are obligated to cooperate with it to grow in holiness. With the help of God’s grace, we can overcome any sin. If we walk by the spirit, we will do what God wants us to do. The virtues that God freely gives us through his grace will manifest themselves in the fruits of the Spirit that are mentioned in Galatians chapter 5. He also warns us about the works of the flesh. These works of the flesh encompass all types of sins and bad attitudes. Since God leaves our free will intact, we can always choose to turn our backs on his grace and commit sin. St. Paul clearly says that if we bear rotten fruit, we will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. If we are not walking in the Spirit, we need to repent and confess our sins. Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians is known as the love chapter and is often read at weddings. It is all about the virtue of charity. According to the apostle, love is the greatest of the virtues. If we do not do our good works for the love of God and neighbor, they gain nothing.
1 Peter 5:5 God grace to the humble
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 God’s grace is sufficient for you
John 14:26 The Holy Spirit teaches us
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Grace
1996 Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.
1997 Grace is a participation in the life of God….
1998 This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God's gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect and will, as that of every other creature.
1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification:
Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.
2000 Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God's call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.
2002 God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into the communion of love….
2003 Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit." Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church.
2005 Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and works to conclude that we are justified and saved….
Faith
1814 Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God."
1815 The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. But "faith apart from works is dead": when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body.
1816 The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: "All however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks." Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: "So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."
Hope
1817 Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit….
1818 The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement…
1821 We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will….
Charity
1822 Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
1823 Jesus makes charity the new commandment…And again: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
1824 Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the commandments of God and his Christ: "Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."
1825 Christ died out of love for us, while we were still "enemies." The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ himself…
1827 The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which "binds everything together in perfect harmony" it is the form of the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.
1829 The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence…..
THE GIFTS AND FRUITS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
1830 The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
1831 The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord….
1832 The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: "charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity."
Faith words:
Charisms: a theological term denoting extraordinary graces given to individual Christians for the good of others.
Sanctify: consecrate: render holy by means of religious rites
Supernatural: not existing in nature or subject to explanation according to natural laws; not physical or material
Reflection Questions:
What should your disposition be when you receive a free and wonderful gift?
What can you do to comfort someone who may be losing hope?
Name a few ways that you can cooperate more fully with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
The Cardinal Virtues
(CCC 1806 -1809)
Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; "the prudent man looks where he is going." "Keep sane and sober for your prayers.” Prudence is "right reason in action," writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.
Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the "virtue of religion." Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor. "You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor." "Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven."
Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause. "The Lord is my strength and my song." "In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will's mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable. The temperate person directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion: "Do not follow your inclination and strength, walking according to the desires of your heart." Temperance is often praised in the Old Testament: "Do not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites." In the New Testament it is called "moderation" or "sobriety." We ought "to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world."
Lesson 18 - Catholic Moral Teachings
(Lesson 18)
Catholic Moral Teachings
"…This is a hard saying; who can listen to it” John 6:60
Discussion Guide:
Many people find the moral teachings of the Catholic Church to be a stumbling block. Some teachings seem difficult to understand and even more difficult to live out. Being a Christian demands that we accept the moral teachings of the faith because God has revealed them. This is not easy since the ways of the world and the teachings of the Church are often at odds. Many people are unable to muster up the faith necessary to accept certain moral teachings. Some people just do not want to repent. Struggling with a certain teaching is radically different than rejecting it. As Jesus says, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. The Church has many publications explaining the reasons behind its most difficult moral teachings. We should read them to gain a greater understanding of the wisdom of God. We must ultimately accept them with the assent of faith. The Church has the divine authority to teach faith and morals in every age. (CCC 2032-2035) The Church was given the authority by Jesus himself to define what is objectively sinful and what is not. When we start to make up our own rules according to our own preferences, we will most likely fall into mortal sin.
I have heard people make outlandish statements such as, “Jesus really didn’t preach against sexual sin” and “There is nothing in the Bible about abortion”. This way of thinking is gravely in error! If we start to pick and choose which particular moral teachings we want to accept, we deny the divine origin of these teachings. There is a sound explanation in defense of every one of the Church’s moral teachings. These teachings can be challenging but they are not just recommendations that can be ignored. We should educate ourselves as to why the Church believes that certain behavior is immoral. The more we know about these issues, the better we can defend them and explain them to other people. It is our duty as Christians to foster morality in our society.
