RS PREFI

• Moral act


  Any human act done with knowledge and free will
• Deciding on the morality of an act

  1. Conscience must decide on:

  2. Object/nature of the act

  3. Intention

  4. Circumstances
• Components of a moral act


  • Nature/object of the act
  • Intention or end
  • Circumstances
• Nature/object of the act


  The act or action done. It determines the morality of an act. The object is evil if it violates human dignity or destroys the innate goodness in human nature.
• Intention or end


  The motive for which a person commits a good or evil act. A good act becomes evil if the intention is evil. The malice of an evil act increases with an evil end.
• Circumstances


  Situations that occur with the act and that contribute to the morality of the act. Some circumstances can lessen the gravity of the sin. But no circumstances can alter the intrinsic evil of a bad action.
• Sources of morality


  • Who (the subject acting)
  • What (the thing done)
  • Where (the circumstances of the place)
  • Why (the immediate reason or some additional purpose)
  • How (the manner in which the act is done)
  • When (time affects the morality of an act)
• Types/nature of moral acts

  • Intrinsically evil acts - Acts which are always wrong in all circumstances
  • Intrinsically good act - Requires the goodness of the object act chosen of the end intention and of the circumstances
• Circumstances


  May create, mitigate or aggravate sin. May transform an indifferent act into one that is morally sinful, make a venial sin out of a mortal sin, and make a grave sin out of a venial sin.
• Errors derived from moral and evil:
• Situation ethics


  An ethical theory that derives good and evil from the circumstances that accompany the acting agent. (The rightness or wrongness of an act depends on the situation.)
• Consequentialism


  An ethical system that determines good and evil from the consequences that follow an act. (The morality of an act depends on the consequences.)
• Proportionalism


  An ethical system that deduces the moral value of an act from the proportion of good and evil effects. (The morality of an act depends on the proportion of good and evil.)
• Meaning of human suffering and death

  • Part of the plan laid down by God's providence that we should struggle against all sickness to seek the blessing of good health
  • Not a sign of a particular personal sin but of the oppressive presence of evil in our human situation
• Sin


  • Any deed, word or desire against eternal law
  • The voluntary transgression of the law of God
  • A turning away from God, to create in a disordered way
  • A guilt that alienates/separates us from our true selves, our neighbours and God
• False ideas of sin

  • Sin is merely breaking some impersonal law in a book
  • Sin is a guilt feeling, or something we cannot avoid
• Sin as presented in the sacred scripture

  • Missing the Mark – we miss the standard by failing to meet one's obligations to God and neighbours
  • Depravity and perversity – sin is a disorder of character or a defect weighing down the sinner
  • Rebellion against God – sin is a conscious choice of violating God's commandments
• The seven capital sins

  • Pride
  • Envy
  • Greed/Avarice
  • Lust
  • Anger
  • Gluttony
  • Sloth
• Images of sin


  • Stain – unclean before the all holy God
  • Crime – wilful violation of the covenant
  • Personal rejection – of love relationship
• Classification of sin in the broadest sense

  • Personal – committed by the individual, but always in relation to others and the community
  • Social – as common negative moral attitudes and acts; refers to situations and structures that destroy basic human rights (torture, genocide, and death penalty)
  • Structural – as economic, social or political patterns or systems that produce injustice and harm (realm, gender inequity, and healthcare, and climate change)
• Classification of sin as a personal act

  • Origin: Original sin – disobedience of the first parents at the beginning of human history and every person is born with its effect on his/her soul
  • Actual sin – committed by each one of us
  • Gravity: Mortal sin – a violation of grave matter, with full knowledge and complete consent
  • Venial sin – a violation of less matter, without full knowledge and without complete consent
  • Manner: Sin of commission – a prohibited act is committed
  • Sin of omission – a required act is omitted
  • Manifestation: External sin – committed with words or actions
  • Internal sin – found in thought and desire
• Dimensions of sin according to church teaching

  • Spiral – evil that ensnares; enslaves us in a contagious or pathological habit or vice
  • Sickness – that which weakens us
  • Addiction – that which makes us powerless as it becomes progressively more compulsive and obsessive
• Sin often becomes compulsive or addictive and weakens our power of resistance
• Despite its often glamorous cover, sin actually injures, destroys, dishonours, poisons, and corrupts
• Every sin spawns endless evils for the sinner and society
• Mortal sin destroys charity in the human heart…turns him away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude