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CHRISTIAN MORAL PRINCIPLES Christian
life is far more than observance of a moral code. To become Christians is
to be given, as a gift, a new life in Christ. This new life is far more
than a new morality. It enables us to enter into friendship with the
Blessed Trinity, to love and to forgive one another, and to taste the joy
of that new life in faith and hope and love that God pours into the hearts
of those who accept his grace. Yet
believers, empowered by God’s grace, are called to “lead a life worthy
of God” (1 Th 2:12). There are works of love that we have a duty to do,
and evil deeds that we must avoid. Being morally upright people is not
sufficient to make us Christians; and, indeed, we are not able
consistently to lead morally good lives without the help of God’s grace.
But a life of faith is not a lawless life. If we wish to be faithful
followers of Christ, we must walk freely in the ways he points out for us. The New
Testament presents various kinds of duties that Christians have. Some
things we must not do, for certain kinds of deliberate actions are
incompatible with love. A Christian must avoid those evil kinds of acts
that the Ten Commandments forbid (cf. Mt 19:16-19), and every kind of act
so incompatible with love that those who do such things cannot “inherit
the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9; cf. Gal 5:21; CCC 2072). But faith
teaches positive duties also: We have the duty to believe God, to trust
him, and to do the works of love (cf. Jn 6:28-29; Mt 25:34-46; CCC
1965-1968). Moreover, we are to acquire those virtues needed to give
consistency and faithfulness to our lives: “Clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. . . .
Above all, clothe yourselves with love” (Col 3:12, 14; cf. CCC
1810-1811). To grow
toward the perfection of love of God and one another, we are to live lives
shaped by the gifts of the Holy Spirit and by the Beatitudes (cf. CCC
1716-1717, 1830-1831). While some of
the moral directives of the Gospel are not precepts but counsels (like the
invitation given us to give all we have to the poor, and to live a
celibate life for the sake of the kingdom [CCC 1973-1975] ), it is far
from true that all the Gospel’s difficult and sublime precepts are
merely counsels or optional ideals. However much we must suffer to guard
the faith, or to keep the commandments, or to forgive those who have
really hurt us, the Gospel gives us firm precepts in all these matters;
but it promises also to make “light and easy” the saving burden of
Christ’s commandments (Mt 11:28-30). Foundational
Principles • The many moral directives taught by Catholic faith are not
simply a mass of unrelated rules. All the duties faith teaches flow from
simple and certain first principles. Christ teaches plainly that the
greatest precepts are those of love: that we should love God with all our
hearts and love our neighbor as ourselves (Mt 22:37-39). He teaches,
moreover, that all our moral duties really flow from these two. “On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Mt 22:40; cf.
CCC 2055). This means that all the positive and negative duties of the Ten
Commandments, all the moral requirements spoken by all the prophets and by
Christ himself – all express simply what love requires. Nothing is
needed except what love makes necessary. Still, and
this, too, is crucial, love does in fact make many things necessary. For
example, one who swears falsely or commits adultery is in the wrong, for
whoever performs these specific kinds of acts is really failing to do what
love demands. With all
Christian tradition, St. Thomas Aquinas accepts faithfully the Gospel
teaching that the two commandments of love are the first principles of
moral life. One can, with a modest amount of reflection, see that all the
precepts of the Decalogue are valid, because the precepts of love do imply
the truth of the commandments (Summa Theologiae, I-II, 100, 3; CCC 1970).
This is especially clear when we consider the material of the commandments
in the light of what love requires, and in the light of other New
Testament precepts noted below. Contemporary
Catholic moralists have done creative work in tracing out more precisely
the path by which it can be shown that the saying of the Lord is true:
that it really is the case that all the basic precepts of revealed
religion follow necessarily from the duty to love. That means that, in a
sense, love alone is required of us; but this is a meaningful and true
love, a love like that spelled out in the Gospels, a love from which the
Ten Commandments and many other specific precepts quite literally follow. Other kinds
of moral directives also serve as principles in Christian morality. In
addition to the two precepts of love, from which all else flows, there are
other Gospel principles basic to Christian morality. These clearly flow
from the requirements of love and help us to see how surely a variety of
universal precepts, like those of the Ten Commandments, also follow from
love (cf. Rom 13:9). Thus we are taught in the Golden Rule that we should
“Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Lk 6:31); that is, we
should treat each person with the fairness and concern we would wish
others to show us. Observance of this, Christ tells us, sums up “the law
and the prophets” (Lk 16:16). One path such
golden concern must take is this: We should never deliberately do harm to
anyone, for “Love does no wrong to a neighbor” (Rom 13:10). Each
neighbor is a person, an image of God, a bearer of inalienable rights, one
to whom we must never deliberately do evil, even as a means to benefit
others. And from the fact that we should never deliberately harm our
neighbor, it follows, as the commandments conclude, that we should never
injure the neighbor by murder or adultery or perjury (Rom 13:9). A variety of
factors must be considered in determining whether a particular human act
is a morally good or bad one. All of the essential elements that determine
whether an act is good or bad must be good for the act to be simply good.
