Chapter 3 – 5: Christian Living Education 9

 Freedom - Our human freedom is God’s gift; “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” – St. Paul
 True Freedom - “Doing what I want BUT… doing what is good.”; True freedom is doing the good!
- Grounded with Jesus Christ, following the will of the God the Father, and doing always what is good
- As we grow in our understanding of personal freedom, we also grow in awareness of our duty to protect our freedom as a
community
- True freedom is something we experience as persons – in our capacity to choose, in our individual choices, and in the
person we become through our choices (doing the good)
o Am I Free?
- By reflecting on our experiences, we see how freedom is an integral part of our actions and our very selves; There are
some, however, who want to make their human freedom, absolute
- “With great power comes great responsibility.” - Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben to “With true freedom comes great
responsibility.”
- Absolute freedom – doing what I want to do regardless; Our Human Freedom is NOT absolute. Hence, LIMITED;
Absolute Freedom = Abuse for Human Freedom
- Being truly free also means growing in our capacity to act responsibly. Now that we can do more things, we are expected
to put our capacity to choose to good use
o Freedom in the Old Testament
a) Freedom and God’s Law
- It was on Mt. Sinai that God gave His people a lasting sign of His call for all persons to be truly free – the Decalogue
(Ex. 20:1-17; Dt. 5:6-21)
- The Decalogue, thus, protected and promoted the true freedom of God’s people by commanding them to love God, who
is the source of their freedom, and love their neighbors
b) Freedom is Rational
- Our true freedom is always lived in community before God; Conversely, it is threatened when some individuals simply
“do what they want to do,” without regard for the good of the other members of the community; Examples:
o True Freedom is “Doing The Good”: Realizing that our freedom is always lived in community, we understand how God’s
Commandments set us free and do not destroy our freedom
- It would be impossible to live in a truly human way without fundamental moral norms
- True freedom therefore, is not our capacity to do anything we want, but our capacity to do what we should as persons-in-
community; In short, true freedom is “doing the good.”
o Freedom in the New Testament
o Jesus Calls Us to True Freedom – the most perfect sign of God’s call for us to become truly free is Jesus Christ; By
preaching and living God’s laws of love, Christ not only revealed what we are called to become, but also became, through
His in dwelling Spirit, the very source of our exercising true freedom
- Freedom from conditions, attitudes, and acts that hinder us from following Him, as well as freedom for growing in His
likeness
o Freedom from:
- True freedom is our freedom from acts, conditions, attitudes, and people that hinder us from doing what is truly good as
members of a community in the particular circumstances of our daily living
- “Interior threats to freedom” - these interior realities become obstacles to freedom when they hinder us from doing what
is good in specific instances
- We need to become more aware of these interior vices, habits, tendencies, and weakness. We can grow in our self –
awareness through self-reflection, journaling, and opening up to others
- We should seek whatever help we need to keep them in check. This can mean educating our conscience, deliberately
choosing to avoid the situations that lead us to sin, or asking the help of a trusted adult in overcoming these negative
habits and attitudes
- Other obstacles to our freedom arise from our environment
- “Exterior threats to freedom.” – these are forces or realities in our community that influence us to act in a self-centered
way
- Discerning and choosing what is truly good amidst all temptations to self-centered behavior
- Asking God for the grace to overcome our built-in weaknesses through prayer, the celebration of the sacraments, and
good companions
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- Growing as full persons and disciples of Jesus, sharing in His life through His spirit
- Authentic Freedom, for us to grow as full persons, disciples of Jesus, sharing in His life through His spirit
- Bottom line: true freedom is not merely being free from sin, but more importantly, loving God, others
- It is freedom found and expressed in authentic love through a genuine concern and a sincere desire for the good of others
(CFC 697)
 oFreedom Grounded in Truth
- In the Gospel of John, we read how Jesus said, “If you remain in my word, you will truly my disciples, and you will
know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32)
- Living in truth, however, does not simply mean “being honest.”; “Truth” refers to what Christ has revealed about who
we are and what we should do
- “For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery… You were called for
freedom, brothers. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ I say, then: live by
the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh.” (Gal 5:1, 13-14, 16)
o The Experience of Freedom: Choice and Self
- From our experience, we can discern two levels of personal freedom: the level of free choice and the level of
fundamental freedom
- Therefore, our fundamental freedom is gradually formed by the way we exercise our freedom of choice. “what we do”
shapes “who you are.”
