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The Commandments are not chains that bind humans, but an antidote to the seductions,the passions, the unfettered desires that debase existence and make it empty. Placed in the right perspective, these laws are therefore to be considered as essential references for a life project directed to responsibility, fidelity and love. They are based on solid and enduring values that generate true freedom and the joy of living.
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CONTENTS PREFACE, GIULIANO VIGINI 1. THE LAW OF GOD Not prohibitions, but “yes” to God Educate yourself to true freedom The way of life What does it mean to live the Commandments Pure before God 2. LIVING IN CHRIST The five imperatives of the Christian life The criteria for living Fighting the slavery of sin Be shaped by grace The action of the Holy Spirit The exercise of the Christian virtues Called to holiness 3. CHRISTIAN MORAL ACTION Christ, the model of moral action The great moral themes Natural law and moral conscience The danger of ethical relativism Bioethics and moral law 4. THE COMMANDMENTS OF CHARITY You shall love the Lord your God... – You shall love your neighbour as yourself Free to serve 5. THE COMMANDMENTS OF MERCY The works of mercy The spiritual works of mercy 6. SOURCES
Appendix From the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
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PREFACE In addressing the theme of the Commandments and of moral behaviour, the fundamental perspective in which Benedict XVI invites us to enter is first of all the following: Contrary to the interpretation made by modern culture – which tends to see in the Decalogue, as well as in the many rules and precepts of the Church, purely and simply a sequence of prohibitions – the law of God is not to be seen as a concentrate of “noes” that are an end in themselves, but as the door of access to the great “yes” that opens up to God and to life. The Commandments are not chains that bind humans, but an antidote to the seductions, the passions, the unfettered desires that give the illusion of a limitless freedom, while in reality are false conquests that debase existence and make it empty. Placed in the right perspective, these laws are therefore to be considered as essential references for a life project directed to responsibility, fidelity and love, and therefore based on solid and enduring values that generate true freedom and the joy of living. The law of God, in other words, indicates the road to take in order to act well and realize one’s vocation, avoiding the very real risk of groping in the dark, pursuing mirages and ultimately ruining one’s life. That is, the observance of the Commandments helps us to purify and renew ourselves interiorly, in order to recognize the will of God, and, in the gift of God’s love, progress towards the destiny reserved for each one of a good and happy life. The preliminary condition for all this to happen is the measure with which one is able to listen to, and let oneself be transformed by, the Word of God and to live in a complete way according to the gospel, fixing one’s gaze on the model that is Jesus. The moral conduct of the Christian, in fact, is nothing but the mirror of the Christian’s life of faith, of his or her meeting and experience of Christ in thought, in the sacraments and in deeds, nourished by grace and sustained by the action of the Holy Spirit. The more one lives in intimacy with Christ and in the fullness of ecclesial communion, the more is one capable of going beyond one’s constitutive weaknesses, of opening one’s heart to receive the mercy and pardon of God; of putting oneself in the condition of fighting the slavery of sin and facing the daily challenges of spiritual combat against the forces of evil that are always vigilant both within us and without. Obedience to the commandments and the exercise of the Christian virtues are precisely the stairs that lead us to this perfecting of ourselves and to an ever more authentic imitation of Christ, to a moral behaviour that is its natural reflection, finding expression in righteous conduct, doing good and tending to peace. This is also the primary path towards sanctity: a summit accessible not only to great climbers but also to common travellers, since it does not consist in accomplishing extraordinary works, but in persevering in “walking with Christ” toward the 6
fullness of a new life, one placed entirely under the banner of love. The original function of the Decalogue – Benedict XVI emphasizes – finds therefore in Christ its fulfilment and its greatness as “the way of perfection, the living and personal synthesis of perfect liberty in total obedience to the will of God”. Christ is presented as the model of every authentic moral behaviour and from him the Christian receives the charge to follow: not slavishly but in an active way, sharing in his divine life itself and drawing from his grace so as to be supported in the fulfilment of his vocation. Inserted here are all the great moral themes that continually subject Christians to a severe test in their confrontation with a society that often rejects, manipulates or slows down respect for the sacredness and inviolability of human life, from conception until death; or proposes a vision of sexuality and of the family that ends up perverting the essence of love and hurting the dignity of marriage; or still does not recognize in fact the principles of the law engraved by the Creator in the order of nature and of the ethical message inscribed in the heart of every man and woman. These are serious problems that demand the maturing of a staunch moral conscience, the scrupulous observance of the norms that regulate the moral life and a strong commitment to counter every attempt in the opposite direction (abortion, euthanasia, instrumental use of science, biological manipulations, etc.) and against every pretence of the State to set itself up, on the legislative plane, as the source and principle of ethics. Not by chance has Benedict XVI included in his reflections on the one hand the discourse about the natural law as the only bulwark against the “arbitrariness of power or the deceptions of ideological manipulation”, and on the other the emphasis on the danger constituted by an invasive and destructive ethical relativism seen as “a tragic obscuring of the collective conscience”, inasmuch as it tends to cancel the pillars that make up the natural moral law. For the Christian the defense of these principles and values that are “not negotiable” is found in the dynamism of the “commandments of charity” – “You shall love the Lord your God ...” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself ” – in which, as Benedict XVI reminds us, are summarized the whole of the divine law. In the Eucharist Christ gives himself as the living synthesis of this twofold commandment of love – love for God and love for the brethren – and from this inexhaustible font the Christian draws the strength to live with fidelity his relation of love with God and to open himself generously to his neighbour, in the service of truth and charity, in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, “one of the first works of love that the Church has the mission to offer to mankind”. The educational crisis and the new evangelization also pass through this moral and ethical 7
context, by reconstituting that which contributes to form or consolidate a responsibility and a coherence in life capable of witnessing to the truth and to the good and, indirectly also, to building up a society wherein each one is safeguarded in his or her liberty and dignity as a human being.
Giuliano Vigini
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1 THE LAW OF GOD Not prohibitions, but “yes” to God We can say that also in our time we need to say “no” to the widely prevalent culture of death. It is an “anticulture” manifested, for example, in drugs, in the flight from reality to what is illusory, to a false happiness expressed in deceit, fraud, injustice and contempt for others, for solidarity, and for responsibility for the poor and the suffering; it is expressed in a sexuality that becomes sheer irresponsible enjoyment, that makes the human person into a “thing”, so to speak, no longer considered a person who deserves personal love which requires fidelity, but who becomes a commodity, a mere object. Let us say “no” to this promise of apparent happiness, to this “pompa” of what may seem to be life but is in fact merely an instrument of death, and to this “anticulture”, in order to cultivate instead the culture of life. For this reason, the Christian “yes”, from ancient times to our day, is a great “yes” to life. It is our “yes” to Christ, our “yes” to the Conqueror of death and the “yes” to life in time and in eternity. Just as in this baptismal dialogue the “no” is expressed in three renunciations, so too the “yes” is expressed in three expressions of loyalty: “yes” to the living God, that is, a God Creator and a creating reason who gives meaning to the cosmos and to our lives; “yes” to Christ, that is, to a God who did not stay hidden but has a name, words, a body and blood; to a concrete God who gives us life and shows us the path of life; “yes” to the communion of the Church, in which Christ is the living God who enters our time, enters our profession, enters daily life. We might also say that the Face of God, the content of this culture of life, the content of our great “yes”, is expressed in the Ten Commandments, which are not a pack of prohibitions, of “noes”, but actually present a great vision of life. They are a “yes” to a God who gives meaning to life (the first three Commandments); a “yes” to the family (Fourth Commandment); a “yes” to life (Fifth Commandment); a “yes” to responsible love (Sixth Commandment); a “yes” to solidarity, to social responsibility, to justice (Seventh Commandment); a “yes” to the truth (Eighth Commandment); a “yes” to respect for others and for their belongings (Ninth and 10th Commandments). This is the philosophy of life, the culture of life that becomes concrete and practical and 9
beautiful in communion with Christ, the living God, who walks with us in the companionship of his friends, in the great family of the Church.
Educate yourself to true freedom Jesus reminded the rich young man that obedience to the Ten Commandments is necessary in order to “inherit eternal life”. The Commandments are essential points of reference if we are to live in love, to distinguish clearly between good and evil, and to build a life plan that is solid and enduring. Jesus is asking you too whether you know the Commandments, whether you are trying to form your conscience according to God’s law, and putting the Commandments into practice. Needless to say, these are questions that go against the grain in today’s world, which advocates a freedom detached from values, rules and objective norms, and which encourages people to refuse to place limits on their immediate desires. But this is not the way to true freedom. It leds people to become enslaved to themselves, to their immediate desires, to idols like power, money, unbridled pleasure and the entrapments of the world. It stifles their inborn vocation to love. God gives us the Commandments because he wants to teach us true freedom. He wants to build a Kingdom of love, justice and peace together with us. When we listen to the Commandments and put them into practice, it does not mean that we become estranged from ourselves, but that we find the way to freedom and authentic love. The commandments do not place limits on happiness, but rather show us how to find it.
