Explanation of Catholic Morals | Page 8

and he adds to
his misery by consulting every adviser in sight. He refuses to be put
under obedience and seems to have a morbid affection for his very

condition.
There is only one remedy for this evil, and that remedy is absolute and
blind obedience to a prudent director. Choose one, consult him as often
as you desire, but do not leave him for another. Then submit
punctiliously to his direction. His conscience must be yours, for the
time being. And if you should err in following him, God will hold him,
and not you, responsible.

CHAPTER V.
THE LAW OF GOD AND ITS BREACH.
WITHOUT going into any superflous details, we shall call the Law of
God an act of His will by which He ordains what things we may do or
not do, and binds us unto observance under penalty of His divine
displeasure.
The law thus defined pertains to reasonable beings alone, and supposes
on our part, as we have seen, knowledge and free will. The rest of
creation is blindly submissive under the hand of God, and yields a
necessary obedience. Man alone can obey or disobey; but in this latter
case he renders himself amenable to God's justice who, as his Creator,
has an equal right to command him, and be obeyed.
The Maker first exercised this right when He put into His creature's
soul a sense of right and wrong, which is nothing more than conscience,
or as it is called here, natural law. To this law is subject every human
being, pagan, Jew and Christian alike. No creature capable of a human
act is exempt.
The provisions of this law consider the nature of our being, that is, the
law prescribes what the necessities of our being demand, and it
prohibits what is destructive thereof. Our nature requires physically that
we eat, drink and sleep. Similarly, in a moral sense, it calls for justice,
truthfulness, respect of God, of the neighbor, and of self. All its

precepts are summed up in this one: "Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you"--the golden rule. Thence flows a series of deducted
precepts calculated to protect the moral and inherent rights of our
nature.
But we are more concerned here with what is known as the positive
Law of God, given by Him to man by word of mouth or revelation.
We believe that God gave a verbal code to Moses who promulgated it
in His name before the Jewish people to the whole world. It was
subsequently inscribed on two stone tables, and is known as the
Decalogue or Ten Commandments of God. Of these ten, the first three
pertain to God Himself, the latter seven to the neighbor; so that the
whole might be abridged in these two words, "Love God, and love thy
neighbor." This law is in reality only a specified form of the natural law,
and its enactment was necessitated by the iniquity of men which had in
time obscured and partly effaced the letter of the law in their souls.
Latterly God again spoke, but this time in the person of Jesus Christ.
The Saviour, after confirming the Decalogue with His authority, gave
other laws to men concerning the Church He had founded and the
means of applying to themselves the fruits of the Redemption. We give
the name of dogma to what He tells us to believe and of morals to what
we must do. These precepts of Jesus Christ are contained in the Gospel,
and are called the Evangelical Law. It is made known to us by the
infallible Church through which God speaks.
Akin to these divine laws is the purely ecclesiastical law or law of the
Church. Christ sent forth His Church clothed with His own and His
Father's authority. "As the Father sent me, so I send you." She was to
endure, perfect herself and fulfil her mission on earth. To enable her to
carry out this divine plan she makes laws, laws purely ecclesiastical,
but laws that have the same binding force as the divine laws themselves,
since they bear the stamp of divine authority. God willed the Church to
be; He willed consequently all the necessary means without which she
would cease to be. For Catholics, therefore, as far as obligations are
concerned, there is no practical difference between God's law and the
law of His Church. Jesus Christ is God. The Church is His spouse. To

her the Saviour said: "He that heareth you, heareth me, and he that
despiseth you despiseth Me."
A breach of the law is a sin. A sin is a deliberate transgression of the
Law of God. A sin may be committed in thought, in desire, in word, or
in deed, and by omission as