Learn what the Catholic Church teaches about:
· Abortion and Euthanasia
· Marriage and Divorce
· Pre-marital relationships
· Artificial contraception
· Homosexual behavior
· Pornography
· Social Justice issues (fair wages, human rights, death penalty, just war)
· Embryonic Stem cell research
Veritatis Splendor
Pope John Paul II (1993)
80. Reason attests that there are objects of the human act which are by their nature "incapable of being ordered" to God, because they radically contradict the good of the person made in his image. These are the acts which, in the Church's moral tradition, have been termed "intrinsically evil" (intrinsece malum): they are such always and per se, in other words, on account of their very object, and quite apart from the ulterior intentions of the one acting and the circumstances. Consequently, without in the least denying the influence on morality exercised by circumstances and especially by intentions, the Church teaches that "there exist acts which per se and in themselves, independently of circumstances, are always seriously wrong by reason of their object". The Second Vatican Council itself, in discussing the respect due to the human person, gives a number of examples of such acts: "Whatever is hostile to life itself, such as any kind of homicide, genocide, abortion, euthanasia and voluntary suicide; whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, physical and mental torture and attempts to coerce the spirit; whatever is offensive to human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution and trafficking in women and children; degrading conditions of work which treat labourers as mere instruments of profit, and not as free responsible persons: all these and the like are a disgrace, and so long as they infect human civilization they contaminate those who inflict them more than those who suffer injustice, and they are a negation of the honour due to the Creator".
With regard to intrinsically evil acts, and in reference to contraceptive practices whereby the conjugal act is intentionally rendered infertile, Pope Paul VI teaches: "Though it is true that sometimes it is lawful to tolerate a lesser moral evil in order to avoid a greater evil or in order to promote a greater good, it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it (cf. Rom 3:8) — in other words, to intend directly something which of its very nature contradicts the moral order, and which must therefore be judged unworthy of man, even though the intention is to protect or promote the welfare of an individual, of a family or of society in general".
81. In teaching the existence of intrinsically evil acts, the Church accepts the teaching of Sacred Scripture. The Apostle Paul emphatically states: "Do not be deceived: neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the Kingdom of God" (1 Cor 6:9-10). If acts are intrinsically evil, a good intention or particular circumstances can diminish their evil, but they cannot remove it. They remain "irremediably" evil acts; per se and in themselves they are not capable of being ordered to God and to the good of the person. "As for acts which are themselves sins (cum iam opera ipsa peccata sunt), Saint Augustine writes, like theft, fornication, blasphemy, who would dare affirm that, by doing them for good motives (causis bonis), they would no longer be sins, or, what is even more absurd, that they would be sins that are justified?". Consequently, circumstances or intentions can never transform an act intrinsically evil by virtue of its object into an act "subjectively" good or defensible as a choice.
Catholic Moral Teachings
"…This is a hard saying; who can listen to it” John 6:60
Opening Prayer:
Mother Mary, we ask you to intercede on our behalf to obtain the graces needed to accept and to follow the moral teachings of the Catholic faith. We especially ask for the gifts of humility, faith and love so that we can become beacons of light in a world that is often darkened by sin. Amen
Theme:
We need to learn and accept the moral teachings of the faith. We should follow the moral teachings of the Catholic faith and not the immoral teachings of secular society. If we find a particular teaching difficult to accept, we should strive to gain a better understanding of it. We must never reject any of the moral teachings of the Church even if we struggle with them.
Bible Readings:
Deut 30:19-20 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days ….
