DEFINITION OF TERMS IN CHRISTIAN MORALITY
MORALITY AND SPIRITUALITY
Morality is derived from the Latin words “Mos/Moris” which originally referred to the natural inclinations of the human beings: the inclination of self-preservation and the inclination for self-perpetuation. Then largely it came to mean custom.[1] Spirituality, on the other hand, is associated to one’s style of life, with one’s way of experiencing God and of shaping one’s life on the basis of that experience. It is not exclusively Christian.[2] Morality is essentially a social issue and a social concern. Your immoral behavior affects me and the rest of society and therefore I have a right to be concerned about what you do, and the state has a right to be concerned about what you do and to pass and enforce laws restricting your behavior. From a metaphysical perspective morality is dependent on spirituality. Although spirituality is ontologically prior to, and ultimately independent on morality, the development of spirituality is dependent on morality. Spirituality is essentially a personal issue, an issue of how an individual chooses to live their own life; it is between them and God. If I feel your conduct is spiritually wrong or injurious to your soul, I may not approve of it but I have no right to tell you how to live your life and the state has no right to pass laws about how you must live your life. Example of a spiritual issue is whether one chooses to worship God. Because morality is a public issue we have a right to be concerned about what others are doing in that realm. However, Spirituality is personal, between the individual and God. From the perspective of spirituality there is no category of right and wrong; only gradations of activities that bring us closer to God and activities that bring us further away from God. Father Hinkley is convinced that there is no separation between spirituality and morality. Those who separate their spiritual life from their moral beliefs will find that they define what is “right” and “wrong” for them on their own journey. In other words, the individual defines what truth is for himself or herself. This misunderstanding can be especially prevalent in our modern society: You will have the right to define what you believe as long as it doesn’t impinge on anyone else’s rights. You will have your spirituality and I will have mine. This self-defined truth is very different from Jesus Christ’s declaration that he is the way, the truth and the life. As Christians, we properly define spirituality as the believer’s response to the Holy Spirit through the example of Jesus Christ. Thus, a Catholic’s spirituality is always rooted in the revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus lived, died and rose for us. Our joys and trials are all joined intimately with Christ. Christian spirituality finds the varied experiences of life enriched by the grace of the Gospel. When spirituality is separated from the moral law of Christ and the Church, the individual cannot perceive the call to holiness that is so fundamental to the Gospel. We do not have to go far to realize that it is difficult for the average Catholic teenager or engaged couple to realize that they are called to live holy lives, making moral choices that are just and authentically rooted in moral truth. This lack of perception regarding holiness was addressed by Mother Teresa of Calcutta when a reporter asked whether or not she was a living saint. Mother responded: “Holiness is nothing extraordinary. Holiness is for all of us, for you and for me. We are all called to live holy lives.” The Second Vatican Council found it important to reaffirm that the call to holiness is central and essential to Christian discipleship.[3] If it is difficult to perceive the call to holiness, the Christian will inevitably stumble in his or her spiritual development. Saint Paul understood this when he addressed immoral sexual conduct: “This is the will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from immorality, that each of you knows how to acquire a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion as do the Gentiles who do not know God ... God did not call us to impurity but to holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not a human being but God, who also gives his Holy Spirit to you” (1 Thes 4:3-8). If we are able to understand the Christian life as a call to holiness, we can avoid the pitfall of divorcing the spiritual life from the moral law and Tradition of the Church. The Council Fathers provided a concise definition of Christian holiness that can help with the concern we have for the unity and vitality of one’s spirituality and moral life. They simply stated that Christian holiness is union with and assimilation into Christ in charity.[4] Thus, to be Christian is to live in accordance with Christ. Living as a disciple entails making moral choices according to the example of Jesus. Jesus is clear in his teaching regarding the Ten Commandments; they are a requirement for the Christian life and salvation. They are not electives with their validity dependent on our subjective feelings or opinion. Jesus’ exchange with the rich young man is point-blank: “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”[5] To live the Christian life and grow in holiness, we must live the commandments; without them the spiritual life would fail to be Christian. While the desire for God is written in the human heart and calls humans to holiness, a person can forget God or choose to reject God.[6] A person who dismisses the moral law because he or she finds it too old-fashioned or unrealistic could be tempted to form the false belief that salvation is guaranteed because God loves him/her even if he/she chooses not to follow the moral tradition of the Church. To embrace Christ is holiness, and it entails embracing Christ’s teaching and the Church. Both the spiritual and moral dimensions of the Christian life develop harmoniously when the human person seeks happiness and God through the call to holiness. No one is spiritual whose actions are immoral. No Catholic is a true Christian without embracing Jesus Christ and the Church’s moral authority. In the end, spirituality and morality are the two faces of the same coin ... holiness. ETHICS AND MORALITY Ethics is derived from the Greek word “Ethos” which was originally referring to residence or the place where people lived. Then the usage of the term evolved and came to be applied to a person’s mode of character.