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LESSON SIX: RESPECT GOD’S GIFT: LIFE
The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground
and blew into his nostrils the breath of life,
and so man became a living being.
(Genesis 2:7)
“I have come
that they might have life,
and have it to
the full.” (John 10:10)
1. Human life is God’s greatest gift to us. God made us alive in his own image and likeness. Our lives, then, are sacred. Not only is human life the most marvelous of God’s creations, but God further dignified human life by sending his divine Son to become man and share our human existence. “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14). Respect and reverence for human life, then, is a core human and Christian virtue. We discover the true dignity yet fragility of our lives as human in learning to respect everyone’s life, and to truly care for one another. To foster and care for our own life and the lives of others is a moral responsibility, entrusted to us by God, which we share with all other persons.
2. Here we affirm that the most fundamental way we love others is to respect their human life. Life itself is not an absolute value as Christ plainly showed by his teaching on giving up one’s life out of love for one’s friends (Jn. 15:13), as he himself did on the Cross. But it is the necessary CONDITION for actively loving others as well as their receiving our love. To follow Christ as his disciples, then, means concretely doing all in our power to defend, maintain, and promote the dignity and value of human life.
3. Respect for life actually forms the basis for two commandments. The Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother,” treats of the origin of our human lives. Parents are procreators of human life, acting as God’s free, loving agents in bringing to birth new human life. The Fifth Commandment, “You shall not kill!” aims to protect the value of human life by rejecting any negative threat to it that may arise in the exercise of our God-given stewardship on earth. Both the responsible transmission of human life, and the protection and promotion of the quality of human life, are basic ways of “loving others.” They manifest maturity in the Christian Faith in showing that we recognize that under God we are one human family.
1. As Filipinos we are noted for our love of family. Our lives, everything we re and have, are due ultimately to our birth, upbringing and support of our families. It is from our families that we first learn respect for human life. But in a pastoral letter a few years ago, our Bishops noted a strange paradox. “We Filipinos value life. We respect life. But if we indeed have such a high regard for life, then why is it treated so cheaply among us? Why is it not given the value and respect that we say we put on it as a people…How is it that in a nation that prides itself in its rich Christian heritage, life is so cheap?” And if it is true that “the Filipino family plays a pivotal role in the life of the individual society – its influence is pervasive,” why are infidelities and “broken homes” becoming more and more common, especially among the urban, higher income Catholic families?
2. The Bishops’ letter goes on to enumerate specific instances of a shocking back of respect for life: the assassinations, “salvagings” and “liquidations” by government and NPA firces, and the politically motivated killings of all kinds. These, according to the Bishops, “are ‘a given fact’ that we as Christians cannot accept. It is not right that people be killed simply because their political beliefs differ from ours.”
3. More recently, PCP II has sketched an overall view of our socio-cultural, economic and political contexts in “Our World – The Philippines: Lights and Shadows.” But as specifically regarding human life, besides the violence of killings, hostage taking, and torture that have become commonplace in the lives of so many Filipinos, we also experience at first hand the world-wide attacks on human life. On the individual personal level there is abortion, suicide, mercy killing (euthanasia), drugs, and scandal. On the societal level, the ecology crisis, economic and political exploitation and the arms race, endanger the quality of countless human lives. All these factors stress the urgent need for far greater commitment to the respect for human life enjoined by the 4th and 5th Commandments.
I.
THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT
“Honor your father and your mother” is the usual way of expressing the Fourth Commandment (Ex. 20:12; Dt. 5:16). For most Christian Filipinos, this commandment is “taken for granted,” as it were, since Filipino culture so stresses their abiding utang na loob to their parents. Yet a number of clarifications are needed to properly understand the true meaning of the commandment.
1. The first point is that its original meaning referred more to the obligation of grown children, now adults, to take care of their aged parents. “My son, take care of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he lives. Even if his mind fail, be considerate with him; revile him not in the fullness of your strength” (Sir. 3:12f). In time the meaning of the Commandment was legitimately expanded to include young children’s duties toward their parents.
2. Second, this original focus on taking care of aged parents highlights two meaningful points that were present in the Third Commandment.
a) Human life and parents are not to be evaluated in terms of productivity. Aged, unproductive parents have their own fundamental personal value and worth which must be respected. Hopefully, the drive for increased modern technology and industrialization will not be allowed to erode the traditional Filipino respect for the aged. Of what ultimate value are all the things money can buy if as persons we are all destined to be snubbed, ignored and left unsupported in our old age?
b) Also this respect for aged parents is a necessary virtue not just for the individual family, but for the community as well. Respect for the aged is creative of, and actively builds up, the Christian community. Only recently have some “industrialized nations” begun to awaken to the depth of human value of the aged for the life of the community.
