Beruflich Dokumente
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QUEZON CITY
SUBMITTED TO:
DR. MILAGROS CAARES
SUBMITTED BY:
MR. MARIO L. FLORES II
And then on the basis of these two assertions and these two descriptions, he issues two
invitations, each accompanied by a promise:
1. come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
2. take my yoke on you and learn from me . . . and you will find rest for your souls.
Two Descriptions
1. Christs ethical teaching is a yoke
Jesus Christ does not hide the fact that his ethical teaching is a yoke which his disciples
must accept, and a burden they must carry.
The meaning of the term yoke. In the ancient world a yoke was a specially shaped
piece of wood which a farmer would fit on to the neck of his oxen so that he could
control them and harness them to plough the fields, thresh the corn, or pull the farm
carts. Ancient kings, therefore, called their government a yoke because by it they
controlled and guided the people. And teachers of morality and religion called their
teaching a yoke for the same reason.
To those who come to him Christ gives immediate rest, because he gives:
1. immediate forgiveness and release from guilt: see e.g. Luke 5:20.
2. a restored sense of purpose in life: see e.g. 1 Thess 1:910, to serve the
living God.
3. an immediate sense of being loved and valued by God, and therefore of being of
infinite and permanent significance: see e.g. Matt 12:12; Rom 5:5 11.
4. an assurance of Gods care in the practical affairs of life and relief from anxiety:
see e.g. Matt 6:2530.
We see at once what, according to Christ, the basic motivation behind all true morality
must be: love. Not desire for happiness or success, but love. And not love of oneself,
nor primarily love for ones neighbour and the community (though, as a later study will
show, that comes second), but love for God, the Creator. The world is his world. He
made it to serve his pleasure and to run according to his design. It is only rational that
our prime duty should be to live according to our Creators will, and, out of sheer
gratitude for our existence, to love him. In this context love for God does not mean
some sentimental religious feeling: this is the love of God, says the Bible (1 John 5:3),
that we keep his commandments. We are to do so with all our heart, mind, soul and
strength.
In breaking the first and greatest commandment (and we have all done so), we are
guilty of the greatest sinfailing to love God.
The Christian apostle John summed it up in two short sentences. We love God,
because he first loved us. This is the love of God that we keep his commandments (1
John 4:19; 5:3).
The lesson is clear: our duty is to act in a compassionate, loving and practical way to
those whom we actually encounter in daily life that are in any need whatever, if we are
able to help them.
This lesson can be reinforced as follows. Another way of expressing the commandment
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself is to say, as Jesus did on another occasion:
Whatever you would that people should do to you, that do also yourself to them (Matt
7:12). If you were mugged like the man in the parable, and were lying half dead on the
road, would you not want the passers-by to help you? Would you not complain bitterly if
they ignored you? Well then, treat anyone who is in any need whatever, in the same
way as you would wish to be treated if you were in that need.
Loving your neighbour as yourself means that you must be prepared to act the good
and compassionate neighbour not only towards you friends, your fellow countrymen,
and people whom you like, but also towards people you do not like, and even towards
you enemies.
The lesson is clear. Loving our neighbour as ourselves means more than loving just
our family and friends, our fellow countrymen and people of the same religion or ethnic
group.
We must love and serve people of all ethnic groups, of all religions, and even. those
who hate us and are our enemies. Jesus said (Luke 6:2728): But I say unto you . . .
Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for
those who despitefully use you. And certainly no follower of Christ is allowed to
persecute people of other religions.
His philosophy is said to be eudaimonistic, means that the highest ethical goal is
happiness and personal well-being.
According to him, God is the living personal God, the creator of all things, and the
supreme ruler of the universe.
An Absolute Spirit
Imago-Dei-relationship
Human person bears the image of God and the human persons crowning glory resides
in his being an imago Dei.
For Augustine, God created the world out of nothing with love and the human person is
part of his creation.
Augustines Philosophy
Evil is not an existing reality (deprivation)
Summum Bonum created the world of matter and it cannot be evil. It is the awareness
of a person on what is good or who God is.
Turning to God or not is a voluntary act.
Evil or Sin is the the product of the will.
All humanity possesses freedom of the will.
Virtue is the product of Gods grace.
Human person is not self-sufficient.
Human persons pride leads him away from Gods grace.
Human person is in a constant struggle for happiness.
Subordinating to the Divine Order by seeking eternal peace.
Love of God is the means to find real satisfaction.
The purpose of human existence is to find happiness in God but not go beyond or
defeat his purpose for us.
Augustine believed that all men, so long as they are mortal, must of necessity be
miserable. Everyone should, therefore, make a choice as to where he would like to be
with. Every human person should, therefore, seek for God's grace in order to be led to
his proper end. Hence, human beings should cling to the law of conscience, which will
admonish them to do good and to avoid evil, the ultimate norm of morality.
1. Metaethics
Aquinass metaethical views are indebted to the writings of several Christian thinkers,
particularly Augustines Confessions, Boethiuss De hebdomadibus, and perhaps
Anselms Monologium. Due to the constraints of space, the present section will only
consider Augustines influence on Aquinass views.