[7] Ethics is the body of principles used to decide what behaviors are right, good and proper. Such principles do not always dictate a single "moral" course of action, but provide a means of evaluating and deciding among competing options. Ethics is about putting principles into action. Consistency between what we say we value and what our actions say we value is a matter of integrity. Simply put: Ethics is the rules for deciding correct conduct. Both Ethics and Morality are dealing with the customs or the manner in which people do things. Their modern meanings relate to the way people act - either good or bad. Morality, strictly speaking, is used to refer to what we would call moral conduct or standards. Morality is looking at how good or bad our conduct is, and our standards about conduct. Ethics is used to refer to the formal study of those standards or conduct. Sometimes, one refers to the study of conduct as moral philosophy, but that is less common than just saying "ethics." One might say that morality is ethics in action, but in the end, the two terms can be used interchangeably. Ethics and morals may seem the same on the face of it, but if one were to analyze, there is definitely some difference. Ethics define the code that a society or group of people adhere to while morality delves into right and wrong at a much deeper level, which is both personal and spiritual. The ethics that a person adheres too are impacted upon by external factors like the nation, society, peer group, religion and profession, and could change with a change in any of these influencing factors. An act is ethical or unethical depending on whether or not there is a law or legislation banning it. Morals, on the other hand, are made of sterner stuff, and usually do not change. It will, for instance, always be immoral to murder another human being, no matter who the person committing the act is. CHRISTIAN MORALITY Unlike ethics, which searches for the norms of human conduct in light or reason alone, Christian Morality is guided by revelation. When joined to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the perfect norm and guide to Christian moral response, we believe that reflection on and praying with the scriptures are powerful helps in solving moral problems. The French theologian and philosopher Antonin Sertillanges defined morality as the “science of what man ought to be by reason of what he is.” This definition has three important elements: Morality is a science – science is an open-ended study of something. The task of science is never complete. So, too, morality is a science. The more we learn about ourselves, the more we learn about what is right and wrong; morality is concerned with what ought to be – morality is not content with just describing things as they are. It is concerned with how things should be. It is interested in how people should act. In this sense, morality is future-directed. It is concerned with the ideal; morality judges right and wrong in light of what humanity is – morality asks people to be the persons they are meant to be.[8] Christian Morality helps us discover how we should live our lives as a result of our faith in God’s word which has been revealed to us. Christian morality can be summarized in the word responsibility. There are two components to this term: response and ability.[9] To what do we respond to? Christian life is a response to God’s freely given love and gift of salvation offered to us through Jesus Christ. ‘Following Christ is thus the essential and primordial foundation of Christian Morality.’[10] Christian morality comes to the forefront when people say ‘yes’ to God, when they freely respond to God’s love. The essence of Christian morality is, simply, love. Reflect on the words of Jesus: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: you must love your neighbor as yourself.”[11] Thus, Christian Morality has its roots in JESUS Himself. MORAL The word ‘moral’ means being subject to the moral law or being morally responsible for one’s actions. Here, being moral entails having a nature of rationality and consciousness which then makes a person responsible for the behavioral choices that he/she makes. Therefore, we can say in this light that man is a moral being. On the other hand, the term ‘amoral’ means not subject to the moral law or not being morally responsible for one’s actions. This is because the being in question does not have the nature and capacity for rationality and consciousness. Hence, we can talk of animals and babies as amoral beings. Even psychologically disadvantaged people, to some extent, could be tagged as amoral. The second basic meaning of the word ‘moral’ can be perceived in conjunction with the term ‘immoral.’ In this sense, ‘moral’ simply means virtue or good. Thus, one can say that man is expected to live a moral life. This implies that acts that are praise worthy should be perpetuated by man because they are morally good. For example, acts such as benevolence, charity, loyalty, peace keeping and the likes are expected of man in society. On the other hand, the term ‘immoral’ means vice or bad. Hence, criminals and bandits for example could be said to be living immoral lives. For human society to be peaceful, man is admonished not to live an immoral life. Thus, acts which are negative and detrimental to peaceful co-existence like murder, rape and the likes are condemned because they are evil. Moral good and evil really exist. They are not simply a matter of personal taste. Not merely substitutes for “I like” and “I don’t like.” We do not mean that atheists cannot be moral. Definitely atheists can behave morally, just as theists can behave immorally. [1] John D. Macalisang, Re-discovering the Importance of Ethics [2] Richard McBrien, Catholicism, Vol. 2., 1980, p. 1006 [3] Lumen Gentium, 41 [4] Ibid, no. 35 [5] Mt. 19:17 [6] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 30 [7] John D. Macalisang, Re-discovering the Importance of Ethics [8] excerpted from the book of Michael Pennock, Moral Problems, 1979, pp. 18-24 [9] ibid [10] Saint Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, no. 19 [11] Mt. 22:37-39 |
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