Joseph Hollcraft M.A.
Intro to the Catechism of the Catholic Church CCP 201
Part III: Life in Christ
Week 2: October 24, 2007

B. The Human Community: There is a resemblance between the love shared in the community of persons in the Trinity to the vocation for humanity and the called to live in harmonious fraternity (CCC 1877; 1890).

1. The Person and Society: The human person is saved in and through community. Man needs society in order to develop in accordance with his nature. Most specifically the family and state correspond to the development of this nature (CCC 1879; 1891)…analogy of the family!!!

a. Society is a group of persons bound together organically by the principal of unity. It endures the test of time gathering the past and present to prepare for the future. We are heirs of a culture and are called to utilize gift and talent to enrich culture (CCC 1880).

b. “The human person is the principle, the subject and the object of every social organization” (CCC 1881; 1892). Society ought to promote the life of virtue, not obstruct it. It should be ambassadors of truth animated by a just hierarchy of values (CCC 1886; 1895).

1. Where sin has changed the face of society, it is necessary to call for conversion of hearts and to appeal the grace of God. “There is no solution to the social question apart from the Gospel” (1888-1889; 1896). Define Gospel (Benedict XVI: Jesus of Nazareth).

2. Participation in Social Life: A prosperous society and community is one governed by legitimate authority, an existential need for proper growth and development. This authority, from family up into the state, has as its sacred purpose--the objective of the common good for life in society (CCC 1898).

a. “The political community and public authority are based on human nature that therefore belong to an order established by God” (CCC 1920).

b. The diversity of political regimes is legitimate, provided they exercise the good of the community. Regimes contrary to the natural law, public order, and the fundamental rights of the person cannot achieve the common good of society. Political authority must guarantee the exercise of freedom (CCC 1901-1902; 1922-1923).

c. The common good, which is the “sum total of social conditions that allow humans to reach their fulfillment and potential” (CCC 1906; 1924) consists of three essential elements:

1. Respect for and promotion of the fundamental rights of the human person (CCC 1907).

2. Development of the spiritual and temporal goods of society (CCC 1908).

3. The peace and security of its members (CCC 1909).

3. Social Justice: “A society ensures social justice” by making available the conditions that allow for associations and individuals to obtain what rightfully belongs to them (CCC 1928; 1943).

1. Respect for persons flow out of the wellspring of other-centeredness; that each person is “another self”. Moreover, each creature belongs to God and therefore they are owed dignity that is intrinsic of the person (CCC 1929-1931; 1944).

a. The equality of persons encourages vigilance to reduce and eliminate excessive social, economic and sinful inequalities (CCC 1934-1938; 1947). Therefore, we are called to share both our spiritual and material goods (CCC 1939-1942; 1948).

C. God’s Salvation of Law and Grace: Divine aid comes in the form of law and grace. “The law guides him and grace sustains him” (CCC 1949).

1. The Moral Law: According to Sacred Scriptures, the moral law (Hb. Understanding) is fatherly instruction by which God prescribes for man the ways to promise eternal life and proscribes the ways to avoid evil (CCC 1950-1953; 1975). Christ is the incarnation of law, the face of fatherly wisdom…Covenant on Mt. Sinai: worship, ethics, and law are inseparably interwoven (Ratzinger: Spirit of the Liturgy).

a. The Natural Moral Law is the original moral sense engraved in the heart and soul of each person to reason good and attains his end. This law that extends to all men, expresses the dignity of the person and determines the basis for all rights and duties. The Natural law ultimately becomes the infrastructure to the Moral law as it steers prudent decision-making (CCC 1955-1959; 1978-1979).

1. We are always in need of grace and heavenly aid to permeate our senses and make the right moral choices. Grace sheds light into ethics and prepares the foundation for both the Moral Law, or revealed law, and works of the Spirit (CCC 1960; 1979).

b. The Old Law summed up in the Ten Commandments is the genesis of revealed law. It is primarily natural because man did not read them in their hearts. The Old law prepares the New law or the Law of the Gospel (CCC 1961-1964; 1980-1982)…

c. The New law summed up in the Beatitudes is the grace received in Baptism operating outwardly through charity. The New law is Supernatural in its origin as it is rooted in divine sonship. The New law is the law of grace and freedom that actualizes the great commandment to “love one another as he loved us” (cf. Jn.15.12).

1. “Life is a struggle in grace”— St. Augustine

2. Grace and Justification: Consult Word of the Week on Justification.

a. Grace is the gift from God that gives us the strength to respond and fulfill our earthly vocation. This vocation of Life in the Spirit is a supernatural vocation that leads us to eternal life. This is a vocation is a life lived in the Trinity (CCC 199-1998).

1. Consult Word of the Week on Sanctification.

b. Merit is the reward that God promises and gives to those who love him and by his grace perform good works. Any merit we have before God is due to his gratuity (CCC 2006). Our good works are the crowning of his own gifts.

c. Holiness: rooted in child like obedience…Mt. 5.48; 16.24 (CCC 2012-13; 2029). Consult Word of the Week on Holiness.

3. The Church: Mother and Teacher: “it is in the Church, in communion with all the baptized, that the Christian fulfills his vocation. From the Church he receives the Word of God containing the teachings of Christ” (CCC 2030)…from the Church he receives the sustenance necessary for the pilgrim journey toward eternal life (CCC 2030)…analogy to the domestic church!

a. The life of Beatitude is moral worship where we “present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom.12.1) (CCC 2031; 2047).

1. This life of worship is rooted in the Liturgy and the Sacramental life (CCC 2031).

b. Because Christians are member of the body, in which Christ is the head, their life of moral practice and conviction should be a reflection of the Father—unconditional love. The advancement of the Kingdom of God is rooted in the discipline and holiness of the faithful. We learn from our elder brothers and sisters in Christ…our saints (CCC 2045-2046).

Homework Assignment: CCC 2056-2057, 2098-2100, 2143-2144, 2174, 2201-2207, 2258, 2292-2296, 2331-2336, 2339, 2359, 2361, 2472, 2501, 2515, 2544-2550