1943-1944
Society ensures social justice when it respects the dignity and the rights of the person as the proper end of society itself. Furthermore, society pursues social justice, which is linked to the common good and to the exercise of authority, when it provides the conditions that allow associations and individuals to obtain what is their due.
412. On what is human equality based?
1934-1935
1945
All persons enjoy equal dignity and fundamental rights insofar as they are created in the image of the one God, are endowed with the same rational soul, have the same nature and origin, and are called in Christ, the one and only Savior, to the same divine beatitude.
413. How are we to view social inequalities?
1936-1938
1946-1947
There are sinful social and economic inequalities which affect millions of human beings. These inequalities are in open contradiction to the Gospel and are contrary to justice, to the dignity of persons, and to peace. There are , however, differences among people caused by various factors which enter into the plan of God. Indeed, God wills that each might receive what he or she needs from others and that those endowed with particular talents should share them with others. Such differences encourage and often oblige people to the practice of generosity, kindness and the sharing of goods. They also foster the mutual enrichment of cultures.
414. How is human solidarity manifested?
1939-1942
1948
Solidarity, which springs from human and Christian brotherhood, is manifested in the first place by the just distribution of goods, by a fair remuneration for work and by zeal for a more just social order. The virtue of solidarity also practices the sharing of the spiritual goods of faith which is even more important than sharing material goods.
CHAPTER THREE
God's Salvation: Law and Grace
THE MORAL LAW
415. What is the moral law?
1950-1953
1975-1978
The moral law is a work of divine Wisdom. It prescribes the ways and the rules of conduct that lead to the promised beatitude and it forbids the ways that turn away from God.
416. In what does the natural moral law consist?
1954-1960
1978-1979
The natural law which is inscribed by the Creator on the heart of every person consists in a participation in the wisdom and the goodness of God. It expresses that original moral sense which enables one to discern by reason the good and the bad. It is universal and immutable and determines the basis of the duties and fundamental rights of the person as well as those of the human community and civil law.
417. Is such a law perceived by everyone?
1960
Because of sin the natural law is not always perceived nor is it recognized by everyone with equal clarity and immediacy.
For this reason God wrote on the tables of the Law what men did not read in their hearts. (Saint Augustine)
418. What is the relationship between the natural law and the Old Law?
1961-1962
1980
The Old Law is the first stage of revealed Law. It expresses many truths naturally accessible to reason and which are thus affirmed and authenticated in the covenant of salvation. Its moral prescriptions, which are summed up in the Ten Commandments of the Decalogue, lay the foundations of the human vocation, prohibit what is contrary to the love of God and neighbor, and prescribe what is essential to it.
419. What place does the Old Law have in the plan of salvation?
1963-1964
1982
The Old Law permitted one to know many truths which are accessible to reason, showed what must or must not be done and, above all, like a wise tutor, prepared and disposed one for conversion and for the acceptance of the Gospel. However, while being holy, spiritual, and good, the Old Law was still imperfect because in itself it did not give the strength and the grace of the Spirit for its observance.
420. What is the New Law or the Law of the Gospel?
1965-1972
1983-1985
The New Law or the Law of the Gospel, proclaimed and fulfilled by Christ, is the fullness and completion of the divine law, natural and revealed. It is summed up in the commandment to love God and neighbor and to love one another as Christ loved us. It is also an interior reality: the grace of the Holy Spirit which makes possible such love. It is the law of freedom (Galatians 1:25) because it inclines us to act spontaneously by the prompting of charity.
The New Law is mainly the same grace of the Holy Spirit which is given to believers in Christ. (Saint Thomas Aquinas)
421. Where does one find the New Law?
1971-1974
1986
The New Law is found in the entire life and preaching of Christ and in the moral catechesis of the apostles. The Sermon on the Mount is its principal expression.