The way of life The shepherd points out the right path to those entrusted to him. He goes before them and leads them. Let us put it differently: the Lord shows us the right way to be human. He teaches us the art of being a person. What must I do in order not to fall, not to squander my life in meaninglessness? This is precisely the question which every man and woman must ask and one which remains valid at every moment of one’s life. How much darkness surrounds this question in our own day! We are constantly reminded of the words of Jesus, who felt compassion for the crowds because they were like a flock without a shepherd. Lord, have mercy on us too! Show us the way! From the Gospel we know this much: he is himself the way. Living with Christ, following him – this means finding the right way, so that our lives can be meaningful and so that one day we might say: “Yes, it was good to have lived”. The people of Israel continue to be grateful to God because in the Commandments he pointed out the way of life. The great Psalm 119(118) is a unique expression of joy for this fact: we are not fumbling in the dark. God has shown us the way 10
and how to walk aright. The message of the Commandments was synthesized in the life of Jesus and became a living model. Thus we understand that these rules from God are not chains, but the way which he is pointing out to us.
What does it mean to live the Commandments Not to waste life, to live it in depth, not to live for oneself, not to live from one day to the next, but truly to live life in its riches and in its totality. And how can we do this? This is the big question which the rich young man of the Gospel came to ask the Lord (cf. Mk 10: 17). At first sight the Lord’s response seems somewhat dry. In sum, he tells the young man to observe the Commandments (cf. Mk 10: 19). Yet, if we think carefully, if we listen carefully to the Lord, we find throughout the Gospel the great wisdom of the Word of God, of Jesus. The Commandments, according to another of Jesus’ sayings, are summed up in this one alone: love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your life, and love your neighbour as yourself. Loving God implies knowing God, recognizing God. and this is the first step we must take: to seek to know God. And thus we know that our life does not exist by chance, it is not an accident. My life has been willed by God since eternity. I am loved, I am necessary. God has a plan for me in the totality of history: he has a plan specifically for me. My life is important and also necessary. Eternal love created me in depth and awaits me. So this is the first point: to know, to seek to know God and thus to understand that life is a gift, that it is good to be alive. Then the essential is love. To love this God who has created me, who has created this world, who governs among all the difficulties of man and of history and who accompanies me. It means loving my neighbour. The Ten Commandments to which Jesus refers in his answer are only to clarify the commandment of love. They are, so to speak, rules of love, they indicate the way of love with these essential points; the family, as a foundation of society; life, to be respected as a gift of God; the order of sexuality, of relations between man and woman; the social order and, finally, truth. These essential elements describe the route of love, they explain how really to love and how to find the right route. Hence there is a fundamental will of God for us all, which is identical for us all. However its application is different in every life, for God has a specific project for each person. St Francis de Sales once said: perfection, that is, being good, living faith and love, is substantially one but comes in many different forms. The holiness of a Carthusian and of a politician, of a scientist or of a peasant, and so forth, is very different. Thus God has a plan for every person and I must find, in my own circumstances, my way of living this one and, at the same time, common will of God whose great rules are indicated in these explanations of love. Consequently I must seek to do what is the essence of love, that is, not to live selfishly, but to give life; not to “possess” life but to make life a gift, not to seek for myself but to give to others. This is the essential. 11
And it entails sacrifices, that is, it means coming out of myself and not seeking myself. And it is precisely by not seeking myself but by giving myself for important and true things that I find true life. Thus each person will find different possibilities in his life: he may devote himself to volunteer work in a community of prayer, in a movement or in the activity of his parish, in his own profession. Finding my vocation and living it everywhere is important and fundamental, whether I am a great scientist or a farmer. Everything is important in God’s eyes: life is beautiful if it is lived to the full with that love which really redeems the world.
Pure before God We find in the Gospel one of the fundamental themes of humanity’s religious history: the question of the purity of the human being before God. In turning his gaze to God, man recognizes that he is “contaminated” and finds himself in a condition in which he has no access to the Holy One. Thus the question arises as to how he can be purified, and rid himself of the “dirt” that separates him from God. This has given rise in the different religions to rites of purification, to processes of interior and exterior cleansing. In today’s Gospel we encounter rites of purification that are rooted in the Old Testament tradition but are nonetheless performed in a very unilateral manner. Consequently they no longer serve to open man to God, they no longer lead to purification and salvation but become elements of a self-contained system of fulfilment which to be fully implemented even requires specialists. The human heart is no longer touched. Man, who moves within this system, either feels enslaved or falls into the arrogance of being able to justify himself. (…) The Law, like a word of love, is not a contradiction of freedom but a renewal from within by means of friendship with God. Something similar occurs when Jesus, in the discourse on the vine, says to the disciples: “You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you” (Jn 15: 3). And the same thing appears again in the Priestly Prayer: sanctify them in the truth (cf. Jn 17: 17-19). Thus we now find the right structure for the process of purification and of purity: we do not create what is good that would be mere moralism but Truth comes to us. He himself is Truth, Truth in person. Purity happens through dialogue. It begins with the fact that he comes to us he who is Truth and Love he takes us by the hand and penetrates our being. Insofar as we allow him to touch us, insofar as the encounter becomes friendship and love, we ourselves, on the basis of his purity, become pure people and then people who love with his love, people who introduce others to his purity and his love.
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2 LIVING IN CHRIST The five imperatives of the Christian life To each one of us the words of the Book of Revelation apply: I am knocking at your door; hear me, let me in. Thus, it is also an invitation to be sensitive to this presence of the Lord who is knocking at my door. We must not be deaf to him, because the ears of our heart are so full of the din of the world that we cannot hear this silent presence that is knocking at our door. Let us at the same time consider whether we really are prepared to open the doors of our heart; or perhaps this heart is crammed with so many other things that there is no room in it for the Lord, and for the time being we have no time for him. Thus, insensitive, dead to his presence, distracted by other things, we fail to hear the essential: the Lord, knocking at the door; he is close to us, hence, true joy, which is more powerful than all the sorrows of the world or of our lives, is at hand. Consequently, in the context of this first imperative, let us pray: “Lord, make us sensitive to your presence, help us to hear you, not to be deaf to you, help us to keep our hearts free, open to you”. The second imperative “perfecti estote”, as we read in the Latin text, seems to coincide with the words that sum up the Sermon on the Mount: “perfecti estote sicut Pater vester caelestis perfectus est”. These words invite us to be what we are: images of God, beings created in relation to the Lord, “mirrors” where the Lord’s light is reflected. Not to live Christianity according to the letter, not to understand Sacred Scripture according to the letter is often difficult, historically disputable; but we must go beyond the letter, our present reality, towards the Lord who speaks to us and hence, to union with God. However, if we see the Greek text, we find another verb, “catartizesthe”, and this word means to restore or repair an instrument, to make it function properly again. The most frequent example for the Apostles was mending a fishing net that was no longer in proper condition, that had so many holes in it that it could no longer be used; they had to repair the net so it could once again be used for fishing, restored to its perfect state as a tool for this trade.
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Another example: music can no longer be played properly on a stringed instrument with a broken string. So in this imperative our soul is like an apostolic net but one that is frequently of little use because our own intentions have made a tear in it; or it is like a musical instrument that unfortunately has several broken strings, so that God’s music which should echo in the depths of our soul can no longer ring out. We must repair this instrument, be familiar with its broken parts, the destruction, the negligence, the omissions, and seek to make it perfect and complete so that it will serve the purpose for which the Lord created it. So it is that this imperative can also be an invitation to the regular examination of conscience, to see how this instrument of mine is going, to what point it has been neglected or is no longer in working order, in the attempt to make it function properly again. It is also an invitation to have recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where God himself repairs the instrument and restores us to integrity, perfection and functionality, so that in this soul praise of God may once again ring out. Then comes “exortamini invicem”. Fraternal correction is a work of mercy. None of us sees himself or his shortcomings clearly. It is therefore an act of love to complement one another, to help one another see each other better, and correct each other. I think that one of the very functions of collegiality is to help one another, also in the sense of the previous imperative, to know the shortcomings that we ourselves do not want to see - “ab occultis meis munda me”, the Psalm says - to help one another to open ourselves and to see these things. […] And thus, the last imperative: “pacem habete”, “eirhneuete”, is almost a summation of the four previous imperatives, being in union with God who is our peace, with Christ who said: “pacem dabo vobis”. We are in inner peace, because being in Christ’s thought unifies our being. The problems, the differences of our soul are united, they are united to the original, to the One we are images of with the thought of Christ. So it is that inner peace is born, and only if we are grounded in deep inner peace can we also be men and women of peace in the world and for others. Here the question arises: is this promise conditioned by the imperatives? That is, is this God of peace with us only if we can achieve the imperatives? What is the relationship between imperative and promise? I would say that it is bilateral; in other words, the promise precedes the imperatives and makes it possible to achieve them and to follow up this achievement. That is, before 15
everything we ourselves do, the God of love and peace opened himself to us, he was with us. In Revelation, which began in the Old Testament, God came to meet us with his love and his peace. And finally, in the Incarnation, he became God with us, Emmanuel. This God of peace became flesh with our flesh, blood with our blood. He is a man with us and embraces the whole human being. And in the Crucifixion and his descent to death he became totally one with us, he precedes us with his love, he embraces first of all our action. And this is our great consolation. God goes before us. He has already done all things. He has given us peace, forgiveness and love. He is with us. And only because he is with us, because we have received his grace in Baptism, in Confirmation the Holy Spirit, in the Sacrament of Orders we received his mission, can we ourselves now cooperate with his presence that goes before us. All our action, of which the five imperatives speak, consists in cooperation and collaboration with the God of peace who is with us.