Matthew 10:14-15 And if any one will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
Matthew 16:18-19 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
Explanation of the Bible readings: We have a choice when it comes to the way we live our lives. God tells us to choose life by obeying his voice! His ways are the right ways. We do not know better than God. It is the Holy Spirit that guides the teachings of the Catholic Church. Following the morality of the world, when it contradicts Church teaching, will lead to destruction. Jesus tells us to listen to the apostles when they teach. That also applies to the successors of the apostles (Bishops) who lead the Church today, especially to the Pope. The authority to bind and loose refers to the authority to forbid and to allow. Jesus gave this power to his Church on earth. The moral teachings of the Church are from God and not from man. They lead us to true happiness and fulfillment. They also lead us to eternal salvation in heaven. St. Paul writes a list of immoral behaviors to the members of the Church at Corinth. After 2,000 years, people are still committing the same sins! There is no man-made law that could supercede the laws of God. Even though our society condones homosexual behavior, abortion, divorce, fornication and pornography, the Holy Catholic Church will always stand in opposition to these sinful practices. We must obey the laws of God, not the perverse teachings of any Godless society!
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2032 The Church, the "pillar and bulwark of the truth," "has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth." "To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls
2035 The supreme degree of participation in the authority of Christ is ensured by the charism of infallibility. This infallibility extends as far as does the deposit of divine Revelation; it also extends to all those elements of doctrine, including morals, without which the saving truths of the faith cannot be preserved, explained, or observed.
Abortion
2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception….
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable….
2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," "by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation:
2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.
Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, "if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safe guarding or healing as an individual. . . . It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence."
2275 …."It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material."
Euthanasia
2276 Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible.
2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable….
2278 Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of "over-zealous" treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.
2279 Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.
2353 Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.
2354 Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.
2357 Homosexuality….Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
2352 By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. "Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action."….
2376 Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral….
2391 Some today claim a "right to a trial marriage" where there is an intention of getting married later…..Human love does not tolerate "trial marriages." It demands a total and definitive gift of persons to one another.
2384 Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law….Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery:
2399 The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception).
2432 Those responsible for business enterprises are responsible to society for the economic and ecological effects of their operations. They have an obligation to consider the good of persons and not only the increase of profits. Profits are necessary, however. They make possible the investments that ensure the future of a business and they guarantee employment.
2433 Access to employment and to professions must be open to all without unjust discrimination…
2434 A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice…
2439 Rich nations have a grave moral responsibility toward those which are unable to ensure the means of their development by themselves or have been prevented from doing so by tragic historical events….
2443 God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them…
2446 St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs." "The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity":
2307 ….Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war.
2308 All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war. However, "as long as the danger of war persists and there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed."
Faith words:
Grave: of great gravity or crucial import; requiring serious thought (as in grave sin or disorder)
Morality: concern with the distinction between good and evil; right or good conduct.
Reflection Questions:
What are some good ways to encourage the moral teachings of the Church in our society?
Is there any moral teaching that you would like a more complete explanation of?
Where should you seek moral advice if you are uncertain what to do in a given situation?
THE WAY OF PERFECTION (Chapter 41)
By St. Teresa of Avila
….Keep this in mind, for it is very important advice, so do not neglect it until you find you have such a fixed determination not to offend the Lord that you would rather lose a thousand lives and be persecuted by the whole world, than commit one mortal sin, and until you are most careful not to commit venial sins. I am referring now to sins committed knowingly: as far as those of the other kind are concerned, who can fail to commit them frequently? But it is one thing to commit a sin knowingly and after long deliberation, and quite another to do it so suddenly that the knowledge of its being a venial sin and its commission are one and the same thing, and we hardly realize what we have done, although we do to some extent realize it. From any sin, however small, committed with full knowledge, may God deliver us, especially since we are sinning against so great a Sovereign and realizing that He is watching us! That seems to me to be a sin committed of malice aforethought; it is as though one were to say: "Lord, although this displeases Thee, I shall do it. I know that Thou seest it and I know that Thou wouldst not have me do it; but, though I understand this, I would rather follow my own whim and desire than Thy will." If we commit a sin in this way, however slight, it seems to me that our offence is not small but very, very great.
