Transcript JC3 PowerPoint Chapter 8(1)

Ch. 8: Living the Paschal Mystery:
A Call to Holiness
• Who are some people you consider to be
holy?
• What does it mean to be “holy”?
The Light of Christ
• Something is holy by
virtue of being related
to God.
• Our call to holiness (i.e.
to be saints) is a
vocation given to us by
Jesus himself.
• A mark of holiness is to
let Christ’s light shine
through in our lives.
Living a Life of Virtue
• For our part, we can accept the grace of Redemption
God offers us by:
– repenting of our sins
– believing in the Gospel
– living a life of holiness
• We grow in holiness in
two ways:
1. living a life of virtue
2. cooperating with God’s
graces
Virtues
• The habitual and firm disposition to do good—
the meaning of living a life of virtue—empowers
us to perform good acts and give the best of our
lives.
• The opposite of a virtue is a vice, a bad habit
that is acquired by repeated sin in violation of
proper norms of morality.
The Human Virtues
• Human virtues (aka moral virtues) are virtues we
can acquire by human effort.
• The cardinal virtues—prudence, justice,
fortitude, and temperance—are the source of the
other virtues.
Prudence
• Helps us decide
responsibly
• Equated with common
sense and wisdom
• Use of memory,
foresight, imagination,
and openness to
learning to discover
the right course of
action in every
situation
Justice
• Giving due to God and neighbor
• The four types:
– commutative: regulates
relationships of exchange
between individuals and social
groups
– distributive: seeks fair distribution
of the goods of creation
– legal: governs what individuals
owe society as a whole
– social: applies the Gospel message of Jesus Christ to
the structures, systems, and laws of society
Fortitude
• Courage to conquer
fears—even the fear of
death—for a worthy
cause
• The ultimate example
of fortitude it
martyrdom, dying for
one’s faith
Temperance
• Virtue of self-control
• Three parts:
– abstinence: tempers our
desires for food and other
pleasure-producing
substances
– sobriety: moderates our desires for alcoholic beverages
– chastity: helps us control our sex drive in a way that
fits our state in life
The Theological Virtues
• Faith, hope, and charity (love)
• They are infused into our souls directly by God
• The Triune God is their origin, motive, and object
Faith
• Makes it possible for us to
commit totally to God
• Must be lived and
strengthened through
practices like:
–
–
–
–
–
–
prayer
reading Scripture
celebrating the sacraments
studying the faith
drawing on the faith of friends
put faith into action:
• corporal works of mercy
and
• spiritual works of mercy
Hope
• Allows us to desire the
Kingdom of Heaven and
happiness in eternal life
• Christ’s own life is a
model of hope
Charity
• Allows us to love God for his
own sake and our neighbor
as ourselves for the love of
God
• The “mother of virtues” and
the only virtue that lasts into
eternity
• Jesus by his words and deeds
teaches that charity involves:
– obedience
– reverence
– sacrifice
God Helps Us Grow
in Holiness
• Growth in holiness is a
difficult but not
impossible task as long
as we rely on God’s
help, which includes:
– grace
– the seven gifts of the
Holy Spirit
Grace
• Grace is God’s favor, the free
and undeserved help that God
gives us to respond to the call
to holiness
• The benefits of grace:
– enables us to address God as
Abba
– adopts us into God’s family
– enables us to share in the life of
the Blessed Trinity
– makes us heirs of Heaven
– enables us to live as God’s sons
and daughters as Jesus taught
– unites us to our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ
• Sanctifying grace is the
free and undeserved gift
that God gives to us that
blesses us in many ways
and helps us to grow in
holiness
• Distinguished from:
– actual graces: God’s
intervention at the beginning of
conversion or in the course of
sanctification
– sacramental graces: specific gifts that come from particular
sacraments
– graces of state: help God gives to particular ministries in the
Church
– charisms: special gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to individual
Christians to build up the Body of Christ
The Seven Gifts of the
Holy Spirit
• Help us to live Christ-like lives
• Given to us at Baptism and
Confirmation
The Seven Gifs of the Holy Spirit:
• wisdom: looking at reality from
God’s point of view
• understanding: ability to uncover the deeper meaning of
faith and the mysteries of God’s magnificent creation
• knowledge: grace to see how God is working in our lives,
especially in moral decisions
• counsel (right judgment): ability to
form our conscience in light of Church
teaching
• fortitude (courage): strength to follow
our convictions in the face of adversity
• piety (reverence): respect shown to
the Lord through praise and worship
• fear of the Lord (wonder and awe):
concern about the reality of our sin
and to avoid alienation from God
Essential Elements of Holiness
• We are able to grow in
holiness as members of
Christ’s Body in three
general ways:
– practicing the virtue of
charity
– celebrating the
sacraments
– picking up the cross
and following Jesus
• Created in his own image, God gave humans the
capacities needed to be holy and to share in his own life:
– Human reason: power to discern with our intellects the
laws God put into creation
– Free will: capacity to choose among alternatives and
to use God-given talents to cooperate freely with God’s
grace
– Conscience: capacity to distinguish between good and
evil in an act that one is going to perform, in the
process of performing, or has already completed
– Formation of
conscience is a lifelong process
An upright conscience recognize three
sources of morality:
1. the object chosen: the matter of our
actions/ what we do
2. the end or intention: the purpose for
doing something
3. the circumstances: secondary factors
surrounding the action (e.g. time, place,
method of performing the act)
• Every person is obliged to follow his or her own
conscience.
• However, sometimes conscience can be mistaken, so
we must always aim to strengthen it.
• Following a wellformed conscience
and making a moral
choice based on it is
an opportunity for
growth in holiness.