Transcript Mark 10:17-31 - Holy Family Catholic Schools

Mark 10:17-22
To be happy, we must
1)Go to God and hear His
voice
2)Do what God tells us
Living a life of good moral
decisions leads to happiness.
What is morality?
The American satirist H.L.
Mencken says that morality is
“the theory that every human
act must be either right or
wrong, and that 99 percent of
them are wrong.”
“About morals, I know only
that what is moral is what
you feel good after and
what is immoral is what you
feel bad after.”
Ernest Hemingway
“Love and do what
you will.”
St. Augustine
Traditional definition:
“The science of what
humans ought to do
by reason of who
they are.”
“…by reason of who they are”
A proper view of the human
person is the critically important
starting point in deciding what is
the moral way to respond. This
proper view is that every human
being has dignity.
Dignity is the respect due to
each human being because we
are all made in God’s image.
Human dignity cannot be earned
or taken away. It is a quality of
being human.
Science
Catholic morality draws on
three main sources of
knowledge to reach
conclusions about how we
should act (see salmoncolored handout)
To say that morality is a science
is to say that we can use
knowledge to make informed
decisions. Therefore, morality is
not strictly a matter of opinion
and is not based on a “feeling.”
Catholic/Christian Morality
is doing the right thing
(God’s Plan) that will
lead to our ultimate
happiness
Christian morality is living
our lives in response to
Jesus. Christian
morality is based on a
relationship.
• Moral: that which is good,
promotes human welfare
• Immoral: that which is bad,
harmful, destructive
• Amoral: neutral / also, “an
amoral person” meaning
without morals, no sense of
right or wrong
Changes in morality:
Child…
Adolescent…
Adult…
• Child: moral decisions are whether
or not to obey the dictates of adults;
it was a question of obedience
• Adolescence: searching through
what you have been taught and
come to your own conclusions
• Adults: a morality lived out of
personal conviction because it has
been sorted through