3. Third, both parents are to receive equal respect. The OT books of Exodus and Deuteronomy have “Honor your father and mother” (Ex. 20:12; Dt. 5:16), whereas Leviticus has “Revere your mother and father” (Lev. 19:3), showing a balance which unfortunately has not always been kept in the ensuing ages. What is significant is that the 4th Commandment is not based on any either patriarchal or matriarchal patterns of society. Rather it reflects the primal force of human love from which new human life is continually generated, according to God’s divine plan of sharing his creativity. The context of this commandment, as for the others, is the Exodus event, expressed in the preamble: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery” (Ex. 20:2). The 4th Commandment, then, liberates and frees us from enslavement to false norms for human worth and responsibility.
4. Fourth, despite its obvious correspondence with Filipino cultural values, the Fourth Commandment is often not the easiest to keep. In practical Filipino life as actually experienced, three obstacles to honoring father and mother are encountered. The first is the sad fact that not all fathers and mothers act as loving parents. Though child abuse is hopefully still rare, child neglect in one form or another is not. How many Filipino children have been gravely disturbed psychologically, or even ruined, by traumatic experiences suffered from parental action or neglect? Some parents impose on their children unreasonable burdens that come close to enslavement. More often poverty and destitution prevent even self-sacrificing Filipino parents from providing their children with even the basic necessities of life.
5. A second obstacle arises from the particular stages of the children’s and youth’s natural growth and development which demand a certain “distancing” from parents. These periods of growing up are painful and potentially destructive unless handled well with parental patience and understanding.
6. A third obstacle is the generation gap that cultural history has always created between parents and children, but which has become much more intense in contemporary times because of the speed and extent of cultural change. Today many traditional Filipino attitudes, values and institutions are questioned so critically by the youth that ordinary common sense respect for authority is often gravely weakened. Again, this obstacle demands enduring and loving patience on the part of both parents and children, especially through the difficult years of growing up. Such patience is admirably fostered by an active prayer life and openness to Christ’s Spirit.
1. God wills all persons to share in his divine life, to become God’s people The family is the basic means for carrying out this plan, since it is a “community of persons, serving life through the procreation and education of offspring, participating in the development of society, and sharing in the mission of the Church. From our cultural family centeredness, we Filipinos easily accept the family as the privileged place where new human life is generated, welcomed, and care for. Filipinos have traditionally recognized children as a gift from God. They experience the birth of a baby into the world as a special moment when God’s creative power is so intimately united with their own human parental procreative powers.
2. Moreover, this procreative work of God and the parents does not stop at birth, but continues all through the years of nurturing and educating the child. St. Paul indicates the depth of relationship between the family and God when he writes: “This is why I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name” )Eph. 3:14f).
3. The nature of the family can be considered under three titles: Covenant relationships, domestic Church, and foundation for civil society. First, as covenant relationships, most Christian Filipinos connect the family with God creating Adam and Eve through love, and calling them to mutual love, since he made them in the image and likeness of himself who is absolute and unfailing Love. They thus realize in a general way that man and woman are created for one another, to unite to become one flesh in a communion of love that grounds their marriage and family life. But perhaps many do not reflect, amidst all the difficulties of family life today, how the family union is modeled on the covenant God made with his people when he promised them unswerving fidelity and love.
4. This idea of our family as covenant simply means to bring this truth: there’s more in the daily acts, talk, and event sin the family life than first meets the eye. The “more” is love, and a love that goes all the way back to God as its ultimate source. It is a “covenant” love because it creates and sustains the basic community we need to become and survive as persons. Perhaps we recognize this most clearly in times of crisis when we face the threat of family break up. Without our families, who are we? What is the use of anything we do or think or strive for, if we cannot share it with our loved ones? Deep down, even with all the frustrations, and ups and downs of family life, it is within our families that we come to some personal experience of God’s love and fidelity for each of us. Our family is the “Covenant” where we truly belong and find our home.
5. Second, the Christian family, beyond being this covenant relationship, “constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason to it can and should be called “the domestic Church.” For the family is not only where “new citizens of human society are born, but buy the grace of the Holy Spirit received in Baptism, these are made children of God, thus perpetuating the People of God through the centuries. Thus the family is, so to speak, the domestic Church, the Church in the home, the basic unit of Christian life, the first school of discipleship. It is where we come to exercise the daily Christian virtues of generous self-giving in active charity, in mutual forgiveness and obedience, and in prayer and thanksgiving.