The criteria for living We need to be prepared, to be purified. This is our hope: even with so much dirt in our souls, in the end the Lord will give us the possibility, he will wash us at last with his goodness that comes from his Cross. In this way he makes us capable of being for him in eternity. And thus Heaven is hope, it is justice brought about at last. He also gives us criteria by which to live, so that this time may be in some way paradise, a first gleam of paradise. Where people live according to these criteria a hint of paradise appears in the world and is visible. It also seems to me to be a demonstration of the truth of faith, of the need to follow the road of the Commandments, of which we must speak further. These really are road signs on our way and show us how to live well, how to choose life. Therefore, we must also speak of sin and of the sacrament of forgiveness and reconciliation. A sincere person knows that he is guilty, that he must start again, that he must be purified. And this is the marvellous reality which the Lord offers us: there is a chance of renewal, of being new. The Lord starts with us again and in this way we can also start again with the others in our life. This aspect of renewal, of the restitution of our being after so many errors, so many sins, is the great promise, the great gift the Church offers but which psychotherapy, for example, cannot offer. Today, in the face of so many destroyed or seriously injured psyches, psychotherapy is so widespread and also necessary. Yet the possibilities of psychotherapy are very limited: it can only make some sort of effort to restore balance to an unbalanced soul but cannot provide true renewal, the overcoming of these serious diseases of the soul. It is 16
therefore always temporary and never definitive. The Sacrament of Penance gives us the opportunity to be renewed through and through with God’s power - ego te absolvo -, which is possible because Christ took these sins, this guilt, upon himself. I think there is a great need of this especially today. We can be healed. Souls that are wounded and ill, as everyone knows by experience, not only need advice but true renewal, which can only come from God’s power, from the power of Crucified Love.
Fighting the slavery of sin Lent, the liturgical Season of 40 days which constitutes a spiritual journey in the Church of preparation for Easter. Essentially it is a matter of following Jesus who is walking with determination towards the Cross, the culmination of his mission of salvation. If we ask ourselves: “Why Lent? Why the Cross?”, the answer in radical terms is this: because evil exists, indeed sin, which according to the Scriptures is the profound cause of all evil. However this affirmation is far from being taken for granted and the very word “sin” is not accepted by many because it implies a religious vision of the world and of the human being. In fact it is true: if God is eliminated from the world’s horizon, one cannot speak of sin. As when the sun is hidden, shadows disappear. Shadows only appear if the sun is out; hence the eclipse of God necessarily entails the eclipse of sin. Therefore the sense of sin — which is something different from the “sense of guilt” as psychology understands it — is acquired by rediscovering the sense of God. This is expressed by the Miserere Psalm, attributed to King David on the occasion of his double sin of adultery and homicide: “Against you”, David says, addressing God, “against you only have I sinned” [Ps 51(50):6]. In the face of moral evil God’s attitude is to oppose sin and to save the sinner. God does not tolerate evil because he is Love, Justice and Fidelity; and for this very reason he does not desire the death of the sinner but wants the sinner to convert and to live. To save humanity God intervenes: we see him throughout the history of the Jewish people, beginning with the liberation from Egypt. God is determined to deliver his children from slavery in order to lead them to freedom. And the most serious and profound slavery is precisely that of sin. For this reason God sent his Son into the world: to set men and women free from the domination of Satan, “the origin and cause of every sin”. God sent him in our mortal flesh so that he might become a victim of expiation, dying for us on the Cross. The Devil opposed this definitive and universal plan of salvation with all his might, as is shown in particular in the Gospel of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness which is proclaimed every year on the First Sunday of Lent. In fact, entering this liturgical season means continuously taking Christ’s side against sin, facing — both as individuals and as Church 17
— the spiritual fight against the spirit of evil each time.
Be shaped by grace We have listened to two passages from Saint Paul. The first, taken from the Second Letter to the Corinthians, is particularly appropriate for the current liturgical season of Lent. It contains the Apostle’s exhortation to seize the favourable moment for receiving God’s grace. The favourable moment is naturally when Jesus Christ came to reveal and to bestow upon us the love that God has for us, through his incarnation, passion, death and resurrection. The “day of salvation” is the same reality that Saint Paul in another place describes as the “fullness of time”, the moment when God took flesh and entered time in a completely unique way, filling it with his grace. It is for us, then, to accept this gift, which is Jesus himself: his person, his word, his Holy Spirit. Moreover, in the first reading, Saint Paul tells us about himself and his apostolate – how he strives to remain faithful to God in his ministry, so that it may be truly efficacious and may not prove instead a barrier to faith. These words make us think of Saint Gregory the Great, of the radiant witness that he offered the people of Rome and the whole Church by a blameless ministry full of zeal for the Gospel. Truly, what Saint Paul wrote of himself applies equally to Gregory: the grace of God in him has not been fruitless (cf. 1 Cor 15:10). This, indeed, is the secret for the lives of every one of us: to welcome God’s grace and to consent with all our heart and all our strength to its action. This is also the secret of true joy and profound peace. The second reading was taken from the Letter to the Colossians. We heard those words – always so moving for their spiritual and pastoral inspiration – that the Apostle addressed to the members of that community in order to form them according to the Gospel, saying to them: “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col 3:17). “Be perfect”, the Master said to his disciples; and now the Apostle exhorts his listeners to live according to the high measure of Christian life that is holiness. He can do this because the brothers he is addressing are “chosen by God, holy and beloved”. Here too, at the root of everything, is the grace of God, the gift of the call, the mystery of the encounter with the living Jesus. But this grace demands a response from those who have been baptized: it requires the commitment to be reclothed in Christ’s sentiments: tenderness, goodness, humility, meekness, magnanimity, mutual forgiveness, and above all, as a synthesis and a crown, agape, the love that God has given us through Jesus, the love that the Holy Spirit has poured into our hearts. And if we are to be reclothed in Christ, his word must dwell among us and in us, with all its richness and in abundance. In an atmosphere of constant thanksgiving, the Christian community feeds on the word and causes to rise towards God, as a song of praise, the word that he himself has given us. And every action, every gesture, every service, is accomplished within this profound relationship 18
with God, in the interior movement of Trinitarian love that descends towards us and rises back towards God, a movement that finds its highest expression in the eucharistic sacrifice.
The action of the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit appears to us as the guarantor of the active presence of the mystery in history, the One who ensures its realization down the centuries. Thanks to the Paraclete, it will always be possible for subsequent generations to have the same experience of the Risen One that was lived by the apostolic community at the origin of the Church, since it is passed on and actualized in the faith, worship and communion of the People of God, on pilgrimage through time. And so it is that we today, in the Easter Season, are living the encounter with the Risen One not only as something of the past, but in the present communion of the faith, liturgy and life of the Church. The Church’s apostolic Tradition consists in this transmission of the goods of salvation which, through the power of the Spirit makes the Christian community the permanent actualization of the original communion. It is called “original” because it was born of the witness of the Apostles and of the community of the disciples at the time of the origins. It was passed on under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament writings and in the sacramental life, in the life of the faith, and the Church continuously refers to it - to this Tradition, which is the whole, ever up-to-date reality of Jesus’ gift - as her foundation and her law, through the uninterrupted succession of the apostolic ministry. In his historical life furthermore, Jesus limited his mission to the house of Israel, but already made it clear that the gift was not only destined for the People of Israel but to everyone in the world and to every epoch. The Risen One then explicitly entrusted to the Apostles (cf. Lk 6: 13) the task of making disciples of all the nations, guaranteeing his presence and help to the end of the age (cf. Mt 28: 19 ff.). The universalism of salvation, moreover, requires that the Easter memorial be celebrated in history without interruption until Christ’s glorious return (cf. I Cor 11: 26). Who will bring about the saving presence of the Lord Jesus through the ministry of the Apostles heads of the eschatological Israel (cf. Mt 19: 28) - and through the whole life of the people of the New Covenant? The answer is clear: the Holy Spirit. The Acts of the Apostles - in continuity with the pattern of Luke’s Gospel - show vividly the interpenetration between the Spirit, those sent out by Christ and the community they have gathered. Thanks to the action of the Paraclete, the Apostles and their successors can realize in time 19
the mission received from the Risen One. “You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you” (Lk 24: 48 ff.). “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1: 8). And this promise, which at first seems incredible, already came true in the Apostles’ time: “And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5: 32). So it is the Spirit himself, who through the laying on of hands and prayers of the Apostles, consecrates and sends out new Gospel missionaries (as, for example, in Acts 13: 3 ff. and I Tm 4: 14). It is interesting to observe that whereas in some passages it says that Paul appointed elders in every Church (cf. Acts 14: 23), elsewhere it says that it is the Spirit who has made them guardians of the flock (cf. Acts 20: 28). The action of the Spirit and the action of Paul thus are deeply interwoven. At the time of solemn decisions for the life of the Church, the Spirit is present to guide her. This guiding presence of the Holy Spirit was particularly acutely felt in the Council of Jerusalem, in whose conclusive words resound the affirmation: “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us...” (Acts 15: 28); the Church grows and walks “in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9: 31). This permanent actualization of the active presence of the Lord Jesus in his People, brought about by the Holy Spirit and expressed in the Church through the apostolic ministry and fraternal communion is what, in a theological sense, is meant by the term “Tradition”: it is not merely the material transmission of what was given at the beginning to the Apostles, but the effective presence of the Crucified and Risen Lord Jesus who accompanies and guides in the Spirit the community he has gathered together.
The exercise of the Christian virtues May you always be able to offer them your good example, through the practice of the Christian virtues. It is not easy to express what one believes in openly and without compromises. This is especially true in the context in which we live, in the face of a society that all too often considers those who live by faith in Jesus as out of fashion and out of time. On the crest of this mentality, Christians too can risk seeing the relationship with Jesus as restrictive, something that humiliates one’s fulfilment; “God is constantly regarded as a limitation placed on our freedom, that must be set aside if man is ever to be completely himself”(The Infancy Narratives: Jesus of Nazareth).
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But this is not how it is! This vision shows that it has not understood the relationship with God at all, for as we gradually proceed on our journey of faith, we realize that Jesus exercises on us the liberating action of God’s love which brings us out of our selfishness, our withdrawal into ourselves, to lead us to a full life in communion with God and open to others. “‘God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him’ (1 Jn 4:16). These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny” (Encyclical Deus Caritas est, n. 1).
Called to holiness What does it mean to be holy? Who is called to be holy? We are often led to think that holiness is a goal reserved for a few elect. St Paul, instead, speaks of God’s great plan and says: “even as he (God) chose us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph 1:4). And he was speaking about all of us. At the centre of the divine plan is Christ in whom. God shows his Face, in accord with the favour of his will. The Mystery hidden in the centuries is revealed in its fullness in the Word made flesh. And Paul then says: “in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col 1:19). In Christ the living God made himself close, visible, audible and tangible so that each one might draw from his fullness of grace and truth (cf. Jn 1:14-16). Therefore, the whole of Christian life knows one supreme law, which St Paul expresses in a formula that recurs in all his holy writings: in Jesus Christ. Holiness, the fullness of Christian life, does not consist in carrying out extraordinary enterprises but in being united with Christ, in living his mysteries, in making our own his example, his thoughts, his behaviour. The measure of holiness stems from the stature that Christ achieves in us, in as much as with the power of the Holy Spirit, we model our whole life on his. It is being conformed to Jesus, as St Paul says: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom 8:29). And St Augustine exclaimed: “my life shall be a real life, being wholly filled by you” (Confessions, 10, XXVIII). The Second Vatican Council, in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, speaks with clarity of the universal call to holiness, saying that no one is excluded: “The forms and tasks of life are many but holiness is one — that sanctity which is cultivated by all who act under God’s Spirit and… follow Christ, poor, humble and cross-bearing, that they may deserve to be partakers of his glory” (Lumen Gentium, n. 41). 21
However, the question remains: how can we take the path to holiness, in order to respond to this call? Can I do this on my own initiative? The answer is clear. A holy life is not primarily the result of our efforts, of our actions, because it is God, the three times Holy (cf. Is 6:3) who sanctifies us, it is the Holy Spirit’s action that enlivens us from within, it is the very life of the Risen Christ that is communicated to us and that transforms us. To say so once again with the Second Vatican Council, “the followers of Christ, called by God not in virtue of their works but by his design and grace, and justified in the Lord Jesus, have been made sons of God in the baptism of faith and partakers of the divine nature, and so are truly sanctified. They must therefore hold onto and perfect in their lives that sanctification which they have received” (ibid., n. 40). Holiness, therefore, has its deepest root in the grace of baptism, in being grafted on to the Paschal Mystery of Christ, by which his Spirit is communicated to us, his very life as the Risen One. St Paul strongly emphasizes the transformation that baptismal grace brings about in man and he reaches the point of coining a new terminology, forged with the preposition “with”: dead-with, buried-with, raised-with, brought to life-with, with Christ; our destiny is indissolubly linked to his. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism” he writes, “into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead ... we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4). Yet God always respects our freedom and asks that we accept this gift and live the requirements it entails and he asks that we let ourselves be transformed by the action of the Holy Spirit, conforming our will to the will of God. How can it happen that our manner of thinking and our actions become thinking and action with Christ and of Christ? What is the soul of holiness? Once again the Second Vatican Council explains; it tells us that Christian holiness is nothing other than charity lived to the full. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16). Now God has poured out his love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (cf. Rom 5:5); therefore the first and most necessary gift is charity, by which we love God above all things and our neighbour through love of him. But if charity, like a good seed, is to grow and fructify in the soul, each of the faithful must willingly hear the word of God and carry out his will with deeds, with the help of his grace. He must frequently receive the sacraments, chiefly the Eucharist, and take part in the holy liturgy; he must constantly apply himself to prayer, self-denial, active brotherly service and the exercise all the virtues. This is because love, as the bond of perfection and fullness of the law (cf. Col 3:14; Rom 13:10) governs, gives meaning to, and perfects all the means of sanctification” (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 42). Perhaps this language of the Second Vatican Council is a little too solemn for us, perhaps we should say things even more simply. What is the essential? The essential means never 22
leaving a Sunday without an encounter with the Risen Christ in the Eucharist; this is not an additional burden but is light for the whole week. It means never beginning and never ending a day without at least a brief contact with God. And, on the path of our life it means following the “signposts” that God has communicated to us in the Ten Commandments, interpreted with Christ, which are merely the explanation of what love is in specific situations. It seems to me that this is the true simplicity and greatness of a life of holiness: the encounter with the Risen One on Sunday; contact with God at the beginning and at the end of the day; following, in decisions, the “signposts” that God has communicated to us, which are but forms of charity. “Hence the true disciple of Christ is marked by love both of God and of neighbour” (Lumen Gentium, n. 42). This is the true simplicity, greatness and depth of Christian life, of being holy.
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3 CHRISTIAN MORAL ACTION Christ, the model of moral action Man’s first impulse is his desire for happiness and for fulfilment in life. Today, however, many people think that this should be achieved absolutely autonomously, without any reference to God or to his law. Some have reached the point of theorizing on the absolute sovereignty of reason and freedom in the context of moral norms: they presume that these norms constitute the context of a purely “human” ethic, in other words, the expression of a law that man makes for himself by himself. The advocates of this “secular morality” say that man as a rational being not only can but must decide freely on the value of his behaviour. This erroneous conviction is based on the presumed conflict between human freedom and every form of law. In fact, the Creator, because we are creatures, has inscribed his “natural law”, a reflection of his creative idea, in our hearts, in our very being, as a compass and inner guide for our life. For this very reason, Sacred Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church tell us that the vocation and complete fulfilment of the human being are not attained by rejecting God’s law, but by abiding by the new law that consists in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Together with the Word of God and the teaching of the Church, it is expressed in “faith working through love” (Gal 5: 6). (---) The moral law established by God in creation and confirmed in the Old Testament revelation reaches fulfilment and greatness in Christ. Jesus Christ is the way of perfection, the living and personal synthesis of perfect freedom in total obedience to God’s will. The original function of the Decalogue is not abolished by the encounter with Christ but is led to this fullness. An ethic that in listening to revelation also seeks to be authentically rational, finds its perfection in the encounter with Christ, who gives us the new Covenant. A model of this authentic moral action is the behaviour of the Incarnate Word himself. He makes his will coincide with the will of God the Father in the acceptance and carrying out of his mission: his food is to do the Father’s will (cf. Jn 4: 34). He always does the things that are pleasing to the Father, putting his words into practice (cf. Jn 8: 29-55); he says the things that the Father asked him to say and to proclaim (cf. Jn 12: 49). 24
In revealing the Father and his way of acting, Jesus at the same time reveals the norms of upright human action. He affirms this connection in an explicit and exemplary way when, in concluding his teaching on loving one’s enemies (cf. Mt 5: 43-47), he says: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5: 48). This divine, divine-human, perfection becomes possible for us if we are closely united with Christ, our Saviour. The path marked out by Jesus with his teaching is not an externally imposed regulation. Jesus himself took this path and asks no more of us than to follow him. Moreover, he does not limit himself to asking: first of all, through Baptism, he allows us to participate in his own life, thereby enabling us to understand his teaching and put it into practice. This appears with increasing evidence in the New Testament writings. His relationship with the disciples was vital, not an external teaching. He called them “little children” (Jn 13: 33; 21: 5), “friends” (Jn 15: 14-15), “brothers”, “brethren” (Mt 12: 50; 28: 10; Jn 20: 17), and invited them to enter into communion of life with him and to accept in faith and joy his “easy” yoke and his “light” burden (cf. Mt 11: 28-30). In the quest for a Christologically inspired ethic, it is therefore necessary always to bear in mind that Christ is the Incarnate Logos who enables us to share in his divine life and sustains us with his grace on the journey towards our true fulfilment. What man really is, appears definitively in the Logos made man; faith in Christ gives us the fulfilment of anthropology. Consequently, the relationship with Christ defines the loftiest realization of man’s moral action. This human action is directly based on obedience to God’s law, on union with Christ and on the indwelling of the Spirit in the believer’s soul. It is not an action dictated by merely exterior norms, but stems from the vital relationship that connects believers to Christ and to God.