GRACE AND JUSTIFICATION
422. What is justification?
1987-1995
2017-2020
Justification is the most excellent work of God's love. It is the merciful and freely-given act of God which takes away our sins and makes us just and holy in our whole being. It is brought about by means of the grace of the Holy Spirit which has been merited for us by the passion of Christ and is given to us in Baptism. Justification is the beginning of the free response of man, that is, faith in Christ and of cooperation with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
423. What is the grace that justifies?
1996-1998
2005
2021
That grace is the gratuitous gift that God gives us to make us participants in his trinitarian life and able to act by his love. It is called habitual, sanctifying or deifying grace because it sanctifies and divinizes us. It is supernatural because it depends entirely on Gods gratuitous initiative and surpasses the abilities of the intellect and the powers of human beings. It therefore escapes our experience.
424. What other kinds of grace are there?
1999-2000
2003-2004
2023-2024
Besides habitual grace, there are actual graces (gifts for specific circumstances), sacramental graces (gifts proper to each sacrament), special graces or charisms (gifts that are intended for the common good of the Church) among which are the graces of state that accompany the exercise of ecclesial ministries and the responsibilities of life.
425. What is the relationship between grace and human freedom?
2001-2002
426. What is merit?
2006-2010
2025-2026
In general merit refers to the right to recompense for a good deed. With regard to God, we of ourselves are not able to merit anything, having received everything freely from him. However, God gives us the possibility of acquiring merit through union with the love of Christ, who is the source of our merits before God. The merits for good works, therefore must be attributed in the first place to the grace of God and then to the free will of man.
427. What are the goods that we can merit?
2010-2011
2027
Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods, suitable for us, can be merited in accordance with the plan of God. No one, however, can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion and justification.
428. Are all called to Christian holiness?
2012-2016
2028-2029
All the faithful are called to Christian holiness. This is the fullness of Christian life and the perfection of charity and it is brought about by intimate union with Christ and, in him, with the most Holy Trinity. The path to holiness for a Christian goes by way of the cross and
will come to its fulfillment in the final resurrection of the just, in which God will be all in all.
THE CHURCH MOTHER AND TEACHER
429. How does the Church nourish the moral life of a Christian?
2030-2031
2047
The Church is the community in which the Christian receives the Word of God, the teachings of the Law of Christ (Galatians 6:2), and the grace of the sacraments. Christians are united to the Eucharistic sacrifice of Christ in such a way that their moral life is an act of spiritual worship; and they learn the example of holiness from the Virgin Mary and the lives of the Saints.
430. Why does the Magisterium of the Church act in the field of morality?
2032-2040
2049-2051
It is the duty of the Magisterium of the Church to preach the faith that is to be believed and put into practice in life. This duty extends even to the specific precepts of the natural law because their observance is necessary for salvation.
431. What purpose do the precepts of the Church have?
2041
2048
The five precepts of the Church are meant to guarantee for the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer, the sacramental life, moral commitment and growth in love of God and neighbor.
432. What are the precepts of the Church?
2042-2043
They are: 1) to attend Mass on Sundays and other holy days of obligation and to refrain from work and activities which could impede the sanctification of those days; 2) to confess one's sins, receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation at least once each year; 3) to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season; 4) to abstain from eating meat and to observe the days of fasting established by the Church; and 5) to help to provide for the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.
433. Why is the Christian moral life indispensable for the proclamation of the Gospel?
2044-2046
Because their lives are conformed to the Lord Jesus, Christians draw others to faith in the true God, build up the Church, inform the world with the spirit of the Gospel, and hasten the coming of the Kingdom of God.
Section Two
The Ten Commandments
Exodus 20:2-17
I am the LORD your God,
who brought you out
of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
You shall have no other gods before
me. You shall not make for yourself
a graven image, or any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath, or
that is in the water under the earth;
you shall not bow down to them
or serve them; for I the LORD your
God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the
children to the third and the fourth
generation of those who hate me,
but showing steadfast love to
thousands of those who love me
and keep my commandments.
You shall not take
the name of the LORD
your God in vain;
for the LORD will not hold him
guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it
holy. Six days you shall labor, and
do all your work; but the seventh day
it you shall not do any work, you, or
your son, or your daughter, your
manservant, or your maidservant, or
your cattle, or the sojourner who is
within your gates; for in six days the
LORD made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that is in them, and rested the
seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed
the sabbath day and hallowed it.