6. Actually, our Christian families, like the Church itself, in some real sense share in the Communion of Persons and Love of the Blessed Trinity. For in the mutual sharing of thoughts, affections, and in all their ups and downs, Christian families are actively creative like the Father. In offering prayers and sacrifices to God, they share in Jesus the Incarnate Son’s own prayer and redemptive sacrifice. Finally, Christian families form a community of interpersonal love by being inspired and strengthened by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
7. Thus by its very nature as an intimate communion of life and love, and inspired and sustained by the new commandment of love, the Christian family is placed at the service of the building up of the Kingdom of God in history by participating in the life and mission of the Church.
8. Finally, the family is also the “first and vital cell of society”. Through its service to life by birth and the education of its youth in social virtues, the family grounds and continually nourishes the existence and development of society itself. The experience of communion and sharing which is characteristic of the family’s daily life represents its first and fundamental contribution to society. At a time when even Philippine society is becoming more depersonalized, the family constitutes an irreplaceable school in developing, guarding and transmitting the social virtues and values of respect, dialogue, generous service, justice and love.
9. But its role goes beyond procreation and education to embrace, in association with other families, many social and political activities for the common good. The family must not live closed in on itself, but must remain open to the community, moved by the sense of justice and concern for others, as well as by a consciousness of the responsibility towards the whole society.
B. Family Relationships
1. Final respect for parents is demanded of children and adults by the Fourth Commandment. This is the common teaching of the Bible. The wisdom literature of the Old Testament advises: “My son, keep your father’s commandment, and reject not your mother’s teaching; while you walk, they will lead you, when you lie down, they will watch over you, when you awake, they will talk with you” (Pr. 6:20-22). In the Letter to the Ephesians we read: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ is the first commandment to carry a promise with it, ‘that it may go well with you, and that you may have a long life on earth’” (Eph. 6:1-3).
2. It is just such an attitude of filial reverence that Jesus showed Mary and Joseph in his hidden life when “he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man” (Lk. 2:52). But it is important to understand that obedience here cannot mean the automatic, unquestioning submissiveness that some Filipino parents seem to hold up as the Christian ideal for the children. Often such “blind obedience” shows more servile fear than authentic filial respect. True obedience arises rather from a willingness to listen to what is being asked, and to respond in a fully personal, conscientious manner.
3. The commandment’s to “honor,” then, means showing proper gratitude, affection, respect, obedience and care to parents. In the complex system of typical Filipino family relationships, involving ate, kuya, lola and lolo, etc. this proper respect is extended to all who have contributed to one’s care, upbringing, and education. The act of honoring, far from being merely a convention of social custom, is basically a religious act, whose deep roots and true nature are revealed in Sacred Scripture. In the Old Testament, extreme punishment was decreed for transgressors, “Whoever curses his father and mother shall be put to death” (Ex. 21:17). “A blasphemer is he who despises his father, accursed of his Creator he who angers is mother” (Sir. 3:16).
4. Parental respect and responsibility for children. Care and respect for their children as persons in their own right are enjoined by the Fourth Commandment. Thus we read in the Pauline letters: “Fathers, do not nag your children lest they lost heart” (Col. 3:21). “Do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up with the training and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). In his teaching, Christ himself offered a very positive picture of human parents: “What father among you will give a son a snake if he asks for a fish, or hand him a scorpion if he asks for an egg” If you, with all your sins, know how to give your children good things, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to whose who ask him” (Lk. 11:11-13). But it is especially in Christ’s portrait of the merciful and forgiving father in his parable of the “Prodigal Son” (Lk. 15:11-32), that we understand the full Christian meaning of parenthood.
5. Duties of Christian parents. Thus the Church teaches that parents have the duty to provide so far as they can for their children’s needs, guiding them in faith and morals, and creating for them an environment for personal growth. In infancy and childhood, parents provide for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of their children. As they grow older, the parents are called to promote their growing autonomy and independence. Parents have the primary responsibility for the education of their children, both secular and religious.
6. Conclusion. Noted for our love of family and child-centeredness, we Filipino Christians would seem to have little difficulty with this commandment. Yet problems do arise. First, parents and children alike must learn how to communicate with one another openly and deeply, in a loving, forgiving, mutually supporting atmosphere that is honest and truthful. Second, parents as well as children must be willing to admit errors, since: a) no one is perfect or sinless; b) loving forgiveness is what Christ asks of all; and c) truth and a proper sense of right and wrong are the only bases for genuine forgiveness and interpersonal relationships. Thirdly, the whole family must look beyond itself and strive to offer Christian witness of the Gospel values of justice and protection of human rights to the wider Philippines community of town, province, region, and nation.
