CFE

• Dick Westley makes a partial list of the things that frustrate human life and development, and which everyone would therefore consider to be evil. Here is his list: death, pain, disablement, deprivation of pleasure, deprivation of freedom and opportunity, deprivation of worth and self-esteem. We call these ontic evils (from the Greek onta meaning "real")
• One way that ontic evil may be caused is by natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, sickness, accidents and, in general, things which are outside of human control. We call such evils physical evils.
• In order to keep the terminology similar some theologians prefer to use the term pre-moral evil instead of ontic evil. Pre-moral evil is evil before any moral quality has been added. 
•  Nothing is immoral simply and only because God says so. To hold that would mean that God could arbitrarily create evil. That is certainly not the God of love and goodness we believe in. God has made us, and the world we live in, after his own creative plan or design. By that very fact God has already determined the things which could cause ontic evil, that is, could hinder our true development as human persons. Whether such ontic evil becomes moral evil is always dependent on human free will. And that is a circumstance over which, in truth, God has no control.
• It is probably true to say that evil is the number one problem for us human beings. Pain, suffering and human deprivation, particularly of the innocent, strike us as being "unfair," not in keeping with our innate sense of what is right. Believers find it hard to reconcile evil with a good and loving God. Unbelievers find it a tremendous stumbling block to faith. Down through the centuries philosophers, thinkers, theologians, have attempted many explanations of evil but none is perfectly satisfactory.
• Reasons for Being Moral


  In the first place, perhaps we might act morally just to avoid punishment. Second, we might be persuaded to be moral simply out of enlightened self- interest. The argument would go like this: if we inflict evil on others, then individuals, or the society in which we live, might do the same to us. . Third, we might act morally because of the inner conviction that human persons are unique, precious, worthwhile, that there is great intrinsic value in the human person, that human persons are worthy of our love.
• Generally speaking, we can get children (and older people too) to do what is right by training, that is, by sanctions, by rewarding good acts and punishing evil ones. Psychologists might call it a process of conditioning. However, the challenge of good parenting and good teaching is to get people to do what is right because of the inherent value and nobility of the human person
•  the key to good teaching is to bring students to experience that preciousness and value for themselves. The real challenge for parents and teachers is to create the environment in which young people can experience for themselves this most important moral truth so that not only will they do right but they will want to do what is right.
•  Ernest Becker writes as follows:

  The crisis of modern society is precisely that youth no longer feel heroic in the plan of action that their culture has set up. We are living a crisis of heroism that reaches into every aspect of our social life. . . . of course, [this is] the crisis of organized religion too: religion is no longer valid as a hero system, and so the youth scorn it. If traditional culture is discredited as heroics, then the church that supports that culture automatically discredits itself.
• Dick Westley comments:

  We wonder why our young people are attracted to the cults and to the most fundamentalist of Christian sects. The answer is obvious. Those things offer them a concrete plan for heroism. They feel special. They feel saved... What makes that all so tragic is that it is totally unnecessary. When Judaeo- Christianity is seen from the faith perspective, it offers the brightest, noblest heroism the world has ever seen.
• There are others, called personal relativists, whose principal criterion of morality is their own personal satisfaction. Their slogans are well known in today's moral climate: "Whatever suits me is right," "my way is as good as your way," "don't force your morality on me," "do your own thing." Then there are those relativists whose principal moral criterion is "whatever makes me feel good."
• He then adds one that is not in the Decalogue given on Mount Sinai but is found in the book of Leviticus, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Lev 19:18). This latter commandment Jesus uses to sum up the whole meaning of human relations, how people should behave towards one another.
• The second thing we should note about the commandments is that the ones that refer to one's neighbour (numbers 4-10) simply represent basic human morality. It is morality which applies to everyone, religious believers and non-believers alike. These commandments not only recognize but emphasize the intrinsic value, the preciousness of the human person.
• First Commandment

  Negative Form: "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water beneath the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them"

  Positive Form: Recognize, accept, and worship only the ONE, TRUE God.
• This commandment is more than an affirmation that there is but one God. It asserts that this one God is unique, transcendent.

  First Commandment
• Second Commandment

  Negative Form: "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord God" (Ex 20:7).

  Positive Form: Respect and reverence God.
• Second Commandment


  To understand this commandment we must fully appreciate the meaning of "name" in Hebrew culture. For the Semitic peoples the name was the person. To give someone a name was to say something about the person. Thus, for example, "Jesus" means "God saves"; the name tells us what the person is about. Therefore the bottom line in the commandment is that we must reverence God himself, the Transcendent, the Holy One, not subject to anyone, least of all those he has created out of nothing.
• Third Commandment

  Positive Form: "Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy" (Ex. 20:8). Explanation. The Jewish Sabbath probably originated in response to the social need for a day of rest from work and for family reasons. Israel, being such a religious nation, "came to ascribe a religious value to each of its ethical precepts
• Fourth Commandment

  Positive Form: "Honour your father and your mother" (Ex. 20:12). The focus of this commandment is that we are born into a society of persons. We cannot develop as full human persons outside of human society, that is, the smaller society of our own family and the larger society of the country or nation to which our family belongs.
• The fourth commandment stands rightly at the head of the neighbour- oriented commandments, not so much because it inculcates obedience to societal authority, as because it indicates that human value lies in something other than human function. The temptation was strong in ancient Israel as in other primitive societies to banish or destroy those humans who were not functional, the aged, the weak, the sick, the orphans, etc. With the fourth commandment Israel radically banished the concept of function-based worth.
• Roman Catholic teaching has always held that sex is a gift of God reserved exclusively for celebrating married love. It is a deeply immoral philosophy because it deals in ontic evil and injustice, and it damages relational growth of persons and the stability of human society.

  Sixth commandment
• Seventh Commandment

  Negative Form: "You shall not steal" (Ex. 20:15).

  Positive Form: Respect the personal freedom of others.
• Truth is the basis of all human communication because it is the basis of trust. Human society, all relations between individuals and nations, is founded on mutual trust.
•  Both the commandment and Jesus' statements remind us that sin is ultimately in the intention. We must remember, Jealousy is an insidious form of desire. Are we jealous over someone else's marriage?

  What positive steps have we taken to guard against the possibility of covetousness?

  Ninth Commandment
• Annulment refers to the legal process of declaring a marriage null and void.

  Legal separation allows couples to live apart but does not dissolve the marriage.

  A divorce holds that the spouses were previously married but chose to legally separate.
• Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.

  Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount
• “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

  Salt and Light 
• “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

  The Fulfillment of the Law
• But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca ,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

  Murder
• 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.


  Adultery
• But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

  Divorce
• 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.


  Oaths
• 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.

  Eye for an eye
• 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

  Love for enemies
• 1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

  Giving to the needy
•  “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father,

  Prayer
•  “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

  Fasting
•  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

  Treasures in Heaven
• Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

  Do Not Worry
• Judging Others


   “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.