According to Augustine, things that exist are good (Confessions VII.12). This claim is
meant to express a basic metaphysical idea, namely, that if something exists, then it
necessarily has some degree of goodness. Augustines argument for this claim is as
follows. We can divide existing things into two categories: incorruptible things and
corruptible things, with the latter being inferior to the former. If something is
incorruptible, then by definition it cannot be made worse; that is, it cannot lose whatever
Temperance has a twofold meaning. In a general sense, the term denotes a kind of
moderation common to every moral virtue. In its more restricted sense, temperance
concerns the moderation of physical pleasures, especially those associated with eating,
drinking, and sex.
According to Aquinas, the purpose of temperance is to refine the way we enjoy bodily
pleasures. Specifically, it creates in the agent a proper sense of moderation with respect
to what is pleasurable. For a person can more easily subordinate herself to reason
when her passions are not excessive or deficient. On this view, bodily enjoyment can in
fact be an integral part of a rational life.
c. Courage
Temperance and its subsidiary virtues restrain the strong appetite, such as the sexual
appetite. But courage and its subsidiary virtues modify what Aquinas calls the irascible
appetite. By irascible appetite Aquinas means the desire for that which is difficult to
attain or avoid. Occasionally, the difficulty in achieving or avoiding certain objects can
give rise to various degrees of fear and, in turn, discourage us from adhering to
reasons instruction. In these cases, we may refuse to endure the pain or discomfort
required for achieving our proper human good. Note here that fear is not innately
contrary to reason.
After all, there are some things that we should fear, like an untimely death or a bad
reputation. Only when fear prevents us from facing what we ought to endure does it
become inimical to reason. In these cases, we need a virtue that moderates those
appetites that prevent from undertaking more daunting tasks. According to Aquinas,
courage is that virtue.
d. Justice
The virtues we have considered thus far concern our own state. The virtue of justice,
however, governs our relationships with others. Specifically, it denotes a sustained or
constant willingness to extend to each person what he or she deserves. Beyond this,
Aquinass account of justice exhibits considerable breadth, complexity, and admits of
various distinctions. Constraints of space, however, force me to mention only two sets of
distinctions: (1) legal (or general) and particular justice, and (2) commutative and
distributive justice.
The purpose of legal justice is to govern our actions according to the common good.
Construed this way, justice is a general virtue which concerns not individual benefits but
community welfare.
4. Natural Law
Aquinas is often described as a natural law theorist. While natural law is a significant
aspect of his moral philosophy, it is a subject of considerable dispute and
misunderstanding. Of course, this is not the place to adjudicate competing
interpretations of Aquinass view.
What is the natural law? We might attempt to answer this question by considering both
the meaning of the term law as well as the laws origin. On Aquinass view, a law is a
rule or measure of human acts, whereby a person is induced to act or is restrained from
acting. Elsewhere, he describes a law as a dictate of practical reason emanating from
a ruler. At a very general level, then, a law is a precept that serves as a guide to and
measure of human action. Thus whether an action is good will depend on whether it
conforms to or abides by the relevant law.
According to Aquinas, every law is ultimately derived from what he calls the eternal law.
The eternal law refers to Gods providential ordering of all created things to their
proper end. We participate in that divine order in virtue of the fact that God creates in us
both a desire for and an ability to discern what is good (he calls this ability the light of
natural reason). According to Aquinas, it is this participation in the eternal law by the
rational creature that is called the natural law. On this view, natural law is but an
extension of the eternal law. For by it God ordains us to final happiness by implanting in
us both a general knowledge of and inclination for goodness. Note here that the natural
law is not an external source of authority.
According to Aquinas, all human actions are governed by a general principle or precept
that is foundational to and necessary for all practical reasoning: good is to be done and
evil is to be avoided. This principle is not something we can ignore or defy. Rather, it is
an expression of how practical thought and action proceed in creatures such as
ourselves.
5. Charity and Beatitude
Incomplete happiness is a state we achieve by means of our natural human aptitudes.
Through them, we can cultivate some measure of virtue and, in turn, be happier than we
would be otherwise. Perfect or complete happiness, however, lies beyond what we are
able to achieve on our own. Thus Aquinas insists that it is necessary for man to receive
from God some additional [habits], whereby he may be directed to supernatural
happiness.
According to Aquinas, the habits to which he refers here are infused or theological
virtues. They are given to us graciously by God and direct us to our final and perfect
good in the same way that the moral virtues direct us to a kind of happiness made
possible by the exercise of our natural capacities.
References
Thomas Aquinas, St. Questiones de vertitate (QDV). 1954. Trans. Robert W. Mulligan,
S.J. Henry Regnery Company.
Thomas Aquinas, St. Summa contra gentiles (SCG), vol. I. 1975. Trans. Anton Pegis.
Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Thomas Aquinas, St. Summa contra gentiles (SCG), vol. III. 1975. Trans. Vernon
Bourke. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Thomas Aquinas, St. Summa theologiae (ST ). 1981. Trans. Fathers of the English
Dominican Province. Westminster: Christian Classics.
Thomas Aquinas, St. Commentary on Aristotles Nichomachean Ethics (In NE). 1993.
Trans. C. I. Litzinger, O. P. Notre Dame, IN: Dumb Ox Books.
Thomas Aquinas, St. Questiones de malo (QDM). 1995. Trans. John A. Oesterle and
Jean T. Oesterle. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Thomas Aquinas, St. Disputed Questions on the Virtues. 2005. Trans. E.M. Atkins. Eds.
E.M. Atkins and Thomas Williams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Augustine. Confessions. 1993. Trans. F.J. Sheed. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Christian Morality and You. James Finley. 1976. Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Indiana.