Lay Formation & Deacon Formation Notes – Life in Christ
Hi [i4w_db_FirstName]!
It was a pleasure – as it always is – to teach a group of Catholic adults who are so willing to learn their faith. Most of you said you were learning so that you could teach the faith more effectively within your parish. I so respect that – and relate to it. The reason I got a master’s degree was because I wanted to teach moral theology more effectively at Columbus Catholic High School. There were also a number of you that said you came to LFI as lifelong learners. Do you know how rare that is? Yet, every Catholic should consider himself or herself a lifelong learner of the faith. Why would you ever want to stop learning about our great and loving God? So thank you for being here and keep it up!
Below are the downloads from the course – notes, diagrams and documents. Clicking on a link will download the PDF file for each resource.
Natural Law
Veritatis Splendor Annotations
Law of God Diagram (big picture)
Natural Law Presentation Notes
Divine Law
Salvation History as the Development of Relationship
A Few Clarifications
Since our last meeting wast the last, I won’t have a chance to clarify a few points so I thought I’d do it here.
Murder vs. Killing
I realized on the way home that during our discussion of judging an act, I was actually conflating two separate theories of murder. Both of these theories come to the same conclusion, and both are acceptable as far as I know. But they don’t really combine well into a single theory. Sorry for the confusion.
Theory 1: It is never morally good to choose to kill another human being. It is morally justifiable to use the necessary force to stop an enemy in order to protect yourself or another innocent life. If death occurs, it is accepted as a double effect but not directly chosen. The moral object is to stop the attacker.
Theory 2: Murder is specifically defined as the killing of innocent human life. Killing a dangerous aggressor is not an evil object, and could therefore be chosen if it is the last resort.
You can see how Theory 2 would fit better with our discussion of justified killing in times of war. However, Theory 1 is makes identifying the moral object easier and clearer.
Homosexuality and the Ability to Love
I meant to talk about this when we were talking about the four Greek words for love. When we were going through the application of natural law using the issue of homosexuality. I mentioned at that time that in addition to homosexual sex being incapable of procreation, there were also some impediments to the unitive dimension. I realize that this statement could be taken to mean that homosexuals are incapable of love. This is not what I meant to say at all. I was referring very specifically to the ability of homosexual sex to contribute to and build up that love. When we were talking about the four types of love, I said that eros is purified and perfected by philios and agapé. Sexual disorders (and remember, we all have sexual disorders) don’t interfere with our ability to love in any of the four ways except for the fact that they make us selfish. But the disorder in the unitive purpose of sex comes in the integration of eros with the other kinds of love, making it more difficult for eros to find its purification and perfection in philios and agapé. Homosexual couples can certainly love each other, but their sexual acts will struggle to integrate eros and the other forms of love.
Isn’t This Stuff Pre-Vatican II?
If you present the model of morality I taught you, you will get comments from people that this is a pre-Vatican II morality. There are a number of reasons for this perception.
- The perception of morality has been colored by modernism and the errors we discussed in class
- The use of words like “law” and “sin” remind people of heteronomy. We need to help people understand how these words are associated with relationship not legalism.
- There are times – as we discussed in class – when doing the right thing can be extremely difficult, or even when it can be difficult to see how to apply the moral law. Modernist moral philosophies have the advantage of seeming more compassionate in these situations by allowing for exceptions. We have to learn to accept that fallen human nature and our fallen world are the enemies not the moral law.
- A lot of people actually consider the teachings of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Augustine to be out of favor. But Blessed Pope John Paul II uses his teachings as the basis for Participatory Theonomy. No ecumenical council, including Vatican II, would every depart from doctrine that is part of Sacred Tradition. Vatican II did not teach anything new. It called us to return to the truth that the Church has always held but that we can tend to drift away from.
I hope this course made you realize how beautiful the moral teachings are. Lived together, the moral life and the spiritual life combine to lead us to the conversion of heart that will eventually makes us holy.