For the love of God, sisters, never be careless about this -- and, glory be to the Lord, you are not so at present. If you would gain this fear of God, remember the importance of habit and of starting to realize what a serious thing it is to offend Him. Do your utmost to learn this and to turn it over in your minds; for our life, and much more than our life, depends upon this virtue being firmly planted in our souls. Until you are conscious within your soul of possessing it, you need always to exercise very great care and to avoid all occasions of sin and any kind of company which will not help you to get nearer to God. Be most careful, in all that you do, to bend your will to it; see that all you say tends to edification; flee from all places where there is conversation which is not pleasing to God. Much care is needed if this fear of God is to be thoroughly impressed upon the soul; though, if one has true love, it is quickly acquired. Even when the soul has that firm inward determination which I have described, not to offend God for the sake of any creature, or from fear of a thousand deaths, it may subsequently fall from time to time, for we are weak and cannot trust ourselves, and, the more determined we are, the less self-confidence we should have, for confidence must come from God. But, when we find ourselves in this state, we need not feel constrained or depressed, for the Lord will help us and the habits we have formed will be of assistance to us so that we shall not offend Him; we shall be able to walk in holy freedom, and associate with anyone, as seems right to us, even with dissolute people. These will do you no harm, if you hate sin. Before we had this true fear of God worldly people would have been poisonous to us and would have helped to ruin our souls; but now they will often help us to love God more and to praise Him for having delivered us from what we see to be a notorious danger. And whereas we for our part may previously have helped to foster their weaknesses, we shall now be helping to repress them, because they will restrain themselves in our presence, and this is a compliment which they will pay us without our desiring it….
Catholic Moral Teachings
"…This is a hard saying; who can listen to it” John 6:60
Discussion Guide:
Many people find the moral teachings of the Catholic Church to be a stumbling block. Some teachings seem difficult to understand and even more difficult to live out. Being a Christian demands that we accept the moral teachings of the faith because God has revealed them. This is not easy since the ways of the world and the teachings of the Church are often at odds. Many people are unable to muster up the faith necessary to accept certain moral teachings. Some people just do not want to repent. Struggling with a certain teaching is radically different than rejecting it. As Jesus says, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. The Church has many publications explaining the reasons behind its most difficult moral teachings. We should read them to gain a greater understanding of the wisdom of God. We must ultimately accept them with the assent of faith. The Church has the divine authority to teach faith and morals in every age. (CCC 2032-2035) The Church was given the authority by Jesus himself to define what is objectively sinful and what is not. When we start to make up our own rules according to our own preferences, we will most likely fall into mortal sin.
I have heard people make outlandish statements such as, “Jesus really didn’t preach against sexual sin” and “There is nothing in the Bible about abortion”. This way of thinking is gravely in error! If we start to pick and choose which particular moral teachings we want to accept, we deny the divine origin of these teachings. There is a sound explanation in defense of every one of the Church’s moral teachings. These teachings can be challenging but they are not just recommendations that can be ignored. We should educate ourselves as to why the Church believes that certain behavior is immoral. The more we know about these issues, the better we can defend them and explain them to other people. It is our duty as Christians to foster morality in our society.
Learn what the Catholic Church teaches about:
· Abortion and Euthanasia
· Marriage and Divorce
· Pre-marital relationships
· Artificial contraception
· Homosexual behavior
· Pornography
· Social Justice issues (fair wages, human rights, death penalty, just war)
· Embryonic Stem cell research
Veritatis Splendor
Pope John Paul II (1993)
80. Reason attests that there are objects of the human act which are by their nature "incapable of being ordered" to God, because they radically contradict the good of the person made in his image. These are the acts which, in the Church's moral tradition, have been termed "intrinsically evil" (intrinsece malum): they are such always and per se, in other words, on account of their very object, and quite apart from the ulterior intentions of the one acting and the circumstances. Consequently, without in the least denying the influence on morality exercised by circumstances and especially by intentions, the Church teaches that "there exist acts which per se and in themselves, independently of circumstances, are always seriously wrong by reason of their object". The Second Vatican Council itself, in discussing the respect due to the human person, gives a number of examples of such acts: "Whatever is hostile to life itself, such as any kind of homicide, genocide, abortion, euthanasia and voluntary suicide; whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, physical and mental torture and attempts to coerce the spirit; whatever is offensive to human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution and trafficking in women and children; degrading conditions of work which treat labourers as mere instruments of profit, and not as free responsible persons: all these and the like are a disgrace, and so long as they infect human civilization they contaminate those who inflict them more than those who suffer injustice, and they are a negation of the honour due to the Creator".