Q1. What is the most basic way we “love one another”?
A. We love one another by respecting the gift of each other’s God-given life, and truly caring for one another by working toward improving the quality of human life.
Q2. How do parents respect human life?
A. Parents are pro-creators of human life, acting as God’s free loving agents through responsible transmission of human life and promotion of the quality of life.
Q3. How does the Fourth Commandment foster human life?
A. “Honor your father and mother” enjoins that basic filial respect for parents which is necessary for the good of both family and community.
Q4. How are parents to be given such respect?
A. Filial respect for parents is to be given:
a) not because of their actual competence, productivity, or natural virtues, but simply because of their status as parents;
b) not just for the good of the individual family, but as necessary for the community itself;
c) equally to both father and mother.
Q5. What are common obstacles to keeping this commandment?
A. Some common obstacles are:
a) parents who neglect or abuse their children;
b) the children’s or youth’s growing up periods that challenge parental patience and understanding;
c) the “generation gap” between parents and offspring that is intensified by the increased speed and extend of modern cultural and technological changes.
Yet these obstacles can also be a positive force for going beyond mere customary ways of acting, to bring out the full Christian meaning and values fostered by the commandments.
Q6. How do parents themselves foster life within their families?
A. The Fourth Commandment likewise enjoins parents to care and respect their children as persons in their own right. They have the duty to provide for the needs of their children as far as they can, especially for their proper education as Christians.
Q7. How does the Christian Faith view the family?
A. The family as the originating context of human life can be viewed as:
a) a Covenant relationship, established by God in creation, bringing out the “more” of family love;
b) the domestic Church, which through Baptism shares in God’s own Trinitarian Communion of Love, and serves as the school of Christian discipleship and virtue;
c) the first and vital cell of society, grounding and nourishing the social virtues necessary for society itself.
Q8. What is meant by the family as “Covenant”?
A. As covenant, the family is a community of love: of parents and children, of brothers and sisters with one another, of relatives and other members of the household. All are rooted in the natural bonds of flesh and blood and the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Q9. How is the family both the “domestic Church” and “first cell of society”?
A. As “the domestic Church” the family both reveals and realizes the communion in Christ and the Spirit that is proper to the Church. As the “first and vital cell of society” the family is the place of origin and most effective means for humanizing and personalizing the member of society.
SESSION 2
1. “You shall not kill” (Ex. 20:13; Dt. 5:17) forbids direct attacks on human life and physical integrity. It thus protects God’s gift of life and promotes practical care and respect for the life and dignity of all persons. Filipinos generally know the Biblical background of Cain’s murder of his brother Abel (Gen. 4:8). Even more relevant is God’s solemn warning of his covenant with Noah that we will be held accountable for human life. Those who shed the blood of another, by others their blood shall be shed; for in the image of God we have been made (Gen. 9:5-6). This indicates that the basis for the extraordinary value of human life is God. He is the Lord and Giver of life, in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
2. All human life has its basic value and dignity, therefore, because we are all created in God’s image and likeness. Added dignity and value are given by God’s Son becoming man in Jesus Christ, for his mission of salvation in the service of life (Jn. 6:35, 51ff). Jesus came so that we “might have life, and have it to the full” (Jn. 10:10). He sent us the Holy Spirit who “gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). At the climax of his life, Christ “in fulfillment of the Father’s will, gave himself up to death; but by rising from the dead, he destroyed death and restored life.” Through is Passion, Death and Resurrection, Christ has become for us “the resurrection and the life” (Jn. 11:25).
3. In his teaching, Jesus both perfected and intensified the respect commanded for human life. He perfected the respect enjoined by linking it directly with the Great Love command. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I way to you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Mt. 5:43-45). Bu his command to root out all hatred and to love even one’s enemies, in imitation of God’s own manner of acting, Jesus touched the fundamental question of life or death. “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him” (1 Jn. 3:15).
4. Jesus intensified the commandment by forbidding even anger. “You have heard it was said of your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (Mt. 5:21). Thus did Jesus go to the root of killing, and reveal anger of the heart as the real menace. St. James repeated this teaching, as relevant today as it was for the early Christians: “Where do conflicts and disputes among you originate? Is it not your inner cravings that make war within your members? What you desire you do not obtain, and so you resort to murder. You envy and you cannot acquire, so you quarrel and fight” (Jas. 4:1-2).
