The Holy Spirit and the Natural Law - Report Example

The Holy Spirit and the Natural Law: Interior Guidance Towards love Lesson 4 The infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and how they enable us to attain to supernatural happiness The infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit enable man to attain supernatural happiness as they make humans docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit, which takes over their directions and actions. This section of the paper seeks to elaborate on infused virtues, as well as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It further illustrates how infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit help us to achieve supernatural happiness. Supernatural happiness is unattainable unless humanity embraces God’s inner life since sin has already damaged humanity’s natural happiness. These infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit reside in, and perfect the faculties of the soul granting, them the capacity to do supernatural acts. This is so as there are times the Holy Spirit leaves us to ourselves to make acts that are known as theological virtues, which include faith, hope, and love, and the moral virtues, which are Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. Human beings, out of their own free-will, rule the direction of their lives but are helped in that direction through the Holy Spirit, which is the first cause of the supernatural acts through the infused virtues and gifts presented to them by the Holy Spirit. St Thomas Aquinas in, Summa Theologiae states, “Human virtues perfect man insofar as man is naturally moved by reason in the things that he does within or without. Higher perfections by which he is disposed to be moved by God must be in man. And these perfections are called gifts, not only because they are infused by God, but also because by them, man is disposed and made more ready to be moved by the divine inspiration. This is echoed in (Is 50:5), which goes further and state, “The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward.” (Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 68, a. 1). The verse goes on "…in those things in which the impulse of the reason is not sufficient, but the impulse of the Holy Spirit is necessary then a gift is also necessary.” (Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 68, a. 2). Further, the Catholic Church Catechism 1830 states that, “The seven gifts of the Spirit (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord) belong to Christs fullness. They complete the virtues and make us ready to obey divine inspirations. The verse "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God" (Rom 8:14)” shows that God has given human beings the divine power to act in a divine way through the infused virtues and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit that enables them to cooperate with God to attain supernatural happiness. The spiritual and material elements of the New Law of grace The New Law of grace contains the spiritual and material elements that are brought to us through the Holy Spirit. The two elements, which are spiritual and material, of the New Law will be explained in this section of the essay. The teachings of Jesus Christ based on the infused virtues and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are contained. Pinckaers is of the opinion that the natural inclination or the desire to see God is completed through the field of grace in the form of the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. He, therefore, believes that the evangelical law as posited through the grace of the Holy Spirit in those who have faith in Christ derived from the Christological dimension of the virtues The catechism also states that the New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit granted to the faithful through faith that they put in Christ, and it thus states, “The New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit given to the faithful through faith in Christ. It works through charity; it uses the Sermon on the Mount to teach us what must be done and makes use of the sacraments to give us the grace to do it. “If anyone should meditate with devotion and perspicacity on the sermon our Lord gave on the mount as we read in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, he will doubtless find ...the perfect way of the Christian life. This sermon contains all the precepts needed to shape ones life.” Lowery in Living the Good Life: What Every Catholic Needs to Know about Moral Issues states, “To live the good life is to follow Christ. The Christian way of living is one method of living along other methods, such as the secular way, the Buddhist way, or the Islamic way. Rather, the Christian way is the only way to live a good life” (Lowery, 98). His argument is that the grace of God is the most powerful thing on earth as by making His own life available to us, He clearly demonstrates His sovereign love and power. The great gift of love is freely offered, and the human person is free to accept or reject it as if it were forced on the human beings, it would be of no value. The upshot of this is that living the Christian way of life by following the teachings of Christ in realizing the truth.  Why Christian moral life is at the same time life in Christ and life in the Spirit This section seeks to provide an answer to the above question. In other words, it will highlight why the moral life of Christians in Christ is considered similar to their moral life in Spirit. The Christian moral life is the same as the life of Christ and is a response to the Holy Spirit and the scriptures, which bear witness to this life. The fact that we are part of God’s creation, made in his own image, and are growing in his likeness is evidence of the trust that God has put on human beings through the incarnation of Christ and God’s vision. The vision of God through the face of Jesus Christ is a vision that also applies to human beings that show a renewal and fulfillment, and a life in Christ as a gift as well as a promise of the new creation. The scripture thus states, “The true goal of the moral life is flourishing and fulfillment of that humanity for which all men and women have been created. The fundamental moral question, therefore, is not what we ought to do but what kinds of persons are we called to become? For children of God, moral obedience is nourished by the hope of becoming like God. This verse (cf John 3:1-3) implies that, as Christians, we are expected to act and behave in a manner that lends credence to the notion that we are all created in the likeness of God and are expected to abide by the teachings of Christ and act as he did. Pinckaers in the book Morality: The Catholic View directs to other exhortations as invitations for Christians to live up to an ideal model of the perfect Christian behavior rather than simply following the set rules as a virtue of Christian moral thinking (Pinckaers, 32). Lesson 4.2 Definition of sin, mortal sin, and venial sin and how sin and love relate In this section, elaborate definitions of sin, mortal sin, and venial sin will be provided. In addition, the relationship between sin and love will be elucidated. Sin can be committed by a human being if he acts against the teachings of God and has done so out of his own free will. Sin is committed when a human being acts against his true good, and he does so freely without any form of coercion. Aquinas in Summa Contra Gentiles III 122 states, “For we do not offend God except by doing something contrary to our own good” What God wants for us is that we be happy. When we act against the claims of intelligence and love, when we chafe against our insertion