The great moral themes What people find more difficult is the morality that the Church proclaims. I have pondered on this - I have been pondering on it for a long time - and I see ever more clearly that in our age morality is, as it were, split in two. Modern society not merely lacks morals but has “discovered” and demands another dimension of morality, which in the Church’s proclamation in recent decades and even earlier perhaps has not been sufficiently presented. This dimension includes the great topics of peace, non-violence, justice for all, concern for the poor and respect for creation. They have become an ethical whole which, precisely as a political force, has great power and for 25
many constitutes the substitution or succession of religion. Instead of religion, seen as metaphysical and as something from above - perhaps also as something individualistic -, the great moral themes come into play as the essential which then confers dignity on man and engages him. This is one aspect: this morality exists and it also fascinates young people, who work for peace, for non-violence, for justice, for the poor, for creation. And there are truly great moral themes that also belong, moreover, to the tradition of the Church. The means offered for their solution, however, are often very unilateral and not always credible, but we cannot dwell on this now. The important topics are present. The other part of morality, often received controversially by politics, concerns life. One aspect of it is the commitment to life from conception to death, that is, its defence against abortion, against euthanasia, against the manipulation and man’s self-authorization in order to dispose of life. People often seek to justify these interventions with the seemingly great purpose of thereby serving the future generations, and it even appears moral to take human life into one’s own hands and manipulate it. However, on the other hand, the knowledge also exists that human life is a gift that demands our respect and love from the very first to its very last moments, also for the suffering, the disabled and the weak. The morality of marriage and the family also fit into this context. Marriage is becoming, so to speak, ever more marginalized. We are aware of the example of certain countries where legislation has been modified so that marriage is no longer defined as a bond between a man and a woman but a bond between persons; with this, obviously, the basic idea is destroyed and society from its roots becomes something quite different. The awareness that sexuality, eros and marriage as a union between a man and a woman go together - “and they become one flesh” (Gn 2: 24) - this knowledge is growing weaker and weaker; every type of bond seems entirely normal - they represent a sort of overall morality of non discrimination and a form of freedom due to man. Naturally, with this the indissolubility of marriage has become almost a utopian idea which many public figures seem precisely to contradict. So it is that even the family is 26
gradually breaking up. There are of course many explanations for the problem of the sharp decline in the birth rate, but certainly a decisive role is also played in this by the fact that people want to enjoy life, that they have little confidence in the future and that they feel the family is no longer viable as a lasting community in which future generations may grow up. In these contexts, therefore, our proclamation clashes with an awareness, as it were, contrary to society and with a sort of anti-morality based on a conception of freedom seen as the faculty to choose autonomously with no pre-defined guidelines, as nondiscrimination, hence, as the approval of every type of possibility. Thus, it autonomously establishes itself as ethically correct, but the other awareness has not disappeared. It exists, and I believe we must commit ourselves to reconnecting these two parts of morality and to making it clear that they must be inseparably united. Only if human life from conception until death is respected is the ethic of peace possible and credible; only then may non-violence be expressed in every direction, only then can we truly accept creation and only then can we achieve true justice. I think that this is the great task we have before us: on the one hand, not to make Christianity seem merely morality, but rather a gift in which we are given the love that sustains us and provides us with the strength we need to be able to “lose our own life”. On the other hand, in this context of freely given love, we need to move forward towards ways of putting it into practice, whose foundation is always offered to us by the Decalogue, which we must interpret today with Christ and with the Church in a progressive and new way.
Natural law and moral conscience There is another less visible danger, but no less disturbing: the method that permits us to know ever more deeply the rational structures of matter makes us ever less capable of perceiving the source of this rationality, creative Reason. The capacity to see the laws of material being makes us incapable of seeing the ethical message contained in being, a message that tradition calls lex naturalis, natural moral law. This word for many today is almost incomprehensible due to a concept of nature that is no longer metaphysical, but only empirical. The fact that nature, being itself, is no longer a transparent moral message creates a sense of disorientation that renders the choices of daily life precarious and uncertain.
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Naturally, the disorientation strikes the younger generations in a particular way, who must in this context find the fundamental choices for their life. It is precisely in the light of this contestation that all the urgency of the necessity to reflect upon the theme of natural law and to rediscover its truth common to all men appears. The said law, to which the Apostle Paul refers (cf. Rom 2: 14-15), is written on the heart of man and is consequently, even today, accessible. This law has as its first and general principle, “to do good and to avoid evil”. This is a truth which by its very evidence immediately imposes itself on everyone. From it flows the other more particular principles that regulate ethical justice on the rights and duties of everyone. So does the principle of respect for human life from its conception to its natural end, because this good of life is not man’s property but the free gift of God. Besides this is the duty to seek the truth as the necessary presupposition of every authentic personal maturation. Another fundamental application of the subject is freedom. Yet taking into account the fact that human freedom is always a freedom shared with others, it is clear that the harmony of freedom can be found only in what is common to all: the truth of the human being, the fundamental message of being itself, exactly the lex naturalis. And how can we not mention, on one hand, the demand of justice that manifests itself in giving unicuique suum and, on the other, the expectation of solidarity that nourishes in everyone, especially if they are poor, the hope of the help of the more fortunate? In these values are expressed unbreakable and contingent norms that do not depend on the will of the legislator and not even on the consensus that the State can and must give. They are, in fact, norms that precede any human law: as such, they are not subject to modification by anyone. The natural law, together with fundamental rights, is the source from which ethical imperatives also flow, which it is only right to honour. In today’s ethics and philosophy of Law, petitions of juridical positivism are widespread. As a result, legislation often becomes only a compromise between different interests: seeking to transform private interests or wishes into law that conflict with the duties deriving from social responsibility. In this situation it is opportune to recall that every juridical methodology, be it on the local or international level, ultimately draws its legitimacy from its rooting in the natural 28
law, in the ethical message inscribed in the actual human being. Natural law is, definitively, the only valid bulwark against the arbitrary power or the deception of ideological manipulation. The knowledge of this law inscribed on the heart of man increases with the progress of the moral conscience. The first duty for all, and particularly for those with public responsibility, must therefore be to promote the maturation of the moral conscience. This is the fundamental progress without which all other progress proves non-authentic. The law inscribed in our nature is the true guarantee offered to everyone in order to be able to live in freedom and to be respected in their own dignity.
