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• Jesus Calls Us to be Fully Human: '"The end justifies the means."'
• Conscious and Free Actions

  One that proceeds with sufficient knowledge of the agent and full deliberate consent
• Conscious and Free Actions


  • Defines him/her as human in contrast to the actions of other material created agents more specifically animals
  • If either adequate knowledge or freedom is lacking in the act of the agent, then that act is not fully human and, therefore, not fully moral
• Human Act (Actus Humani)


  Conscious and Free Actions
• According to St. Thomas Aquinas, human acts


  Are those acts that proceed from a deliberate will
• Human Acts (Actus Humani) are Acts that:


  • We are responsible for
  • Done with knowledge and love
  • Done with Intellect and Will
  • Freely chosen informed act
  • Worthy of praise or blame
  • Has value for good or for evil
• Acts of Man (Actus Hominis)


  • Actions that happen spontaneously and are no longer subject to our knowledge and decisions
  • It is not a concern of morals since they are voluntary
  • Actions cannot be judged as good or evil
• Kinds of acts of man:


  • The natural acts of vegetative and sense faculties
  • Acts of persons who lack the use of reason
  • Acts of people who are asleep or under the influence of hypnosis, alcohol, or other drugs
  • Quick, nearly automatic reactions, called primo-primi acts
• Jesus Calls Us to Choose Freely
• Modifiers of Human Acts

  Refers to factors that influence the actions of the agent by affecting essential qualities like knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness. Make actions less ideally human, reducing the moral nature of the act and consequently lessening the responsibility of the person involved. M
• Ignorance - when someone lacks the knowledge they should have about their moral duties.

  Inattention - when someone momentarily loses focus, and if attention is completely absent, it's not considered a human act.

  Fear - the mental worry about an impending danger. It's the fear of the senses, not intellectual fear.
• Violence - when an external force compels someone against their will.

  Habits - the ease and readiness of acting in a certain way due to repeated actions.
• Constituents of Human Acts

  Knowledge – It is an awareness or consciousness of the conditions and implications of our actions.

  Freedom – It is the power to choose between two or more courses of action without being forced to take one or another by anything except our own will.

  Voluntariness – It is a characteristic of human act that is not simply chosen but desired or willed, an act that is willed.
• Sources of Morality

  • There are three determinants of the moral quality of our actions. The Object, the circumstances, and the intention
  • Object or action itself (finis operis) – It is the matter of human act in which it is the act itself, the one that the actor or agent performs.
  • For a morally good act, the object of it must be good; that is, the thing with which the action is concerned must conform to the law of God.
• Sources of Morality

  • Circumstances – It includes the agent and the other persons involved, the time, place, and the occasion.
  • Since all human actions occur at a certain time and at a certain place, the circumstances must always be considered when evaluating the moral quality of any human act.
• Seven circumstances affecting the morality of actions.

  • Who – The subject or person who does or receives the action.
  • Where – The setting or place of an action.
  • What – The object intended
  • Why – The intention or the motive that moves the person to an action.
  • By what means – Although man's intention may be normally good, the means of attaining the end are illicit or unlawful.
  • How – the circumstances involve different conditions or modalities.
  • When – the time of the action performed.
• Sources of Morality

  • Intention (finis operantis) – The reason for which the person undertakes the act.
  • The end is the first goal of the intention
  • Indicates the purpose pursued in the action.
  • For our actions to be good, our intentions must be good.
• Virtue


  A habitual and firm disposition to do good
• Human virtues


  • Firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith
  • They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life
• Virtue


  • Consistency
  • Ease
  • Joy
• Virtue requires much more than performing good actions every once in a while. It requires repeated and consequent efforts
• Consistency


  The virtue enables us to perform good acts easily without extraordinary effort, deliberation, or internal struggle as it seems automatic
• Ease


  Means without complaining even if we do good may cause us to be separated from the people we love
• Joy


  In leading a morally good life
• Theological Virtues

  Faith, hope, and love
• The Theological Virtues allow human persons to share in God's nature
• God directly infuses us these virtues, into the soul where they make the believer capable of living as God's children and meriting eternal life
• 1 Cor 13:1-13: 'If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, and reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present, we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present, I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, and love remain these three, but the greatest of these is love.'
• Faith


  The virtue that gives us the power to believe in God, in all that He has revealed, and in all that the Church proposes for our belief
• Faith must always come with hope and love
• Jesus himself said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
• James repeats what Jesus said when he wrote, "Faith without works is dead." (James 2:26)
• Hope


  • Prevents us from giving in to despair no matter how bad our situation may be
  • It makes us hold on to Christ's promise of everlasting happiness in heaven
• St. Paul tells us that "hope does not disappoint" (Romans 5:5)
• St. Paul presents Abraham as the model of hope, who "Hoping against hope, (he) believed, and thus became the father of many nations" (Romans 4:18)
• Charity/Love


  • The virtue that impels us to love God for His own sake and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God
  • Jesus is our model of Charity because He laid down His life in loving obedience to the Father and in order to save us
  • St. Paul further says that love is patient and kind, enduring all things, not jealous, boastful, arrogant, rude, irritable, or resentful
  • He stresses the superiority of love over the other virtues, saying that the greatest of the three virtues of faith, hope, and love is love
• Cardinal Virtues


  Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance
• Prudence


  • The mother of all the virtues
  • It helps us differentiate what is truly Good from what seems to be good and helps us choose the right means of achieving it
  • It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure
  • With the help of this virtue, we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid
• Justice


  • The moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor
  • Justice toward God is called the "virtue of religion"
  • Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good
  • The word justice comes from the Latin word Jus, meaning "right"
  • Giving other people what they deserve as persons with dignity is their right
• Fortitude


  • The moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of good
  • It helps us courageously carry on and do what is good, even if it may be difficult to do so