into reality, then we damage others around us as well as ourselves.” Mortal sin means a grave violation of the law of God whereby man destroys charity offered to his soul by God and turns away from God by choosing an inferior God. It, therefore, requires the mercy of God and the conversion of the heart in order that he may be forgiven, and this is mainly accomplished through the sacrament of Reconciliation. Mortal sins must be an object of grave matter, committed with the full knowledge of the person and done with deliberate consent of the human being. The Catholic Church Catechism states, “A materially venial sin cannot be formally mortal. Thinking that a sin is mortal does not make it so! For there to be a mortal sin, there needs to be grave matter (Catholic Church Catechism). Venial sins can be committed when a person does not observe the law of God in a less serious matter or when the person does not have full knowledge, or give full consent in a grave matter. They show disordered affections, impede the progress of the person in terms of virtue, and if un-repented or were deliberate, may lead the person to commit mortal sins. The Catholic Church Catechism states, "When he is in the flesh, man cannot help but have at least some light sins. However, a number of light objects make a great mass. What then is our hope, above all, confession" (Catholic Church Catechism). Natural laws of inclination, and how they lead to a solidary and integral humanism The natural inclinations are desires that occur naturally that human beings must fulfill in order to be happy or share happiness as human beings. Here, the natural laws of inclination will be expounded, with further illustrations on how they guide humanity into integral and solidary life. These natural inclinations include embracing good which is the most basic of the five inclinations, the preservation of being which humans share with all other creatures, seeking fruitfulness with the other sex that is shared amongst all animals, finding the truth and living in a society. Living in a society requires that we become rational in our activities as humans or political animals. These natural inclinations are important as they inherently direct the human person and his activities, which is an important aspect of humanism. This is because human beings must always be in consonance with the inclinations of nature that can be seen through our psychosomatic (soul-body) composite reality (Pinckaers, 94). To explain this, Pinckaers while writing in Morality: The Catholic View states, "The inclination toward the good is expressed in the Ten Commandments through the two commandments to love God and neighbor that express the entire law. This inclination lays the foundation for the rights and duties that the other inclinations delineate. In short, the inclination toward the good gives each person the right and instills in him the duty to search for the good and reject and combat what is evil. Virtues develop our inclination toward the good by activating in concrete actions the general desire for justice and friendship. Love of the good, being simultaneously universal and specific, provides charity its natural foundation." St Aquinas, on the other hand, argues that the basic standards of morality for all human beings are determined by natural law. Human beings must pursue the natural ends decided through these natural inclinations. He states, “We all have the same natural inclinations. These are the ones we have because we are members of the same species. Inclinations, which are not common to the species, do not provide moral guidance. The first natural inclination is self-preservation, whereas the second one is reproduction as well as care of offspring. Use of reason to organize our lives is the third natural inclination (Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 32, a. 6). The natural inclinations, therefore, are aimed at making the human beings happy in their daily lives shown through reason and care for one another. Types of law and their relation to each other, especially in light of the basic axiom: grace perfects nature There are different types of law, which are characterized as either given by God or made by man but in line with the teachings of God. This section will discuss these laws and their relationship to each other. The catholic theology states that human beings have natural inclinations but need the help of revelations to access the truth of our nature showing that grace perfects nature. God has revealed what is known as natural law as the positive law through the Ten Commandments, which is purified and elevated through grace. St. Thomas Aquinas identifies four types of law in his Summa Theologica – eternal law, natural law, human law, and divine law. He states that eternal law is “rule and measure of acts, whereby man is induced to act or is restrained from acting.” Natural law, on the other hand, is described as “the rational creature and is subject to divine providence in the most excellent way. It partakes of a share of providence for both itself and others. Therefore, it has a share of the eternal reason, whereby it has a natural inclination to its proper act and end: and this participation of the eternal law in the rational creature is called the natural law (Aquinas Summa, q. 91). The catechism states that the moral law is the instruction from God the father and only the good rules lead to heaven while the evil ones lead away from God. It state is "divine and natural" and is expressed in the Ten Commandments. The law is "natural" because reason (which decrees it) belongs to human nature. Therefore, the Catholic Church Catechism states, "These rules are written in the book of that light which we call truth and are imprinted on the heart of man as a seal upon wax" (St. Augustine). "Natural law is the light of understanding placed in us by God through which we know what we must do and what we must avoid" (Catholic Church Catechism). This catechism, therefore, gives the connection between the natural moral law and the understanding placed on us by God. It is through this understanding that we are made aware of the expectations of what God wants us to do as humans and that we are not obligated. Lowery in Living the Good Life: What Every Catholic Need to Know about Moral Issues asks, “I’ve got a great solution to getting lots of people ordering their lives under the natural law. Couldn’t we base all our civil laws on natural law? In fact, wouldn’t the ideal society be one in which the natural law itself constituted law” (Lowery, 68). Lowery, therefore, argues that Paul focuses on the natural law without an intention to separate it from the full truth that includes the data of Gods divine Revelation. The insinuation is that we can only participate in eternal law through natural laws after which there are moral norms that govern our behavior before it is controlled by the human conscience. The conclusion is that the human activities are governed through the divine laws, which operate in line with the law as given by God. Works Cited Aquinas. Available at < www.newadvent.org> or Budziszewski, J. What We Cant Not Know: A Guide San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011. Print. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2. Vatican City: Libreria Editric Vaticana, 1997 Cessario, O.P., Romanus. “Faith and the Theological Life” Christian Faith and the Theological Life Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1996. Pages 1-11 Lowery, Mark D. Living the Good Life: What Every Catholic Needs to Know About Moral Issues. Ann Arbor: Charis, 2003. Print. Pinckaers, Servais. Morality: The Catholic View South Bend, Ind: St. Augustines Press 2001 Print        Read More