The danger of ethical relativism The Catechism of the Catholic Church sums up well the central content of the doctrine on natural moral law, pointing out that it “states the first and essential precepts which govern the moral life. It hinges upon the desire for God and submission to him, who is the source and judge of all that is good, as well as upon the sense that the other is one’s equal. Its principal precepts are expressed in the Decalogue. This law is called “natural’, not in reference to the nature of irrational beings, but because reason which decrees it properly belongs to human nature” (n. 1955). With this doctrine two essential goals are reached: on the one hand, it is understood that the ethical content of the Christian faith does not constitute an imposition dictated to the human conscience from the outside but a norm inherent in human nature itself; on the other hand, on the basis of natural law, in itself accessible to any rational creature, with this doctrine the foundations are laid to enter into dialogue with all people of good will and more generally, with civil and secular society. Yet, precisely because of the influence of cultural and ideological factors, today’s civil and secular society is found to be in a state of bewilderment and confusion: it has lost the original evidence of the roots of the human being and his ethical behaviour. Furthermore, the doctrine of natural moral law conflicts with other concepts that are a direct denial of it. All this has far-reaching, serious consequences on the civil and social order. Today, a positivist conception of law seems to dominate many thinkers. They claim that humanity or society or indeed the majority of citizens is becoming the ultimate source of civil law. The problem that arises is not, therefore, the search for good but the search for power, or rather, how to balance powers. At the root of this trend is ethical relativism, which some even see as one of the principal conditions for democracy, since relativism is supposed to guarantee tolerance of and reciprocal respect for people. But if this were so, the majority of a moment would become the ultimate source of law. History very clearly shows that most 29
people can err. True rationality is not guaranteed by the consensus of a large number but solely by the transparency of human reason to creative Reason and by listening together to this Source of our rationality. When the fundamental requirements of human dignity, of human life, of the family institution, of a fair social order, in other words, basic human rights, are at stake, no law devised by human beings can subvert the law that the Creator has engraved on the human heart without the indispensable foundations of society itself being dramatically affected. Natural law thus becomes the true guarantee offered to each one in order that he may live in freedom, have his dignity respected and be protected from all ideological manipulation and every kind of arbitrary use or abuse by the stronger. No one can ignore this appeal. If, by tragically blotting out the collective conscience, scepticism and ethical relativism were to succeed in deleting the fundamental principles of the natural moral law, the foundations of the democratic order itself would be radically damaged. To prevent this obscuring, which is a crisis of human civilization even before it is a Christian one, all consciences of people of good will, of lay persons and also of the members of the different Christian denominations, must be mobilized so that they may engage, together and effectively, in order to create the necessary conditions for the inalienable value of the natural moral law in culture and in civil and political society to be fully understood. Indeed, on respect for this natural moral law depends the advance of individuals and society on the path of authentic progress in conformity with right reason, which is participation in the eternal Reason of God.
Bioethics and moral law The problems that gravitate around the theme of bioethics demonstrate the priority given to the anthropological issue in the questions put to you. […] In the face of such questions that touch so decisively on human life in its perennial tension between immanence and transcendence and that have immense importance for the culture of the future generations, it is necessary to set up an integral pedagogical project that allows these topics to be treated in a positive, balanced and constructive perspective, especially regarding the relationship between faith and reason. Bioethical issues often bring to the fore the reference to the dignity of the person. This is a fundamental principle which faith in the Crucified and Risen Jesus Christ has always defended, especially when, in respect of the simplest and most defenceless people, it is disregarded. God loves each human being uniquely and profoundly. Bioethics moreover, like every discipline, needs a reference that can guarantee a consistent reading of ethical issues that inevitably emerge in the face of the disputes that may arise from their interpretation. In this sphere the normative reference to the natural moral law comes into 30
its own. Indeed, the recognition of human dignity as an inalienable right is founded primarily on this law, which is not written by a human hand but is engraved in human hearts by God the Creator. Every juridical order is required to recognize this law as inviolable and every individual is called to respect and promote it (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 1954-1960). Without the founding principle of human dignity the search for a source for the rights of the person would be arduous, and it would be impossible to reach an ethical judgement on the scientific breakthroughs that intervene directly in human life. It is necessary, therefore, to repeat firmly that there can be no understanding of human dignity as linked merely to external elements, such as scientific progress, graduality in the formation of human life or facile pietism in the face of limited situations. When respect for the dignity of the person is invoked, it is fundamental that it should be full, total and without restrictions other than those entailed in the recognition that it is always human life that is involved. Human life, of course, experiences its own development and the horizon of scientific and bioethical research is open; yet it is necessary to reassert that when it is a matter of contexts that concern the human being, scientists can never think that they are merely dealing with inanimate and manipulable matter. In fact, from the very first instant of the human being’s life is characterized by the fact that it is human life and for this reason possesses its own dignity everywhere and in spite of all (cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dignitas Personae on Certain Bioethical Questions, n. 5). Otherwise, we should always be threatened by the risk of an exploitative use of science, with the inevitable consequence of slipping into arbitrary decisions, discrimination and the financial interest of the strongest. Combining bioethics and the natural moral law makes it possible to ensure as best we can the necessary and unavoidable reference to that dignity which human life intrinsically possesses from its first moment until its natural end. On the contrary, in today’s context, despite the increasing reference to the rights that guarantee the person’s dignity, it is clear that recognition of these rights is not always applied to human life in its natural development or in its weakest stages. A similar contradiction demands that a commitment be assumed in the various social and cultural contexts to see that human life is recognized everywhere as an inalienable subject of law, and never as an object subjected to the arbitrary will of the strongest. History has shown how dangerous and harmful a State can be that proceeds to legislate on issues which affect the person and society, even claiming to be the source and principle of ethics. Without the universal principles that permit the verification of a common denominator for all humanity, the risk of drifting into relativism in the area of legislation should not be underestimated (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1959). The natural moral law, strong in its universal character, makes it possible to ward off this danger and, above all, offers the legislator a guarantee for the authentic respect of both the person and the entire order of creatures. It is, as it were, a catalyzing source of consensus 31
between people of different cultures and religions and permits them to overcome differences. This is because it asserts the existence of an order impressed within nature by the Creator and recognized as an instance of true rational ethical judgement in order to pursue good and avoid evil. Natural moral law “belongs to the great heritage of human wisdom. Revelation, with its light, has contributed to further purifying and developing it” (Pope John Paul II, Address to participants in the Bi-Annual Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the, 6 February 2004).
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4 THE COMMANDMENTS OF CHARITY You shall love the Lord your God – You shall love your neighbour as yourself The Word of the Lord, just proclaimed in the Gospel, has reminded us that all of divine law is summed up in love. The dual commandment to love God and neighbour contains the two aspects of a single dynamism of the heart and of life. Jesus thus brings to completion the ancient revelation, not by adding an unheard-of commandment, but by realizing in himself and in his work of salvation the living synthesis of the two great commands of the Old Covenant: “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart...” and “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (cf. Dt 6: 5; Lv 19: 18). In the Eucharist we contemplate the Sacrament of this living synthesis of the law: Christ offers to us, in himself, the complete fulfilment of love for God and love for our brothers and sisters. He communicates his love to us when we are nourished by his Body and Blood. In this way, St Paul’s words to the Thessalonians in today’s Second Reading are brought to completion in us: “You turned to God from idols, to serve him who is the living and true God” (I Thes 1: 9). This conversion is the beginning of the walk of holiness that the Christian is called to achieve in his own life. The saint is the person who is so fascinated by the beauty of God and by his perfect truth as to be progressively transformed by it. Because of this beauty and truth, he is ready to renounce everything, even himself. Love of God is enough for him, experienced in humble and disinterested service to one’s neighbour. The Fathers of the Church, in their Greek translation of the Old Testament, found a passage from the prophet Isaiah that Paul also quotes in order to show how God’s new ways had already been foretold in the Old Testament. There we read: “God made his Word short, he abbreviated it” (Is 10:23; Rom 9:28). (…) The Word which God speaks to us in Sacred Scripture had become long in the course of the centuries. It became long and complex, not just for the simple and unlettered, but even more so for those versed in Sacred Scripture, for the experts who evidently became entangled in details and in particular problems, almost to the extent of losing an overall perspective. Jesus “abbreviated” the Word – he showed us once more its deeper simplicity and unity. Everything taught by the Law and the Prophets is summed up – he says – in the command: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, 33
and with all your mind… You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Mt 22:37-40). This is everything – the whole faith is contained in this one act of love which embraces God and humanity.