5. The basic value behind both the Fifth Commandment and Jesus’ teaching is that God alone is the ultimate Lord and Master of life. Since life comes from and is sustained by God, it belongs to him. Therefore, we are stewards of life who must respect and care for our own lives and the lives of others. Hence it is not simply a question of “not killing,” but of protecting, promoting, and enhancing the quality of life. God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception.
6. Vatican II emphasized respect for the quality of human life. “This council lays stress on respect for the human person: everyone must consider every neighbor without exception as another self, taking into account first of all the life and the means necessary to living it with dignity, so as not to imitate the rich man who had no concern for the poor man Lazarus” (Lk. 16:19-31; GS, 27). This includes respect the life and human dignity of those with whom we differ in terms of political, social, economic or religious matters. But as our Philippine bishops remind us, “to our continuing shame and sorrow as a people,” the lives and dignity of such are often accounted so cheap in today’s Philippines. As disciples of Christ, we must always be concerned for truth and goodness. “But we must distinguish between the error which must be rejected and the person in error, who never loses his dignity as a person.” (GS, 28)
7. The Vatican Council also makes a summary of offenses against life itself, such as murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, and willful suicide. In addition, it enumerates violations against the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, physical and mental torture, undue psychological pressures. Also listed are offenses against human dignity such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, prostitution. Even degrading working conditions can seriously threaten the quality of human life when men and women are treated as mere tools for profit rather than as free and responsible persons. The Council judges that “all these and the like are criminal. They poison human society and debase the perpetrators more than the victims, and constitute a supreme dishonor to the Creator” (GS, 27).
Particular Offenses Against Life
8. Perhaps the most widespread abuse in our country against physical well-being are the common “vices” of alcohol and drug abuse, and to a less intensive degree, smoking. Medical studies have proven the serious injury in terms of physical harm and addiction, and psychological and social difficulties and dependence, which these vices can cause. The quality of life – and sometimes life itself – of both the users and their family and close friends suffers greatly. More culpable still are drug dealers and pushers who for the sake of money care nothing about drawing others, especially innocent youth, into addictive dependency that ruins their very lives.
9. Abortion, or the deliberate ejection of a non-viable fetus from the mother’s womb, is strictly prohibited by the 5th Commandment as the killing of an innocent human being. Yet his moral position must be related to the social and economic situation that most often is at the root of the problem. Many women who in anguish, depression and fear, succumbed to having an abortion, felt they simply had no choice in the matter – they simply had to do it. Consequently the equally urgent moral obligation is to help indigent mothers, expand adoption services, improve health care agencies for needy women and children, and the like.
10. The principle that direct killing of the innocent is always wrong holds also for mercy killing or euthanasia – doing away with the handicapped and the terminally ill. No one has absolute power over life and death but God. We are stewards of the gift of life granted us by God. Therefore we must take ordinary means to preserve life such as medicines, treatments and operations that can be obtained and used without excessive sacrifice or expense, and when there is reasonable hope of benefit for the patient.
11. However, when there is no real hope for the patient’s genuine benefit, there is not moral obligation to prolong life artificially by the use of various drugs and machines. In fact, using extraordinary expense and means to keep comatose and terminally ill patients artificially alive seems clearly to lack objective moral validity, especially in a society where the majority of the population do not enjoy even adequate elementary health care.
12. The terrible, unalterable act of taking one’s own life, suicide, expresses a toal loss of will to survive that results from extreme depression and despair. Rather than an act of deliberate malice, suicide most often seems to be rather some sort of psychological “short circuit” which involves running away from a life that has become impossible, and from a a God who seems completely absent. As in the case of abortion, much of the blame for this terrible loss falls on society in general, and especially those more directly involved with the distressed person. As Christians we must do all in our power to help those tempted to take their own lives, to recognize God’s personal love for them, and to continue to hope in the Lord.
13. The practice of capital punishment has a long history dating from Biblical times. But in recent times the practice of executing those convicted of especially serious crimes has been questioned.
The three traditional reasons for punishing criminals seem to be lacking in the case of execution. First is retribution, or the vindication of the rights of the victim. Capital punishment, rather than vindicating rights, seems to satisfy a spiritu of vengeance or revenge, thus perpetuating the cycle of violence. Second, reform or the rehabilitation of t he criminal. Obviously capital punishment, by taking the criminal’s life, destroys any chance for reform, and moreover rejects any hope that God’s grace could effect such reform. Third, deterrence or discouraging others from committing the same crime. Surprisingly enough there is no conclusive proof that capital punishment actually deters others from serious crime. What unfortunately can be shown is the number of hardened criminals who, after being released from prison, again commit serious crimes against the community.
