Christian

Life 10: Quarter 01 01

Ch rsCh ristia n Life 10 : Lesson 0 2
Miria m College H igh Sch ool SY : 2 0 19 - 2 0 2 0

Living the Faith:

Christian Morality
Review er Compiled by : N iesh a Ga brielle N . Ca ma ch o

I. Intro ductio n to Chris tian Mo rality

• Christian morality is following Jesus in a world of lights and shadows that exist within us and in the society. As disciples of
Christ, we are all called to love God by loving one another as Jesus loved us (John 15:12)
o It entails following Christ in our daily acts, attitudes, judgements and decisions
o It involves responding to Christ who commands all of us to love God and others with all our heart, soul and mind
• Real commitment to Christ transforms how we act and live as we strive to follow Him
o “Day by day, dear Lord, three things we pray: to know You more clearly, to love You more dearly, to follow You more
nearly” – St. Ignatius of Loyola
• Following Christ is still challenging, because other temptations exist in the world
o We may be attracted to material possessions or to self-centered attitues of doing things without any regard for the
others, but, Christ never stops calling us to be truly free and happy
! He reminds us that we are all called to be of loving service to others
• “Love one another as I love you” (John 15:12)
• “Wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow…” (John 13:14-15)
• Christian moral life is grounded on the life and teachings of Jesus
o He is the incarnate Son of the Father and the perfect example of goodness for all people who are created in His image
and destined to join Him in everlasting life
o Through the Holy Spirit, who strengthens and inspires us, we are empowered to follow Jesus in our everyday living
• Worship expressed in personal prayer and the celebration of the sacraments nourishes our Christian moral life
o “True worship consists not in words on the lips, but in deeds from the heart. Authentic worship means doing good and
rendering justice to the poor, the widowed and the orphans” (CFC 1497)
• The goal of Christian morality is to respond to the call of becoming loving people in the fullness of life with others in the
Christian community by following Jesus Christ
o It’s all about following and becoming like Jesus Christ (our daily following of JC)
! Following Him entails following the Paschal Pattern
• This means saying yes to the cross just like Jesus carried His cross
o The cross represents the responsibilities that are given to you
! This also means “dying to oneself”
• Dying to ourselves means freeing ourselves from selfishness
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II. Lights and S hado w s

• The documents of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCP II) begins with words similar to “it was the best of times,
it was the worst of times”
o 1991: our Church decided to gather her members to reflect on the “signs of the times”, and because of this, the
Church realised that our country is full of both lights and shadows
! Example 01: Despite the growing number of religious and civic organizations, many people act indifferent
towards our social problems
! Example 02: New information and technology gave way to greater opportunities and cooperation among
people, but cybercrimes and abuse have also surfaced
! Example 03: We become more aware of our fundamental human rights, but violations of human dignity still
occur
• December 10, 1948: universal declaration of human rights
• There are many lights and shadows around us, so we really can say that we live in the best of times and in the worst of times
o The worst of times
! We experience various mortal crises that overwhelm and/or paralyze us into complacency or inaction
! Violence, injustice, aparthy and moral weakness can badly affect our everyday decisions
o The best of times
! When we see opportunities in these crises to respond to Christ’s call to be of loving service to others
• His call is to follow His Way, and He gives us grace through His Spirit for us to grow in His likeness
! Despite the problems, Christ’s loving presence and teachings about what is truly means to love God and
others inspires us to do good as well
• We can draw strength and inspiration from Christ’s own compassion and solidarity with our brother
and sisters