First, the kind of act done must be a good kind of act (one capable of
serving love of God and of neighbor). The intention for which the act is
done must also be good. Moreover, the circumstances must serve the
goodness of the act. That means, for example, that one must not foresee
that the act (however good its kind and the intention may be) is likely to
produce evil effects out of proportion to the good the act is expected to
realize (CCC 1749-1756). Moral
Absolutes • Christian faith has always taught that some moral directives
have no exceptions at all. It is true that many moral rules indeed have
exceptions. For example, we should keep our promises, but not all promises
(such as promises to help another do something evil) should be kept. For
such moral rules one needs to know the motive and circumstances of the
individual act before one can make a final judgment on whether it is good
or bad. But some
moral rules have no exceptions. Such exceptionless rules (called moral
absolutes) include: never directly kill the innocent; never commit
adultery; never swear falsely. One would need only to know that an act is
an act of such a kind to know that one ought not do this act. For such
acts “in and of themselves, independently of circumstances and
intentions, are always gravely illicit by reason of their object” (CCC
1756; cf. Pope John Paul II, The Splendor of Truth, Veritatis Splendor,
79-83). Performance of such acts is always incompatible with authentic
personal love. Also
characteristic of Christian faith is the teaching that one may not do any
evil deed in hopes that great good may come of it (cf. Rom 3:8; Veritatis
Splendor, 80). To choose in the freedom of one’s heart deliberately to
do a kind of deed that is evil – a deed like slaying the innocent, or
committing fornication, or swearing falsely – is to do what a good
person may never do: deliberately attack a basic good, bring about a real
evil in a human person. It is true that the evil brought about in such
acts – death, the unwitting acceptance of falsehood, and the like –
are only “physical” evils; but the deliberate doing of such things is
a moral evil, an offense against persons whom we have a duty to love and
be concerned for. Sometimes
fear is expressed that the reality of moral absolutes might press people
into impossible dilemmas. So, for instance, people have a duty to guard
their families or protect those they love. Might not the only way to
accomplish these things in particular circumstances be by performing a
deed of this kind – one that violates a moral absolute, one that faith
calls intrinsically evil, such as contraception or perjury? But faith is
coherent: It reminds people that they have no duty to do, and never should
do, evil kinds of deeds in order to obtain goods they have some duty to
reach. One may have a duty to move heaven and earth in efforts to fulfill
one’s duties through good acts; but one never is obliged or even
permitted to do something really evil in order to achieve things that
ought to be achieved. Here and now a good man has no way of achieving
specific good objectives if the only means available is a bad one. The Church
always honored the martyrs who laid down their lives rather than do
intrinsically evil deeds (cf. Veritatis Splendor, 90-94). St. Thomas More,
for example, could see no other way to save his own life and to guard good
things for his family, than by agreeing to swear falsely as the king
demanded. But he knew he ought not swear falsely for any reasons whatever,
and he had the courage not to do so. Sometimes heroism is needed to be
faithful to what love requires and the saving law of God demands. But God
never fails to make accessible to the faithful in difficult circumstances
the measure of grace that they need to be as generous as duty requires. Principles of
Other Kinds • There are other kinds of principles underlying Christian
morality, principles that are not themselves moral directives but cast
light on the nature and meaning of moral principles. Some of these are
spelled out with striking force in Pope John Paul II’s encyclical
Veritatis Splendor (cf. 35-45). For example, the reality of freedom
(especially the freedom involved in free choice) and the truth that free
human actions are of overwhelming importance are principles of Christian
morality. Morality is not concerned simply with seeing to it that good
deeds are done (it would be very alien to Christian morality to seek to
condition or manipulate people so that they do good deeds) or that good
results are produced. Rather, Christian morality is concerned primarily
with freely doing deeds that are truly good; and unless human actions were
free, they could not be morally important (cf. CCC 1749; Veritatis
Splendor, 38-41). Law is also a
principle of Christian morality. But Christian morality is not a
legalistic code. The divine law that gives light to our lives is not a
mere act of will, not an arbitrary imposition. God does not simply command
us to do or not to do certain things, without gracious concern for our
freedom, our hopes, and our fulfillment. His eternal law, upon which all
other just law is based, is no arbitrary precept. It is his eternal plan,
which is rooted in intelligence and love, a plan that guides the whole
world and each person toward authentic fulfillment. This law presses us to
seek the good goals we ourselves by our very nature long for – goals we
must pursue if our lives are to make sense. Grounded in this saving plan
of God, the Christian moral law, natural and revealed, is not a set of
arbitrary precepts: It is a guidance given by God’s great love to enable
us to find paths that are truly good for us and that really fulfill our
lives (cf. CCC 1950). Grace, too,
is a principle of Christian moral life. For God has called us not only to