At present, then, the moral question whether the state should inflict capital punishment on those convicted of serious crimes, is still an open question.
14. Finally, the traditional moral doctrine on just war proposed criteria amounting to little more than common moral sense. War is judged moral when all the following conditions are present: a) a just cause; b) necessary to protect human rights and values equal to life; c) for a good proportionate to human costs of war; d) with reasonable chance for success; e) declared by legitimate authority; f) only as the last resort. It is extremely doubtful if these criteria were ever actually used by those considering entering into war. In any case, this doctrine has undergone radical re-evaluation since World War II with its introduction of nuclear war.
1. Our Catholic Faith has much to offer in this area of respect for human life. Perhaps never before in the history of human kind has the quality of human life been so quickly and radically advanced as in our era. Yet never too has the continuing disparity between the “have’s” and the “have-nots” been so scandalous. The advances of science and technology have alleviated so much human sickness, misery, suffering, and brutal toil, and brought so many good things to so many. But at the same time they have unfortunately often obscured some equally basic human life values. In the Philippines today, we can assert with security that the Christian Faith provides an irreplaceable contribution toward fostering the quality of Filipino life.
2. Doctrinally, by grounding the dignity of human life in God the Creator/Redeemer – Father, Risen Incarnate Son and Holy Spirit – our Faith safeguards reverence for parents and for human life in an unshakeable way. No power or institution on earth can take away the human person’s inalienable dignity. Despite all the continuing violence, torture, suffering, and injustice in the world, and even within our own country, believing in God our loving Creator stands as the abiding source of the Filipinos’ unquenchable human thirst for freedom and justice.
3. Moreover, this thirst is nourished, proclaimed and celebrated in the Christian liturgy in a twofold manner. First, by bringing us to public, communal acknowledgement of our own sinfulness and failures, the liturgy cuts through all ideological condemnation of “others” as the sole enemy of human life. Second, in praying: “Father, all life comes from you, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, by the working of the Holy Spirit” (EP III), we are brought inescapably before the Infinite Love that is the unique Source of our very lives – and of all human life.
EXPERIENTIAL SHARING: Share one personal experience regarding any of the sins against the Fifth Commandment mentioned above. What did you learn from this experience?
Q10. How does the Fifth Commandment foster human life?
A. “You shall not kill,” by prohibiting direct attacks on human life and physical integrity, protects its intrinsic dignity and quality. God alone is the ultimate Lord and Master of life.
Q11. How is human life, integrity and dignity attacked?
A. Direct attacks on life include murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, physical torture, hostage taking, drugs, and willful suicide.
Attacks against integrity include mutilation, physical and mental torture, and undue psychological pressures, while human dignity is attacked by sub-human living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation and prostitution.
The questions of capital punishment and just war are topics of ongoing moral reflection within and without the Church.
Q12. What are the most common abuses against physical life?
A.
The most common
abuses against physical well-being are alcoholism, drug addiction and to a
lesser degree, smoking.
Q.13. How did Jesus perfect the Fifth Commandment?
A. Jesus perfected respect for human life by:
a) linking it directly with its ideal, love, even with love for our enemies;
b) interiorizing and intensifying it by forbidding even anger of the heart, the inner source of violence against one’s neighbor.
God created man
in his image;
in the divine image he created him;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, saying: “Be fertile and
multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it…”
God looked at
everything he had made
and found it
very good.
(Genesis 1:27f,31)
The Lord said:
“It is not good for man to be alone,
I will make a suitable partner for him.”
(Genesis 2:18)
Christ replied: “Have you not read that at the beginning
the Creator made them male and female and declared,
‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and cling to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?”
(Mt. 19:4-5)
1. The first question that a new mother asks after the birth of her child is: “Is it a boy or a girl?” Human life is marked essentially by sexuality. It is fitting, then, that immediately after the Commandment on respect for life, there should come that which fosters proper respect for our sexuality – even before treating the social imperative concerning possessions and truthful communication. The Sixth and Ninth commandments treat of this respect for human sexuality in two areas: first, in the relationships between men and women according to their social status (single or married), and second, in regard to interior lustful dispositions of the heart.