With regard to intrinsically evil acts, and in reference to contraceptive practices whereby the conjugal act is intentionally rendered infertile, Pope Paul VI teaches: "Though it is true that sometimes it is lawful to tolerate a lesser moral evil in order to avoid a greater evil or in order to promote a greater good, it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it (cf. Rom 3:8) — in other words, to intend directly something which of its very nature contradicts the moral order, and which must therefore be judged unworthy of man, even though the intention is to protect or promote the welfare of an individual, of a family or of society in general".
81. In teaching the existence of intrinsically evil acts, the Church accepts the teaching of Sacred Scripture. The Apostle Paul emphatically states: "Do not be deceived: neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the Kingdom of God" (1 Cor 6:9-10). If acts are intrinsically evil, a good intention or particular circumstances can diminish their evil, but they cannot remove it. They remain "irremediably" evil acts; per se and in themselves they are not capable of being ordered to God and to the good of the person. "As for acts which are themselves sins (cum iam opera ipsa peccata sunt), Saint Augustine writes, like theft, fornication, blasphemy, who would dare affirm that, by doing them for good motives (causis bonis), they would no longer be sins, or, what is even more absurd, that they would be sins that are justified?". Consequently, circumstances or intentions can never transform an act intrinsically evil by virtue of its object into an act "subjectively" good or defensible as a choice.
Catholic Moral Teachings
"…This is a hard saying; who can listen to it” John 6:60
Opening Prayer:
Mother Mary, we ask you to intercede on our behalf to obtain the graces needed to accept and to follow the moral teachings of the Catholic faith. We especially ask for the gifts of humility, faith and love so that we can become beacons of light in a world that is often darkened by sin. Amen
Theme:
We need to learn and accept the moral teachings of the faith. We should follow the moral teachings of the Catholic faith and not the immoral teachings of secular society. If we find a particular teaching difficult to accept, we should strive to gain a better understanding of it. We must never reject any of the moral teachings of the Church even if we struggle with them.
Bible Readings:
Deut 30:19-20 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days ….
Matthew 10:14-15 And if any one will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
Matthew 16:18-19 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
Explanation of the Bible readings: We have a choice when it comes to the way we live our lives. God tells us to choose life by obeying his voice! His ways are the right ways. We do not know better than God. It is the Holy Spirit that guides the teachings of the Catholic Church. Following the morality of the world, when it contradicts Church teaching, will lead to destruction. Jesus tells us to listen to the apostles when they teach. That also applies to the successors of the apostles (Bishops) who lead the Church today, especially to the Pope. The authority to bind and loose refers to the authority to forbid and to allow. Jesus gave this power to his Church on earth. The moral teachings of the Church are from God and not from man. They lead us to true happiness and fulfillment. They also lead us to eternal salvation in heaven. St. Paul writes a list of immoral behaviors to the members of the Church at Corinth. After 2,000 years, people are still committing the same sins! There is no man-made law that could supercede the laws of God. Even though our society condones homosexual behavior, abortion, divorce, fornication and pornography, the Holy Catholic Church will always stand in opposition to these sinful practices. We must obey the laws of God, not the perverse teachings of any Godless society!
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2032 The Church, the "pillar and bulwark of the truth," "has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth." "To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls
2035 The supreme degree of participation in the authority of Christ is ensured by the charism of infallibility. This infallibility extends as far as does the deposit of divine Revelation; it also extends to all those elements of doctrine, including morals, without which the saving truths of the faith cannot be preserved, explained, or observed.
Abortion
2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception….
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable….
2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," "by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation:
2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.
Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, "if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safe guarding or healing as an individual. . . . It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence."
2275 …."It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material."
Euthanasia
2276 Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible.
2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable….
2278 Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of "over-zealous" treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.
