| A SHORT COURSE ON MORALITY II. “Mastering Tough Choices” When we act deliberately, we are, so to speak, the father (author) of our acts. Human acts = freely chosen in consequence of a judgment of conscience They can be morally evaluated (good or evil). The morality of human acts depends on (the “sources”, or constitutive elements): - the object chosen (must always be good) - the end in view or the intention (must always be good) - the circumstances of the action (good or at least neutral). THE OBJECT OF THE HUMAN ACT The object chosen is a good toward which the will deliberately directs itself (the matter of a human act). It morally specifies the act of the will, insofar as reason recognizes and judges it to be or not to be in conformity with the true good. Objective norms of morality express the rational order of good and evil, attested to by conscience (moral absolutes). “It is always evil to deliberately take the life of an innocent person”. Objective evil & subjective guilt What does it mean to say that something/some action is good? What is goodness? We can only choose what is good (or at least apparently good). The object of the choice can by itself vitiate an act in its entirety. There are some concrete acts - such as fornication – that it is always wrong to choose, because choosing them entails a disorder of the will, that is, a moral evil. THE INTENTION The intention is a movement of the will toward the end: it is concerned with the goal of the activity (purpose). The intention resides in the acting subject (in me). The Final Cause (Aristotle). One and the same action can also be inspired by several intentions, such as performing a service in order to obtain a favour or to boast about it. Proximate end/intention (= object); ultimate end/intention. Beware of “consequentialism”! and “proportionalism” (greater good v’s lesser evil). Intention can reveal what you are doing: Pain-killing drugs and euthanasia. Isn’t murder what people do in war? (Cf. CCC 2263). Principle of double effect. CCC 1753: “A good intention (for example, that of helping one's neighbor) does not make behavior that is intrinsically disordered, such as lying and calumny, good or just. The end does not justify the means. Thus the condemnation of an innocent person cannot be justified as a legitimate means of saving the nation. On the other hand, an added bad intention (such as vainglory) makes an act evil that, in and of itself, can be good (such as almsgiving)”. “No evil done with a good intention can be excused” (Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, n.73: 1993). Romans 3:8. THE CIRCUMSTANCES The circumstances, including the consequences, are secondary elements of a moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral goodness or evil of human acts (for example, the amount of a theft). They can also diminish or increase the agent's responsibility (such as acting out of a fear of death). Circumstances of themselves cannot change the moral quality of acts themselves; they can make neither good nor right an action that is in itself evil. A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action, even if the object is good in itself (such as praying and fasting "in order to be seen by men"). It is therefore an error to judge the morality of human acts by considering only the intention that inspires them or the circumstances (environment, social pressure, duress or emergency, etc.) which supply their context. There are acts which, in and of themselves, independently of circumstances and intentions, are always gravely illicit by reason of their object; such as blasphemy and perjury, murder and adultery. One may not do evil so that good may result from it. THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (CCC 1749-1761) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * “The Christian, thanks to God's Revelation and to faith, is aware of the ‘newness’ which characterizes the morality of his actions: these actions are called to show either consistency or inconsistency with that dignity and vocation which have been bestowed on him by grace. In Jesus Christ and in his Spirit, the Christian is a "new creation", a child of God; by his actions he shows his likeness or unlikeness to the image of the Son who is the first-born among many brethren (cf. Rom 8:29), he lives out his fidelity or infidelity to the gift of the Spirit, and he opens or closes himself to eternal life, to the communion of vision, love and happiness with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As Saint Cyril of Alexandria writes, Christ "forms us according to his image, in such a way that the traits of his divine nature shine forth in us through sanctification and justice and the life which is good and in conformity with virtue...The beauty of this image shines forth in us who are in Christ, when we show ourselves to be good in our works" (Veritatis Splendor, n.73). |
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