2. Human sexuality is God’s gift to us. We are created according to God’s image precisely as “male or female.” It is not in lonely solitude but rather in relating to others through our sexual natures that we share in God’s life of love and creativity. Despite all misuses and misunderstandings, our human sexuality is something good! It is a God-given power for love and generativity that we must learn to gradually integrate ever more fully within our total selves. To live and associate with others in interpersonal relationships, respecting their sexuality and proper bodily expressions, is the vocation of every disciple of Christ. This lesson will take up the specific Christian view of the basic nature and value of human sexuality and of sex, together with some of their problems, in treating of the 6th and 9th Commandments.
1. Throughout the Philippines today, the Christian Filipino is caught up in a whirlwind of changing patterns of man-woman relationships, and of the understanding of sexuality itself. The traditional chaste and modest “Maria Clara” ideal of Filipino womanhood has quietly faded away. Highly praised in past eras for being “mayumi, mahinhin, malinis ang puso at maganda,” today’s Filipina must face challenges posed by new career possibilities, new demands of family and community, and new economic and social situations. The direct influence of Christian faith on the sexual mores of Filipino daily life today is diluted by the growing impact of mass media: TV, the cinema, and magazines/comic books with their blatant exploitation of sex.
2. The Filipino family is under tremendous moral strain. Economic pressures are breaking up family solidarity. Political trends tend to foster artificial means of birth-control, including such immoral means as sterilization and abortion. Social enticements from today’s consumerist society promote the “good life” glorifying pleasure and sexual promiscuity.
3. Together with all these changes, PCP II denounces the persistence of the “double standard” morality in Filipino sexual attitudes and relationships. From a Christian perspective this is extremely harmful for both men and women. While the Filipina is expected to be a virgin before marriage, and faithful within marriage, the Filipino male youth is constantly bombarded by the opposite “macho” image of what it means to be “tunay na lalaki.” The socially accepted querida system is likewise castigated by PCP II.
4. In reaction, the current “women’s liberation” movement aims to free women from the state of injustice and subjugation which denies their true dignity. But some feminists fall into the trap of seeking equality by demanding the same licentious sexual irresponsibility as the “macho male.” This of course leads to just another form of women’s enslavement and manipulation with social consequences clearly manifest in the rampant pornography and prostitution.
EXPERIENTIAL SHARING: How have you experienced the observations of the Context? Share your personal observations and opinions regarding the issues mentioned above.
I.
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
1. The Sixth Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery” (Ex. 20:14; Dt. 5:17), seems simple and direct. It forbids married persons from entering into sexual union with someone other than their spouse. But for the ancient Israelites, this commandment had more social significance than sexual. Its aim was to protect the family, the absolutely necessary basis for society. The family and marriage were viewed directly in terms of the two Genesis creation narratives. God created man male and female so that man would not be alone (Gen. 2:18), and to multiply and fill the earth (Gen. 1:27f).
2. Sexuality, therefore, is for both human completeness and procreation. Thus while focusing on the specific relationships of marriage, the sixth commandment actually touches upon the very nature of human sexuality, the entire range of man-woman relationships, and our common vocation to love and communion.
3. As such, the Sixth Commandment has been plagued through history by cultural conditions and prejudices that have obscured its true intent. First, there was the ancient patriarchal distortion of marriage wherein the wife was treated as “property” of the husband. The “double standard” of morality from which Philippine society suffers today was clearly evidenced in the ancient law: a married woman was charged with adultery for having sexual relations with any man other than her husband; but a married man only when he had sexual intercourse with another married woman.
4. Second, through history human sexuality has attracted more than its share of taboos, restrictive customs and laws. Licentious practice in society on one side frequently gave rise on the other to a quite unbiblical hostility among the “pious” toward sexuality and sex. Third, these two abusive trends tended to develop into a moralistic, legalistic rigidity regarding sexuality. Traditionally, many Filipino church-goers have been charged with such Pharisaic self-righteousness.
5. Actually, all these attitudes run counter to the truly liberating character of the Sixth Commandment which is grounded on the authentic nature of our human sexuality, and of marriage as the model of complete human communion. But just what is the “authentic nature of human sexuality” from a Christian point of view?
1. “Sexuality is today understood in a more complete and integral sense than the past when the focus was almost completely on the sex act. Today sexuality signifies an essential dimension of the whole person, by which he/she enters into relationship with others. It thus touches every aspect of personal life, and has to be developed by all men and women just as life itself must be” (CCC, 2332).
2. “Sexuality is a fundamental component of personality, one of its modes of being, of manifestation, of communicating with others, of feeling, of expressing and of living human love. Therefore it is an integral part of the development of the personality” (Educ. Guid. In Hum. Love, 4).