- Consequently, we become authentically free persons if we choose to do what is truly good and loving, and we become
most unfree when we choose to do what is morally evil and selfish
- Freedom of choice and fundamental freedom influence each other
- This shapes the kind of person we become; It also means that the person we become through our daily choices largely
shapes or influences our future choices
- 2 Levels of Personal Freedom:
1. Free Choice – is the freedom “we have” (Free will); Sirach 15:14-17
- The things that we freely choose to obey
2. Fundamental Freedom – this freedom is fundamental because it is a person’s basic choice in life that reflects his
or her particular, everyday moral choices
- Other-centered (loving person) or self-centered. (evil person)
o Growing in Freedom
- Becoming more fully ourselves is very much like learning a new sport or skill
- It does not happen overnight; Growing in true freedom similarly calls for a personal commitment
- For Christians, then growing in freedom entails a lifetime commitment to follow Christ:
1. Become more keenly aware of how we freely choose and act to identify the inner obstacles to our authentic
human freedom
2. Act in a way that considers the welfare of others
3. Reflect on and identify our personal values
4. Nurture our life of prayer
 Chapter 4: Exercising Christian Conscience
- Following Christ in true freedom entails the duty to form and follow our Christian conscience
- God’s gift of Human Conscience;
o What is Human Conscience?
- Pope Francis says, “We also must learn to listen more to our conscience. Conscience is the interior space in which we
can listen to and hear the truth, the good”
- The inner voice telling us at the right moment, “Do this. Do not do that” (CFC 701)
- This ‘tinig ng budhi’ that guides us in our moral living is what we call our conscience;
- “Nakokonsensiya ako.”
- Sometimes, for some people, a well-formed conscience seems more like a curse than a gift
- Clearly, our conscience is a blessing and a gift from God, who desires that we become truly free and truly happy
- The aspect of our human reason which directs us to do what is good so we can live in true freedom
- These misconceptions affect the way we make decisions and live our faith. Thus, we need to identify, clarify, and correct
these mistaken notions
o 4 Misconceptions
1. Conscience Is Individualistic – simply doing things “my way” without considering the good of others; “Malinis
ang konsenya ko. Wala akong pakialam sa iba.”
- “It’s between me and my conscience” (Lipo, 1998)
2. Conscience Is God’s Voice Within Us – although God reveals Himself to us in many ways, especially in our
moral judgments, we should not equate our conscience with God’s voice
- Because conscience can commit mistakes; Rather, it is our tool to know the message of God
3. Conscience Is Our Feeling of Guilt – sometimes we hear people remark “Nakaka – konsensiya ang ginawa ko.”;
This misconception equates conscience with the feeling of guilt
- Conscience is not just a feeling but also the operation of our human reason
4. Media’s Depiction of Conscience as an External Reality is Accurate – one’s conscience is simply an act of
person’s deliberation without reference to any objective moral standard
o Conscience Morally Obliges Us
- Conscience has both subjective and objective dimensions
a. The Subjective Dimension of H.C.
- By describing conscience as subjective, we mean that an individual’s conscience is simple his or hers and no one else’s;
It states that each individual has conscience
- Judges what one must do/avoid by creatively applying objective moral laws to concrete moral acts
- No moral law/commandment applies itself, there is an absolute need for the action of conscience
b. The Objective Dimension of H.C.
- We are all person – in – community. As such, our conscience has an objective dimension or quality
- This means that our conscience, while intimately ours, is formed by the universal values and norms we learn from others
- Only through interaction with others we can understand the fundamental and objective norms that guide our conscience
in making moral decisions
c. Values, Moral Laws, and H.C.
- You found a wallet in the library containing five thousand pesos:
 -Values – value of honesty and integrity – Moral law – Commandments – Conscience – “Do this not that” (To return or
not to?)