2279 Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.
2353 Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.
2354 Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.
2357 Homosexuality….Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
2352 By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. "Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action."….
2376 Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral….
2391 Some today claim a "right to a trial marriage" where there is an intention of getting married later…..Human love does not tolerate "trial marriages." It demands a total and definitive gift of persons to one another.
2384 Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law….Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery:
2399 The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception).
2432 Those responsible for business enterprises are responsible to society for the economic and ecological effects of their operations. They have an obligation to consider the good of persons and not only the increase of profits. Profits are necessary, however. They make possible the investments that ensure the future of a business and they guarantee employment.
2433 Access to employment and to professions must be open to all without unjust discrimination…
2434 A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice…
2439 Rich nations have a grave moral responsibility toward those which are unable to ensure the means of their development by themselves or have been prevented from doing so by tragic historical events….
2443 God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them…
2446 St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs." "The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity":
2307 ….Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war.
2308 All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war. However, "as long as the danger of war persists and there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed."
Faith words:
Grave: of great gravity or crucial import; requiring serious thought (as in grave sin or disorder)
Morality: concern with the distinction between good and evil; right or good conduct.
Reflection Questions:
What are some good ways to encourage the moral teachings of the Church in our society?
Is there any moral teaching that you would like a more complete explanation of?
Where should you seek moral advice if you are uncertain what to do in a given situation?
THE WAY OF PERFECTION (Chapter 41)
By St. Teresa of Avila
….Keep this in mind, for it is very important advice, so do not neglect it until you find you have such a fixed determination not to offend the Lord that you would rather lose a thousand lives and be persecuted by the whole world, than commit one mortal sin, and until you are most careful not to commit venial sins. I am referring now to sins committed knowingly: as far as those of the other kind are concerned, who can fail to commit them frequently? But it is one thing to commit a sin knowingly and after long deliberation, and quite another to do it so suddenly that the knowledge of its being a venial sin and its commission are one and the same thing, and we hardly realize what we have done, although we do to some extent realize it. From any sin, however small, committed with full knowledge, may God deliver us, especially since we are sinning against so great a Sovereign and realizing that He is watching us! That seems to me to be a sin committed of malice aforethought; it is as though one were to say: "Lord, although this displeases Thee, I shall do it. I know that Thou seest it and I know that Thou wouldst not have me do it; but, though I understand this, I would rather follow my own whim and desire than Thy will." If we commit a sin in this way, however slight, it seems to me that our offence is not small but very, very great.
For the love of God, sisters, never be careless about this -- and, glory be to the Lord, you are not so at present. If you would gain this fear of God, remember the importance of habit and of starting to realize what a serious thing it is to offend Him. Do your utmost to learn this and to turn it over in your minds; for our life, and much more than our life, depends upon this virtue being firmly planted in our souls. Until you are conscious within your soul of possessing it, you need always to exercise very great care and to avoid all occasions of sin and any kind of company which will not help you to get nearer to God. Be most careful, in all that you do, to bend your will to it; see that all you say tends to edification; flee from all places where there is conversation which is not pleasing to God. Much care is needed if this fear of God is to be thoroughly impressed upon the soul; though, if one has true love, it is quickly acquired. Even when the soul has that firm inward determination which I have described, not to offend God for the sake of any creature, or from fear of a thousand deaths, it may subsequently fall from time to time, for we are weak and cannot trust ourselves, and, the more determined we are, the less self-confidence we should have, for confidence must come from God. But, when we find ourselves in this state, we need not feel constrained or depressed, for the Lord will help us and the habits we have formed will be of assistance to us so that we shall not offend Him; we shall be able to walk in holy freedom, and associate with anyone, as seems right to us, even with dissolute people. These will do you no harm, if you hate sin. Before we had this true fear of God worldly people would have been poisonous to us and would have helped to ruin our souls; but now they will often help us to love God more and to praise Him for having delivered us from what we see to be a notorious danger. And whereas we for our part may previously have helped to foster their weaknesses, we shall now be helping to repress them, because they will restrain themselves in our presence, and this is a compliment which they will pay us without our desiring it….
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