REFLECTION PAPER IN THEOLOGY 12:

MAN AND MORALITY

SUBMITTED BY:
CALIMAG, MARRIELL B.
AAT-2A

SUBMITTED TO:
SIR ANTHONY MERENCIANO
Moral theology is a term used by the Roman Catholic Church to describe the study of God from a perspective of how man must live in order to attain the presence or favour of God. While dogmatic theology deals with the teaching or official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, moral theology deals with the goal of life and how it is achieved. So, the goal or purpose of moral theology is, simply stated, to determine how man should live.

Moral theology examines such things as freedom, conscience, love, responsibility, and law. Moral theology seeks to set forth general principles to help individuals make the right decisions and deal with the details of everyday living in a way that is in accordance with the Church’s dogmatic theology. Moral theology is essentially the Roman Catholic equivalent to what Protestants usually refer to as Christian Ethics. Moral theology deals with the broad questions in life and attempts to define what it means to live as a Roman Catholic Christian. Moral theology addresses the different methods of moral discernment, the definitions of right and wrong, good and evil, sin and virtue, etc.

Morality is the differentiation of intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are "good" (or right) and those that are "bad" (or wrong). It is based on human existence that refers to human experience. Human existence is always in the context if being in others. Human experience is divided into two: (a) ought to be, which means “pagpapakatao”; (b) ought to do which means right or wrong of action. God is the source of morality. Ecumenism is an Ecclesiastical Term which is aim of unity among all Christian churches throughout the world or bided the people together. There are two Moral principles: (a) subjective, own opinion and; (b) objective, which have a reference (scripture, tradition, and teaching).

No one starts out with a perfect sense of morality. Even Jesus might have had to learn what is good, growing up as a child before He began His divine mission. This is because our sense of morality is something to be developed through our life, to nurture and grow into something that will not only blindly continue doing good and avoiding bad, but also understand the reason for our actions.

We also discussed in theology 12 the “Conscience” which is a law written in one’s heart. It is a subjective form of morality. We can also call it “Voice of God”. Conscience may result to guilt feelings. You should follow your conscience whether is it good or bad.

We talked about “Nature of Morality and its Ultimate End”. It has two distinctions. First, “What is right?” it tells us that we agree to God’s will and we attain END that leads us to salvation of one’s soul. Second, “What is wrong?” that tells us that we disagree to God’s Will and leads us to lose END. Egoism is enjoying things which are totally wrong. Morality talks about Universal Plan. In theology, we have to SEE, DISCERN & ACT. Moral is more of character and disposition & Ethical is more of custom, usage and habit. We said, “Every pre-act, good or bad perform by rational being is ethical but NO ACT is moral unless it is ethically good.”

The moral theology is always based in the Gospel, the proclamation of the good news. It is the exposition of the teaching of the Gospel. There are four Gospels: a. Mark; b. Luke; c. John; d. Matthew.

Human Law divides law into Civil law and Ecclesiastical Law. Civil law is a government law. It relates to ordinary citizens as opposed to military or ecclesiastical law. Ecclesiastical Law or church law and known as Canon law is the body of laws and regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority (Church leadership), for the government of the Christian organization and its members. A Divine law unites people. It is an absolute law and not changeable. It is also a universal law. Human law interprets Divine law.

We also tackled all about SIN. It is a deliberate transgression and concept of guilt. Moral guilt is a human act that is voluntarily and full of knowledge and full will. Human acts directs toward to an end. It is an act which man does as man (acts proper to man as man). Also an act of which he is properly master because he does them with full knowledge and of his own will. A WILL that properly enlightened and a KNOWLEDGE supplied by the intellect. Reason and Freedom are the sources of moral theology. Reasons are human acts that are either in agreement or in disagreement with the dictates of reason. Dictates of reason shared consciousness of prudent people about the manner of action or behaviour. It is a norm of morality which is the standard by which actions are judges as good or evil. Freedom makes a man a moral subject. When man acts in deliberate manner, he is the father of his acts (you are the author of your action).

As we go back to topic of sin, there are three elements of sin; the grave matter (presence of imputable act), full knowledge and full will. The seven capital sin (anger, pride, sloth, gluttony, lust, wrath, envy) has no will. We said that these are sins but if we think it deeper, those are just sources of sin. Grave sin & Venial sin are types of sin. Grave sin is a mortal sin. A serious, grave or mortal sin is the knowing and willful violation of God's law in a serious matter, for example, idolatry, adultery, murder, slander. These are all things gravely contrary to the love we owe God. Mortal sin is called mortal because it is the "spiritual" death of the soul (separation from God). Venial sins are slight sins. They do not break our friendship with God, although they injure it. They involve disobedience of the law of God in slight (venial) matters. If we gossip and destroy a person's reputation it would be a mortal sin. However, normally gossip is about trivial matters and only venially sinful. Additionally, something that is otherwise a mortal sin (e.g. slander) may be in a particular case only a venial sin.

Pope John Paul II sometimes called Blessed John Paul or John Paul the Great was acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century. JP II taught authoritatively on moral matters. He addressed to the church with what is required for Christian living. JP II said that Moral theology is an order-discourse that explains systematically, thematically, critically how Christian should act in this world either good or bad. Encyclical is a document addressed to universal church. It proposes moral teachings (moral theology, truth, life, freedom). Veritatis Splendor is an encyclical by Pope John Paul II. It expresses the position of the Catholic Church regarding fundamentals of the Church's role in moral teaching. It is a splendor of truth. Veritatis Splendor is a language that we need to understand the text and the judgment of it and truth in God, truth on how to distinguish good from bad. According to Pope John Paul II, TRUTH is important in considering morality; church teaches truth about human kind; truth about human person.

Fides et Ratio or faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart the desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come to the fullness of the truth about themselves.

Evangelium Vitae is the gospel of life- how to celebrate life and human dignity. The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus' message to humanity - he came so that we have eternal life. The expression, “culture of death,” was coined by Pope John Paul II to describe the prevailing violence against human life in our day. Death first entered the world through the devil’s envy and the sin of our first parents. We then ask how the first death entered the human race. The first death entered by the way of violence; through the killing of Abel by his brother Cain. It has been written ever since, on every page of human history.

And last, THEOLOGY OF THE BODY, term used to described the teachings of JP II about human person and human sexuality. It is also known as theology of sex (marriage). It is the original Unity of Man and Woman. This is the Genesis that created man and woman in his image and likeness. It tells that 2 become 1 flesh. In a marriage you are going to leave your parents, father and mother and you will cleave to your wife. Man belongs to parents by nature, to his wife by choice. Pro creation is rooted in creation and reproduces its mystery.

Theology 12 is not easy to understand, and honesty there is lot of things that I don’t understand in this subject. But one thing is for sure,

“Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about God”