- Because of our reason’s ability to judge moral acts, we can discern to do morally good
- The Commandments are universal; They express a general category of moral actions
- The 7th Commandment commands us not to steal, but it is our conscience that judges whether a specific moral act is
stealing or not
o Follow Your Conscience
- Read Gaudium et Spes (P 81)
- The law that this teaching from Vatican II describes does not refer to any man-made law
- Rather, it refers to the God-given “law” built into our human nature or reason through which we are able to understand
and that we morally obliged to always do good and avoid evil
- St. Paul taught the early Church in Rome
- Our dignity as human persons lies in following our properly formed conscience; When we reject the call of our
conscience, we sin
- St. Paul emphasized our obligation to follow our well-formed Christian conscience
o Form Your Conscience
- We need to educate our conscience; Our conscience is not “automatically” formed
- It is our moral responsibility as human persons to develop a correct conscience, one that accurately judges moral
goodness or evil according to what is objectively good or evil
- This dual obligation of subjective sincerity and objective correctness, of following and forming our conscience, arises
from our nature as persons of reason and responsible freedom
o Forming a Christian Conscience
 The Man with the Withered Hand
- In this passage, we see how the Pharisees presented a moral dilemma to Jesus; To this dilemma, Jesus responded by
proclaiming our fundamental human duty to love others at all times
- As His disciples, we find in Jesus the perfect exemplar of a person of conscience
o Toward a Mature Christian Conscience
1. Instinctive Level - It is the stage where youngest children are;
- At this level, an act is judged as good if it is rewarded, and evil if it is punished
2. Ethical or Moral Stage – at this level, a person begins to realize that the goodness or evilness of an act does not
depend on the approval or disapproval of others or on the reward or punishment
3. Christian or Religious Level – it is our goal as Christian to reach this level, to have our moral judgment reflect of
our deep, personal, and mature faith in Jesus Christ
- Person with a Christian conscience judge an act to be good or evil based on the teachings, the life, and the perfect
example of Jesus Christ
- Our conscience is influenced by what we learned and how we feel by our mind and our heart, by our intellectual and our
emotional aspects
- In forming our conscience, we need to form both aspect (heart and mind):
o Ways of Forming our Mind
1. Learning from the experiences and reflections of friends
2. Taking time to read and study Sacred Scripture
3. Listening to parents’ advice or engaging in dialogues with them over important issues
4. Learning in school: listening to teachers, asking questions, participating in classroom discussions, doing research
5. Studying the teachings and the stand of the Catholic Church on moral issues
6. Consulting parents, teachers, and counselors on issues and life situations
o Ways of Forming our Hearts
1. Spending moments alone in quiet personal prayer and reflection
2. Attending and participating in the Eucharistic Liturgy
3. Joining reflection sessions, prayer groups, or youth recollections with friends
4. Celebrating the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation
 Chapter 5: Understanding the True Value of Law
 Why to follow the Law/s?
- St. John XXIII presented the intrinsic relationship between freedom and moral obligations when he said, “Those who
claim their rights, yet altogether forget or neglect to carry out their respective duties, are people who build with one hand
and destroy the other.” (Pacem in Terris 30)
 What might happen to our true freedom and our human conscience if we did not have moral laws?
- Law is at the heart of our becoming more fully human
- This analogy helps us appreciate how laws or objective moral norms are truly essential to our moral living
 What is a Just Law?
- A good or just law protects and promotes the true freedom of a community and its individual members
- St. Thomas Aquinas defined a just law as “an ordinance of reason promulgated by competent authority for the sake of
the common good.”
I. Law is an ordinance of reason – a good law must be reasonable; it must be a product of careful and serious deliberation
II. Law is properly promulgated – for a law to be effective, it must be clearly communicated to all people concerned
III. Law must be decreed by competent authority – only persons with legitimate authority have the power to create and
implement laws for their respective communities
IV. Law ought to be for the sake of the common good - promotes respect for the dignity and true freedom of each person (CCC
1907)
- Persons are given authority precisely to protect and promote the common good
- Experience tells us, however, that some laws can be unjust; Not all legal are moral in nature
- An act is considered legal if it does not contradict any state law, while an act is considered morally good if its nature,
intention, and circumstances are all positively good for the person as a person – -n – community (CFC 804)
o Different Laws, Different Goals
 I. Natural Law – is the universal moral law grounded on our human nature and knowable through human reason (Veritatis
Splendor 79)
- Unlike the other kinds of law, natural law is not something written down in a book or code of law, but some of its
universally accepted and fundamental principles
- God Himself is the author of the natural law, which flows from our human nature
II. Divine Law – from Sacred Scripture, we discover moral laws revealed to us by God
- Old Testament: Moses and the Ten Commandments
- New Testament: Jesus’ Law of Love and the Beatitudes
III. Church Laws – are expressions of Christ’s laws of love in the particular circumstances of Christian living
- It is also referred to the moral teachings of the Church, the body of rules, commandments and virtues that have been
handed down to us throughout the centuries
IV. Civil Laws – are human – made decrees that are binding to all citizens of a nation
- For our country, the most important civil law is the Philippine Constitution