some purely natural end, like human satisfaction in an entirely human
community; rather, he made us to become his friends, and to have
inexpressible joy in sharing his divine life. Only by God’s favor,
however, can we perform acts that lead to the salvation for which we were
made. Moreover, in our fallen state, grace is needed to live a moral life
faithfully (cf. CCC 1996). The moral law
is both a natural law and a revealed law. In fact, through Moses and the
prophets, and most of all through Jesus Christ, God has made known to us
the ways we are to live to please God, to fulfill the requirements of
love, and to come to everlasting life. Such
Revelation was in some senses not necessary, since it is possible for
people to know much of what the law requires even without Revelation. The
moral law that faith calls us to observe is a law corresponding to what
our own hearts need; it is a natural law, and we are naturally inclined to
know it. “What the law requires is written on their hearts” (Rom
2:15). To say this,
however, is not to suggest that everyone really knows all that the natural
law requires. Obviously many people today do not know that euthanasia,
say, or divorce is morally wrong. Nevertheless, to say that the natural
law is written in the heart is to say its principles are indeed accessible
to all. All of us are able to know that we should do what is truly good
and should avoid evil; we are able to recognize some values that are
genuinely good; and we are capable of understanding for ourselves that
some kinds of acts are indeed morally wrong (cf. CCC 1954-1960). From
these principles of natural law accessible to all, everything really
follows. Still, amid the scandals, confusions, and passions of the world,
many become confused and sincerely do not know clearly how they should
guide their steps. To remedy
this situation, the natural law itself is revealed by God. The Decalogue
sums up its basic elements. The teaching of Christ presents the moral law
with great clarity and attractiveness. The graces associated with faith in
Christ give deeper assurance to those who seek to lead good lives than any
other source could provide. And those who know who Christ is, and know
that he teaches in the Gospels and in his Church, have the right and the
duty to walk in his ways. Because the
moral law is a natural law, we can defend it intelligently even before
those who have not received the gifts of Revelation and faith. Because it
is a revealed law, even the simple can be certain of it in the light of
faith, even when they are not intellectually prepared to defend moral
truth against every sophisticated objection. Christ As the
Principle of Christian Morality • Christ himself is clearly a first
principle of our moral lives. He is himself the primary teacher of the way
we are to live to please God, and he is the source of the light of faith
by which we can grasp with certainty the truth and goodness of his paths.
Moreover, he is the source of the strength we need to walk faithfully in
the ways of life. He is the goodness that makes leading an excellent moral
life attractive; he is the mercy that encourages us in all trials. He is
himself both the life for which we long, and the way by which we can come
to life. Christian
moral life is clearly not a dogged obeying of rules. It is rooted in love,
and therefore at its heart it calls for a willing pursuit of what is truly
good, for ourselves and for all we love. The Bible celebrates the truly
and deeply good depths of reality. It celebrates life and friendship,
truth and integrity of spirit, beauty and living in a glad, playful spirit
before the Lord. The elements of life that philosophers have recognized as
the goals of human striving, the goods that make human life rich and
great, are also celebrated by the Scriptures. Christian
morality calls us to a humane and generous pursuit of what is good. Our
actions and our lives are not simply instruments by which we seek to
pursue even in unworthy ways the “greatest amount” of good. In special
ways we must be concerned that our actions and our lives be good. It is
neither wise nor loving to pursue good effects through evil means. The
world was made, not so much that we should produce endless good things
here, as that we should here shape loving actions and loving lives –
shape ourselves, and encourage others to live in ways that respect what is
truly good. The saints did not avoid evil deeds out of a selfish desire to
obtain rewards or a shallow longing to escape every criticism. They
avoided evil and brought about immense good in the world because they knew
that, in pursuing the goodness and generosity God required of them, their
lives would also become a blessing for all. St. Thomas More could not have
foreseen how God would bring good out of the trials he endured patiently.
But he knew that generous faithfulness to all God’s ways would be the
only secure way to fulfill his own life and bless all those whom he loved.
See:
Absolute Moral Norms; Beatitudes; Cardinal Virtues; Conscience; Divine
Revelation; Evangelical Counsels; Freedom, Human; Fundamental Option;
Grace; Law of Christ; Legalism; Martyrdom; Natural Law; Relativism; Sin;
Ten Commandments. Suggested
Readings: CCC 1749-1756, 1949-1974, 1987-2016, 2052-2074. Vatican Council
II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et
Spes, 22, 27-32, 79. John Paul II, The Splendor of Truth, Veritatis
Splendor. National Conference of Catholic Bishops, To Live in Christ
Jesus. G. Grisez, The Way of the Lord Jesus, Vol. 1, Christian Moral
Principles, pp. 173-204, 599-626. R. Schnackenburg, The Moral Teaching of
the New Testament. Ronald
D. Lawler, O.F.M. Cap. Russell
Shaw. Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine. Copyright ©
1997, Our Sunday Visitor.
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