Free to serve Paul dares to propose a strong paradox: “Through love, be servants” (in Greek: douléuete). In other words freedom, paradoxically, is achieved in service. We become free if we become servants of one another. And so Paul places the whole matter of freedom in the light of the truth of man. To reduce oneself to flesh, seemingly elevating oneself to divine status “I alone am the man” leads to deception. Because in reality it is not so: man is not an absolute, as if the “I” can isolate itself and behave only according to its own will. It is contrary to the truth of our being. Our truth is that above all we are creatures, creatures of God, and we live in relationship with the Creator. We are relational beings. And only by accepting our relationality can we enter into the truth; otherwise we fall into deception and in it, in the end, we destroy ourselves. We are creatures, therefore dependent on the Creator. In the Age of Enlightenment, to atheism especially this appeared as a dependence from which it was necessary to free oneself. In reality, however, it would be only a fatal dependence were this God Creator a tyrant and not a good Being only if he were to be like human tyrants. If, instead, this Creator loves us and our dependence means being within the space of his love, in that case it is precisely dependence that is freedom. In this way we are in fact within the charity of the Creator; we are united to him, to the whole of his reality, to all of his power. Therefore this is the first point: to be a creature means to be loved by the Creator, to be in this relationship of love that he gives us, through which he provides for us. From this derives first of all our truth, which is at the same time a call to charity. Therefore, to see God, to orient oneself to God, know God, know God’s will, enter into the will that is, into the love of God is to enter ever more into the space of truth. And this journey of coming to know God, of loving relationship with God, is the extraordinary adventure of our Christian life; for in Christ we know the face of God, the face of God that loves us even unto the Cross, unto the gift of himself. But creaturely relationality implies a second type of relationship as well. We are in relationship with God, but together, as a human family, we are also in relationship with each other. In other words, human freedom is, in part, being within the joy and ample space of God’s love, but it also implies becoming one with the other and for the other. There is no freedom in opposing the other. If I make myself the absolute, I become the enemy of the other; we can no longer live together and the whole of life becomes cruelty, 34
becomes a failure. Only a shared freedom is a human freedom; in being together we can enter into the harmony of freedom. And therefore this is another very important point: only in the acceptance of the other, accepting also the apparent limitations on my freedom that derive from respect for that of the other only by entering into the net of dependence that finally makes us a single family am I on the path to communal freedom. Here a very important element appears: what is the measure of sharing freedom? We see that man needs order, laws, so that he can realize his freedom which is a freedom lived in common. And how can we find this correct order, in which no one is oppressed but rather each one can give his contribution to form this sort of concert of freedoms? If there is no common truth of man as it appears in the vision of God, only positivism remains and one has the impression of something imposed in an even violent manner. From this emerges rebellion against order and law as though it entails slavery. But if we can find the order of the Creator in our nature, the order of truth that gives each one his place, then order and law can be the very instruments of freedom against the slavery of selfishness. To serve one another becomes the instrument of freedom, and here we could add a whole philosophy of politics according to the Social Doctrine of the Church, which helps us to find this common order that gives each one his place in the common life of humanity. The first reality meriting respect, therefore, is the truth: freedom opposed to truth is not freedom. To serve one another creates the common space of freedom. And then Paul continues saying: “The whole law is fulfilled in one word, namely, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself’”. Behind this affirmation appears the mystery of God Incarnate, appears the mystery of Christ who in his life, in his death, in his Resurrection becomes the living law.
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5 THE COMMANDMENTS OF MERCY The works of mercy Eight days after the Nativity, when the Church — like the Virgin Mother Mary — shows the newborn Jesus, Prince of Peace, to the world we celebrate the World Day of Peace. Yes, that Child, who is the Word of God made flesh, came to bring a peace to men that the world cannot give (cf. Jn 14:27). His mission is to break down the “dividing wall of hostility” (cf. Eph 2:14); and when, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he proclaims his “Beatitudes”, among them is also “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Mt 5:9). Who are the peacemakers? They are all those who, day after day, seek to conquer evil with good, with the strength of the truth, with the arms of prayer and of forgiveness, with honest work well-done, with scientific research that is at the service of life, with the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The peacemakers are many, but they make not a sound. Like the yeast in dough, they cause humanity to rise according to God’s plan. The Church, for her part, offers her own specific contribution. By her presence, her prayer and her various works of mercy, especially in education and health care, she wishes to give her best to everyone. She wants to be close to those who are in need, near to those who search for God. She wants to make it understood that God is neither absent nor irrelevant as some would have us believe but that he is the friend of man. Today’s Gospel is a famous parable that speaks of ten maidens invited to a wedding feast, a symbol of the Kingdom of Heaven and of eternal life (Mt 25:1-13). It is a happy image with which, however, Jesus teaches a truth that calls us into question. In fact five of those 10 maidens were admitted to the feast because when the bridegroom arrived they had brought the oil to light their lamps, whereas the other five were left outside because they had been foolish enough not to bring any. What is represented by this “oil”, the indispensable prerequisite for being admitted to the nuptial banquet? St Augustine (cf. Discourses 93, 4), and other ancient authors interpreted it as a symbol of love that one cannot purchase but receives as a gift, preserves within one and uses in works. True wisdom is making the most of mortal life in order to do works of mercy, for after death this will no longer be possible. When we are reawoken for the Last Judgement, it will be made on the basis of the love we have shown in our earthly life (cf. Mt 25:31-46). And this love is a gift of Christ, poured out in us by the Holy Spirit. Those who believe in God-Love bear within them invincible hope, like a lamp to light them on their way 36
through the night beyond death to arrive at the great feast of life.
The spiritual works of mercy The Scriptures tell us: “Rebuke the wise and he will love you for it. Be open with the wise, he grows wiser still, teach the upright, he will gain yet more” (Prov 9:8ff). Christ himself commands us to admonish a brother who is committing a sin (cf. Mt 18:15). The verb used to express fraternal correction - elenchein – is the same used to indicate the prophetic mission of Christians to speak out against a generation indulging in evil (cf. Eph 5:11). The Church’s tradition has included “admonishing sinners” among the spiritual works of mercy. It is important to recover this dimension of Christian charity. We must not remain silent before evil. I am thinking of all those Christians who, out of human regard or purely personal convenience, adapt to the prevailing mentality, rather than warning their brothers and sisters against ways of thinking and acting that are contrary to the truth and that do not follow the path of goodness. Christian admonishment, for its part, is never motivated by a spirit of accusation or recrimination. It is always moved by love and mercy, and springs from genuine concern for the good of the other. The education sector is particularly dear to the Church, called to make her own the concern of Christ, who, the Evangelist recounts, in seeing the crowds, took “compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mk 6: 34). The Greek word that expresses this attitude of “compassion” calls to mind the depths of mercy and refers to the profound love that the Heavenly Father feels for man. Tradition has seen teaching - and more generally, education - as a concrete manifestation of spiritual mercy, which constitutes one of the first works of love which is the Church’s mission to offer to humanity.
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6 SOURCES 1 The Law of God Not prohibitions, but “yes” to God, Homily, Sistine Chapel, 8 January 2006 Educate yourself to true freedom, Message on the occasion of the twenty-fifth World Youth Day. The way of life, Homily, St Peter’s Square, 11 June 2010 What does it mean to live the Commandments, Address, Thursday, 25 March 2010 Pure before God, Homily, Mariapoli Congress Centre, Castel Gandolfo, 30 August 2009
2 Living in Christ The five imperatives of the Christian life, Reflection, Synod Hall, 3 October 2005 The criteria for living, Address, Hall of Blessings, 7 February 2008 Fighting the slavery of sin, Angelus, St Peter’s Square, 13 March 2011 Be shaped by grace, Homily, Basilica of San Gregorio al Celio, 10 March 2012 The action of the Holy Spirit, General Audience, 26 April 2006 The exercise of the Christian virtues, Homily, Sistine Chapel, 13 January 2013 Called to holiness, General Audience, St. Peter’s Square, 13 April 2011
3 Christian Moral Action Christ, the model of moral action, Address Hall of Popes, 27 April 2006 The great moral themes, Address, 9 November 2006 Natural law and moral conscience, Address, Clementine Hall, 12 February 2007 The danger of ethical relativism, Address, Hall of Popes, 5 October 2007 Bioethics and moral law, Address, Clementine Hall, 13 February 2010 38
4 The Commandments of Charity You shall love the Lord your God... – You shall love your neighbor as yourself, Homily, Saint Peter’s Square, 23 October 2005 Free to serve, Address to the Community of the Roman Major Seminary, 20 February 2009
5 The Commandments of Mercy The works of mercy Angelus, St Peter’s Square, 1st January 2013 Address, Cardinal Bernardin Gantin International Airport, Cotonou, 18 November 2011 Angelus, St. Peter’s Square, 6 November 2011 The spiritual works of mercy Message for Lent 2012 Address to the participants in the Plenary Meeting of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Clementine Hall, 21 January 2008
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APPENDIX FROM THE COMPENDIUM OF THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH What does “Decalogue” mean? Decalogue means “ten words” (Exodus 34:28). These words sum up the Law given by God to the people of Israel in the context of the Covenant mediated by Moses. This Decalogue, in presenting the commandments of the love of God (the first three) and of one’s neighbor (the other seven), traces for the chosen people and for every person in particular the path to a life freed from the slavery of sin. Why does the Decalogue constitute an organic unity? The Ten Commandments form an organic and indivisible whole because each commandment refers to the other commandments and to the entire Decalogue. To break one commandment, therefore, is to violate the entire law.
1. I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD: YOU SHALL NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME. What is implied in the affirmation of God: “I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:2)? This means that the faithful must guard and activate the three theological virtues and must avoid sins which are opposed to them. Faith believes in God and rejects everything that is opposed to it, such as, deliberate doubt, unbelief, heresy, apostasy, and schism. Hope trustingly awaits the blessed vision of God and his help, while avoiding despair and presumption. Charity loves God above all things and therefore repudiates indifference, ingratitude, lukewarmness, sloth or spiritual indolence, and that hatred of God which is born of pride. What does God prohibit by his command, “You shall not have other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2)? This commandment forbids: • Polytheism and idolatry, which divinizes creatures, power, money, or even demons. • Superstition which is a departure from the worship due to the true God and which also expresses itself in various forms of divination, magic, sorcery and spiritism. • Irreligion which is evidenced: in tempting God by word or deed; in sacrilege, which profanes sacred persons or sacred things, above all the Eucharist; and in simony, which involves the buying or selling of spiritual things. • Atheism which rejects the existence of God, founded often on a false conception of human autonomy. • Agnosticism which affirms that nothing can be known about God, and involves indifferentism and practical atheism.
2. YOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD YOUR GOD IN VAIN. 40
How does one respect the holiness of the Name of God?
One shows respect for the holy Name of God by blessing it, praising it and glorifying it. It is forbidden, therefore, to call on the Name of God to justify a crime. It is also wrong to use the holy Name of God in any improper way as in blasphemy (which by its nature is a grave sin), curses, and unfaithfulness to promises made in the Name of God.
3. REMEMBER TO KEEP HOLY THE LORD’S DAY. Why did God “bless the Sabbath day and declare it sacred” (Exodus 20:11)? God did so because on the Sabbath day one remembers God’s rest on the seventh day of creation, and also the liberation of Israel from slavery in Egypt and the Covenant which God sealed with his people. How did Jesus act in regard to the Sabbath? Jesus recognized the holiness of the Sabbath day and with divine authority he gave this law its authentic interpretation: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). For what reason has the Sabbath been changed to Sunday for Christians? The reason is because Sunday is the day of the Resurrection of Christ. As “the first day of the week” (Mark 16:2) it recalls the first creation; and as the “eighth day”, which follows the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by the Resurrection of Christ. Thus, it has become for Christians the first of all days and of all feasts. It is the day of the Lord in which he with his Passover fulfilled the spiritual truth of the Jewish Sabbath and proclaimed man’s eternal rest in God.
4. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER. What is the nature of the family in the plan of God? A man and a woman united in marriage form a family together with their children. God instituted the family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Marriage and the family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children. Members of the same family establish among themselves personal relationships and primary responsibilities. In Christ the family becomes the domestic church because it is a community of faith, of hope, and of charity. What are the duties of children toward their parents? Children owe respect (filial piety), gratitude, docility and obedience to their parents. In paying them respect and in fostering good relationships with their brothers and sisters, children contribute to the growth in harmony and holiness in family life in general. Adult children should give their parents material and moral support whenever they find themselves in situations of distress, sickness, loneliness, or old age. What are the duties of parents toward their children? Parents, in virtue of their participation in the fatherhood of God, have the first responsibility for the education of their children and they are the first heralds of the faith for them. They have the duty to love and respect their
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children as persons and as children of God and to provide, as far as is possible, for their physical and spiritual needs. They should select for them a suitable school and help them with prudent counsel in the choice of their profession and their state of life. In particular they have the mission of educating their children in the Christian faith.
5. YOU SHALL NOT KILL. Why must human life be respected? Human life must be respected because it is sacred. From its beginning human life involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. It is not lawful for anyone directly to destroy an innocent human being. This is gravely contrary to the dignity of the person and the holiness of the Creator. “Do not slay the innocent and the righteous” (Exodus 23:7). What is forbidden by the fifth commandment? The fifth commandment forbids as gravely contrary to the moral law: • direct and intentional murder and cooperation in it; • direct abortion, willed as an end or as means, as well as cooperation in it. Attached to this sin is the penalty of excommunication because, from the moment of his or her conception, the human being must be absolutely respected and protected in his integrity; • direct euthanasia which consists in putting an end to the life of the handicapped, the sick, or those near death by an act or by the omission of a required action; • suicide and voluntary cooperation in it, insofar as it is a grave offense against the just love of God, of self, and of neighbor. One’s responsibility may be aggravated by the scandal given; one who is psychologically disturbed or is experiencing grave fear may have diminished responsibility. Why must society protect every embryo? The inalienable right to life of every human individual from the first moment of conception is a constitutive element of civil society and its legislation. When the State does not place its power at the service of the rights of all and in particular of the more vulnerable, including unborn children, the very foundations of a State based on law are undermined.
6. YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY. Although it says only “you shall not commit adultery” why does the sixth commandment forbid all sins against chastity? Although the biblical text of the Decalogue reads “you shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14), the Tradition of the Church comprehensively follows the moral teachings of the Old and New Testaments and considers the sixth commandment as encompassing all sins against chastity. What is chastity? Chastity means the positive integration of sexuality within the person. Sexuality becomes truly human when it is
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integrated in a correct way into the relationship of one person to another. Chastity is a moral virtue, a gift of God, a grace, and a fruit of the Holy Spirit. What are the principal sins against chastity? Grave sins against chastity differ according to their object: adultery, masturbation, fornication, pornography, prostitution, rape, and homosexual acts. These sins are expressions of the vice of lust. These kinds of acts committed against the physical and moral integrity of minors become even more grave. What are the offenses against the dignity of marriage? These are: adultery, divorce, polygamy, incest, free unions (cohabitation, concubinage), and sexual acts before or outside of marriage.
7. YOU SHALL NOT STEAL. What is set forth by the seventh commandment? The seventh commandment requires respect for the universal destination and distribution of goods and the private ownership of them, as well as respect for persons, their property, and the integrity of creation. The Church also finds in this Commandment the basis for her social doctrine which involves the correct way of acting in economic, social and political life, the right and the duty of human labor, justice and solidarity among nations, and love for the poor. What is the purpose of private property? The purpose of private property is to guarantee the freedom and dignity of individual persons by helping them to meet the basic needs of those in their charge and also of others who are in need. What is forbidden by the seventh commandment? Above all, the seventh commandment forbids theft, which is the taking or using of another’s property against the reasonable will of the owner. This can be done also by paying unjust wages; by speculation on the value of goods in order to gain an advantage to the detriment of others; or by the forgery of checks or invoices. Also forbidden is tax evasion or business fraud; willfully damaging private or public property; usury; corruption; the private abuse of common goods; work deliberately done poorly; and waste.
8. YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBOR. What is one’s duty toward the truth? Every person is called to sincerity and truthfulness in acting and speaking. Everyone has the duty to seek the truth, to adhere to it and to order one’s whole life in accordance with its demands. In Jesus Christ the whole of God’s truth has been made manifest. He is “the truth”. Those who follow him live in the Spirit of truth and guard against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy. What is forbidden by the eighth commandment? The eighth commandment forbids:
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• false witness, perjury, and lying, the gravity of which is measured by the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims; • rash judgment, slander, defamation and calumny which diminish or destroy the good reputation and honor to which every person has a right; • flattery, adulation, or complaisance, especially if directed to serious sins or toward the achievement of illicit advantages. A sin committed against truth demands reparation if it has caused harm to others.
9. YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOR’S WIFE. What is required by the ninth commandment? The ninth commandment requires that one overcome carnal concupiscence in thought and in desire. The struggle against such concupiscence entails purifying the heart and practicing the virtue of temperance. What is forbidden by the ninth commandment? The ninth commandment forbids cultivating thoughts and desires connected to actions forbidden by the sixth commandment.
10. YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOR’S GOODS. What is required and what is forbidden by the tenth commandment? This commandment, which completes the preceding commandment, requires an interior attitude of respect for the property of others and forbids greed, unbridled covetousness for the goods of others, and envy which is the sadness one experiences at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself. What does Jesus call for in poverty of spirit? Jesus calls his disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone. Detachment from riches – in the spirit of evangelical poverty – and self-abandonment to divine providence free us from anxiety about the future and prepare us for the blessedness of the “poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mathew 5:3).
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Conception and Design: Vincenzo Santarcangelo Edited by Giuliano Vigini Original title: Gesù Cristo Preface translated by Edmund C. Lane
© 2013 Libreria Editrice Vaticana 00120 Citta’ del Vaticano www.vatican.va © 2013 EDIZIONI SAN PAOLO s.r.l. Piazza Soncino, 5 – 20092 Cinisello Balsamo (Milano) www.edizionisanpaolo.it © 2014 ST PAULS PUBLISHING 187 Battersea Bridge Road London SW11 3AS UK www.stpauls.org.uk All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover Design and Production: DX Imaging, Watford, Herts, UK A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ST PAULS is an activity of the priests and brothers of the Society of St Paul who proclaim the Gospel through the media of social communication
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Index The Ten Commandments Introduction Title Page Contents Preface THE LAW OF GOD
2 3 4 5 6 9
Not prohibitions, but “yes” to God Educate yourself to true freedom The way of life What does it mean to live the Commandments Pure before God
LIVING IN CHRIST
9 10 10 11 12
14
The five imperatives of the Christian life The criteria for living Fighting the slavery of sin Be shaped by grace The action of the Holy Spirit The exercise of the Christian virtues Called to holiness
14 16 17 18 19 20 21
CHRISTIAN MORAL ACTION
24
Christ, the model of moral action The great moral themes Natural law and moral conscience The danger of ethical relativism Bioethics and moral law
24 25 27 29 30
THE COMMANDMENTS OF CHARITY You shall love the Lord your God... – You shall love your neighbour as yourself Free to serve
THE COMMANDMENTS OF MERCY The works of mercy The spiritual works of mercy
33 33 34
36 36 37
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SOURCES Appendix
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