Morality Journal Four
One: A brief
summary of the section.
The fourth
section focused on Catolic morality, discussing the sources and qualities of
Catholic morality. The sources of morality are the object in question or the
choice, the intention or goal, and the circumstances including the
consequences. These three factors determine what is moral and immoral. Each
person has an internal guide called a conscience to help making decisions.
Conscience is a power to get in touch with our sacred center of being, to get
in touch with God, and a power of reason to determine right and wrong and thus
lead to freedim. Conscience is also a process of decision, reason, forming
itself correctly, and using ever-increasing knowledge. Finally, we defined sin
as an offense against reason, truth, and right sconscience, a failure to love
God and neighbor, caused by an attachment to goods.
Two: Three
things I want to remember
First, the idea of an informed
conscience was important. An informed conscience rests first upon uprightness:
the right perception of morality, second on interiority: self examination and
reflection to get to know oneself, and finally on responsibility for one’s
decisions, actions, and their consequences.
Second, the four ways that we bear
responsibility for sins stuck with me. We sin when we participate directly and
voluntarily in evildoing. We also sin when we protect evildoers, when we order,
advise, or praise evildoers, or finally when we fail to stop evildoers.
Third, I want to remember the three
rules that apply when we are making decisions. First, no one may do evil to
bring about good. Second, remember the golden rule: do unto others as you would
have them do unto you. Thrid, always respect others and act in love. Also, you
can use Thomas Jefferson’s idea: act as though the whole world were watching
you as you make a decision. These rules will help me to act rightly.
Three: One
image that reminds me of the topic.
This picture
of Jiminy Cricket reminds me of what a conscience is (a guiding power and
process for making decisions) and what it is not (a voice in my head).
Four: One good
question to ponder.
Must you
always follow your conscience even if it is wrongly formed and leading you to
the wrong decisions? If my conscience tells me that in a specific instance an
evil choice is the right one, then am I sinning? For instance, we agreed that
the suicide bomber was following his consicence by doing what he does, but is
he sinning? I think that by nature of objective morality, killing outside of
self defence is a sin, so by killing he is sinning. But then he may not be at
fault because of invincible ignorance, the idea that he is wrongly informed. So
I suppose the action is a sin, but he is not sinning would be one way to put
it.
Five:
Something I want to keep with me to make me a better person.
I will remember that since my conscience has been slipping in certain areas of morality, I will begin to reform it by taking little steps and making correct decisions on a small level first, before taking the larger steps to permanently fix my problems. I will do this because we form our consciences be creating in them good habits, and the quickest way to make good habits is not in large unreachable goals that lead to failure, but in small steps that lead to success over a longer time and for a longer time.
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