III. The Mo s t Imp o rtant Que s tio n: W hat S ho uld I do ?

• As we grow up, we are faced with more challenges in choosing what is right in this world of lights and shadows
o The choices we make reflect who we are and show us what kind of person we will become
• The most fundamental question in Christian Morality: “What should I do?” (St. Augustine)
o To this, Christ answers: “Follow me”
• Our Christian faith tells us to follow Christ in every situation
o This is because we know that God loves us and has revealed to us that we can be truly free is we love like Christ did
! “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10)
• As followers of Christ, we need to turn to what God has revealed to us in the Sacred Scripture, as well as it’s interpretation
through the Tradition of the Church
• These two sources (Scripture and Tradition) make up the single sacred deposit of the Word of God
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o The Bible and the living Tradition of the Church are boung closely together in their origin, formation and purpose
! Before the existence of the Bible, there were God’s people and their living experience of God
• Through divine inspiration, the Scripture became the inspired record of the people’s relationship
with God
o It expresses how God revealed Himself and related to them, and how they remembered
and interpreted their experiences
• The Bible is also called “The Book of the People of God” or “The Book of the Church” because it was
written by individuals from the people of God, for the people of God, about the experience of the
people of God
! Sacred Scripture grew from the Tradition of the early Christian community and it continues to be interpreted
today through the living Tradition of the Church, whichh includes its life, worshipa dn teachings
• Papal encyclicals, documents of Church councils and other official teachers aim to bring the
message of the Scripture to the people to respond to the issues of the times

IV. Be ing True to O ur Re latio ns hip w ith God

• Christian Morality entails us to be true to our relationship with God

• In the story of The Rich Young Man, Jesus answered his question by saying “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only
One who is good.”
• By referring to “the One who is good”, He tells us that doing good isn’t just following a set of rules
o It’s also about being true to our covenant relationship with God, who made us and calls us to love
• Jesus reveals that God Himself is both the source and the norm of our goodness by affirming God’s goodness
o The source of goodness
! God is the reason why we can do good
! Our capacity to love and forgive comes from God, who loves us unconditionally and forgives us
magnanimously
! God empowers us to respond to His love everyday with the following actions
• By creating us and sustaining us every moment
• By saving us from self centeredness and death through Christ’s Paschal mystery
• By strengthening us with the gift of the Holy Spirit,
o Remember that God loved us first
o The norm of goodness
! God is the perfect standard of what it means to be good, and this is something that God has revealed to us
through His loving action in our lives
• Remember that He gives us everything that He can give, even His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ
! In the Scriptures, God gradually revealed what it means to do good
• “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48)
• “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do” (John 13:15)
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! We can understand God’s holiness, perfect goodness and loving service through the love that Christ revealed
to us
! We understand the greatness of the love we are called to give because the Lord said “Love one another as I
love you” (John 15:12)
• We understand that Christ is not just the perfect exemple of goodness, but, through the Holy Spirit, He is also the source of
grace that we need to become truly free and loving
o Through His loving example and the presence of His Holy Spirit, we are strengthened to follow Him in our daily acts
and choices that we make as members of our community

V. Ke e p ing the Co mmandme nts

• Jesus told the Rich Young Man that “if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments”
o He tries to draw the connection between our salvation and keeping God’s Law
! He affirms the importance of keeping these in order to do good
• The Commandments are the simplest, clearest and most universal norms for human good that have come down to us through
history
• For the Israelites, the Decalogue (10 Commandments) was the concrete expression of their covenant relationship with God
o The Decalogue, the two love commandments that Christ drew from the Old testaments, and His own unique love
commandment (John 15:12) express how the proof and condition of true love of God is our loving service of our
neighbor
o This was a way of living out our covenant relationship with the Triune God
o Love is at the heart of the Decalogue
• By giving the people the Commandments, God showed that He wanted His people to gain true freedom and happiness, which
is only found by loving God and others
o The Israelites understood who they were and what they were called to do by studying and following God’s Law
• By telling us to keep these Commandments, Jesus reminds us that the love God and our neighbors are the foundations of
freedom and happiness
o He stressed the centrality of love in all our relationships when he said “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”
(Matther 19:19)
! He empasized the the love of neighbor is the basic motivation for keeping all the other commandments
• The Ten Commandments
o I am the Lord your God: You shall not have strange Gods before me.
o You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
o Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
o Honor your father and mother.
o You shall not kill.
o You shall not commit adultery.
o You shall not steal.
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o You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
o You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
o You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
! The First Tablet (Commandments 1-3)
• Speaks about loving God
• “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind.”
• Vertical relationship with God
! The Second Tablet (Commandments 4-10)
• Speaks about loving your neighbors
• “Love your neighbor as yourself”
• Horizontal relationship with neighbors
! More information: https://www.dummies.com/religion/christianity/catholicism/catholicism-and-the-ten-
commandments/