Honor your father and your
mother, that your days may
be long in the land which
the LORD your God
gives you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not
commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false
witness against your
neighbor.
You shall not covet your
neighbors house; you shall not
covet your neighbors wife, or his
manservant, or his maidservant,
or his ox, or his ass, or anything
that is your neighbors.
Deuteronomy 5:6-21
I am the LORD
your God, who
brought you out of
the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
You shall have no other
gods before me...
You shall not take
the name of the
LORD your God in
vain:...
Observe the sabbath
day, to keep
it holy...
Honor your father
and your mother...
You shall not kill.
Neither shall you
commit adultery.
Neither shall you steal.
Neither shall you bear
false witness against
your neighbor.
Neither shall you covet
your neighbors wife...
You shall not desire...
anything that is your
neighbors.
A Traditional Catechetical Formula
1. I am the LORD
your God: you
shall not have
strange Gods before me.
2. You shall not
take the name of
the LORD your
God in vain.
3. Remember to
keep holy the
LORDS day.
4. Honor your father
and your mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not
commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear
false witness against
your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet
your neighbors wife.
10. You shall not covet
your neighbors goods.
434. Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life? (Matthew 19:16).
2052-2054
2075-2076
To the young man who asked this question, Jesus answered, If you would enter into life, keep the commandments, and then he added, Come, follow Me (Matthew 19:16-21). To follow Jesus involves keeping the commandments. The law has not been abolished but man is invited to rediscover it in the Person of the divine Master who realized it perfectly in himself, revealed its full meaning and attested to its permanent validity.
435. How did Jesus interpret the Law?
2055
Jesus interpreted the Law in the light of the twofold yet single commandment of love, the fullness of the Law: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:37-40).
436. What does Decalogue mean?
2056-2057
Decalogue means ten words (Exodus 34:28). These words sum up the Law given by God to the people of Israel in the context of the Covenant mediated by Moses. This Decalogue, in presenting the commandments of the love of God (the first three) and of one's neighbor (the other seven), traces for the chosen people and for every person in particular the path to a life freed from the slavery of sin.
437. What is the bond between the Decalogue and the Covenant?
&n
bsp; 2058-2063
2077
The Decalogue must be understood in the light of the Covenant in which God revealed himself and made known his will. In observing the commandments, the people manifested their belonging to God and they answered his initiative of love with thanksgiving.
438. What importance does the Church give to the Decalogue?
2064-2068
The Church, in fidelity to Scripture and to the example of Christ, acknowledges the primordial importance and significance of the Decalogue. Christians are obliged to keep it.
439. Why does the Decalogue constitute an organic unity?
2069
2079
The Ten Commandments form an organic and indivisible whole because each commandment refers to the other commandments and to the entire Decalogue. To break one commandment, therefore, is to violate the entire law.
440. Why does the Decalogue enjoin serious obligations?
2072-2073
2081
It does so because the Decalogue expresses the fundamental duties of man towards God and towards his neighbor.
441. Is it possible to keep the Decalogue?
2074
2082
Yes, because Christ without whom we can do nothing enables us to keep it with the gift of his Spirit and his grace.
CHAPTER ONE
You Shall Love the Lord Your God
With All Your Heart, With All Your Soul,
and With All Your Mind
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT: I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD,
YOU SHALL NOT HAVE OTHER GODS BEFORE ME
442. What is implied in the affirmation of God: I am the Lord your God (Exodus 20:2)?
2083-2094
2133-2134
This means that the faithful must guard and activate the three theological virtues and must avoid sins which are opposed to them. Faith believes in God and rejects everything that is opposed to it, such as, deliberate doubt, unbelief, heresy, apostasy, and schism. Hope trustingly awaits the blessed vision of God and his help, while avoiding despair and presumption. Charity loves God above all things and therefore repudiates indifference, ingratitude, lukewarmness, sloth or spiritual indolence, and that hatred of God which is born of pride.
443. What is the meaning of the words of our Lord, Adore the Lord your God and worship Him alone (Matthew 4:10)?