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Assignment 6: “What I really learned in this Junior Morality Course”
Andrew
Mueth
“What have
you learned about morality and you? What have you become aware of? Has the
experiences in this course helped you become more aware of, more challenged by,
more knowledgeable about, morality in genereal and your own morality
specifically?”
Key things I learned during this course:
--From Catholic Morality: A person sins not only by
actions but also by failure to stop sinners or by encouraging sinners. This
means that I cannot look on complacently as the people around me and in the
world are harmed by the sins of others or their own sins. I am called by
Catholic Social Teaching to help the poor and defenseless, and by general
Catholic morality to help also both the victims and the sinners. On a specific
level, I have been trying to apply this at school, where much bullying goes on
at a level so discreet, quiet and with such a mask of innocent fun that cruelty
often goes on unnoticed and unstopped.
--From the Intro to Morality: Use right speech to
examine my life: look at the words I use and what I say, and ask “why” whenever
my words deviate from truth and charity, because our actions follow from our
speech from our thoughts. Also, the important goal for my speech to attain both
truth and charity means a lot to me. For instance, sometimes telling the truth
would actually hurt a person unnecessarily; so keeping in mind charity helps me
to tell the truth in a kinder way. It does not mean to stop telling the truth
in order to be nice and avoid pain, for truth is the ultimate goal of right
speech, while charity is the best way to deliver the truth. One example I
remember from a homily I heard once was in the tale of the Prodigal Son who
returns to his father after squandering his inheritance. A servant goes to
announce to the faithful son that his brother has returned, but he delivered
the message in a way that reminded the brother how hard he had worked for no
reward, while his brother who left town for years and came back poor was now
getting a party thrown for him. A more charitable way of delivering the news of
the son’s return would have been to look on the bright side, by reminding the
brother of how much he missed the prodigal son and how good it was that he had
returned. This look at the parable helps me to keep in mind that there is
always more than one way to say something, so remember the power of words and
strive for truth and charity.
--I often do what I
hate, as Saint Paul said; I often break Human Law, as C.S. Lewis noted, even
though I know I am doing wrong and don’t fully want to do it, as both pointed
out. The way to overcome this concupiscence we learned about in the first
semester is by the morality we learned about in the second semester: find your
set of principles (based in the faith we learned about in the first semester), find
the morals you truly believe upon examination of self and the world, and then
stick to them at all costs. Determine your obligations and their degrees
(relative, prima facie, and absolute, in order of increasing obligation) and
what motivates you. Then, knowing yourself, you will be free to be yourself. I personally
am still determining and defining areas of my morality, though some areas are
pretty solidly set. I am currently moving to reflective unity with some and
reflective disunity with others of the morals I had accepted as a child in
unreflective unity. I am thus defining myself, and the true definition comes
whenever I act according to my morals, for action is the true test of morals,
and their whole purpose it to guide my morals. I am trying the things I think
are good morals everyday, and if I feel wholesome after acting according to one
moral principle, then I know it is good, and if I feel empty after a certain
action, then I know it is not in align with my morals. I expect to be determining
my morals for a good part of my youth, and reevaluating and checking them for
my whole life, although at 17 “my whole life” is a hard concept to grasp. I
will keep revising my map of the world, keep proofreading my moral principles
and checking for errors as they come to light. I know that I will never be
perfect, but I also know that just because I cant ever be perfect doesn’t mean
I shouldn’t strive to come as close as I can.