3. “It is, in fact, from the sex that the human person receives the characteristics which, on the biological, psychological and spiritual levels, make that person a man or a woman, and thereby largely condition his or her progress toward maturity and insertion into society” (Decl. Concerning Sex, Ethics, 1).
4. The basis of this wider understanding of human sexuality is, of course, creation. Man and woman constitute two modes of “imaging” God and they fully accomplish such a vocation not only as single persons, but also as couples, which are communities of love.
5. The first consequence of this fundamental truth of creation is that “in creating the human race ‘male and female’ God gives man and woman an equal personal dignity, endowing them with the inalienable rights and responsibilities proper to the human person.”
6. PCP II forcefully opposed “all forms of discrimination and exploitation of women” and emphasized “the growing awareness of their dignity and equality with men.” For the Filipino Catholic, then, this basic equality of man and woman grounded on God’s creation is the solid ground for an authentically Christian view of sexuality and of marriage.
7. But this equality as persons does not entail any unisex sameness that denies all distinctiveness of the sexes. On the contrary, the second consequence of God’s creative action is that by their distinctive sexuality, man and woman are both different and complementary, not only in their physical and biological being, but reaching down to the depth of their moral and spiritual being.
8. This complementarity is the ground for a third consequence: man and woman are called to mutual gift of self, to a reciprocity. By and through our sexuality we are called to live in a positive complementary relationship with one another. “The partnership of man and woman constitutes the first form of communion between persons” (GS, 12), and constitutes the basic form of our co-humanity.
9. Concretely, then, our sexuality is a relational power through which we can show understanding, warmth, openness and compassion to others. The fourth consequence then is simply that sexuality is for love – either married or celibatre love. Sexuality orients every man and woman toward interpersonal dialogue, and contributes to their integral maturation by opening them up to the gift of self in love.
10. Sexuality, oriented, elevated and integrated by love, acquires truly human quality. Prepared by biological and psychological development, it grows harmoniously and is achieved in the full sense only with the realization of affective maturity, which manifests itself in unselfish love and in the total gift of self.
11. John Paul II develops this in his Familiaris Consortio by relating creation directly with love. For love is the key to: 1) God, the personal loving Creator, 2) his creating act through love, and 3) the human persons in his likeness precisely as man and woman for love.
12. But the affective life proper to each sex expresses itself in ways characteristic of the different states in life. The are: 1) conjugal union for married persons; 2) consecrated celibacy chosen freely for the sake of the Kingdom of God; 3) Christian youths before choosing marriage or celibacy; and 4) single blessedness chosen by lay faithful. But in every case, each one of us, man or woman, is called to a life of love which channels the gift of our sexuality and its energies into positive, supporting relationships. Such relationships build up a wholesome community wherein all persons are called and helped to express their personal uniqueness through their sexuality, integrated within their very persons.
B. Biblical Perspective
1. This Christian view of sexuality and marriage is supported and developed by the Biblical narrative of God’s relationship with Israel, his chosen people, through salvation history. First there was the simple innocence of original creation when “the man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame” (Gen. 2:25). But sin entered and brought disorder into the couple’s relationship to God and to each other. The sexual relationship, while remaining fundamentally good, often became a divisive force. Instead of feeling joy at the unique difference of the other sex, the partners experienced the selfish desire of possession (Gen. 3:16). From a natural power of outward self-giving in genuine love, the human sex drive became open to the temptation of turning back on itself in self-centered hedonism.
2. Despite the Old Testament’s strong rejection of God as a sexual being, Yahweh’s covenant with Israel was surprisingly portrayed in a marriage image. The stress was on the strength, depth, and fidelity of Yahweh’s love for his chosen people: “I will espouse you to me forever; I will espouse you in right and justice, in love and mercy; I will espouse you to fidelity and you shall know the Lord” (Hos. 2:21f). God moreover forgave Israel when she proved to be an unfaithful spouse and promised to redeem her: “For he who has become your husband is your Maker; his name is the Lord of hosts;…The Lord calls you back, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, a wife married in youth and then cast off…For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you back…with enduring love I take pity on you, says the Lord your redeemer” (Is. 54:5-8).
3. In the New Testament Jesus bypassed all the detailed prescriptions and prohibitions of the Torah regarding sexuality and marriage. He focused rather on their essential dignity and value as created by God. Recall how the Pharisees and scribes tried to trap Jesus into rejecting the Mosaic Law which commanded the stoning of an adulteress. But Jesus broke through their hypocritical moralistic legalism. In an exercise of authentic divine merciful love, Jesus brought the “elders” to a consciousness of their own sinfulness, while at the same time drawing the woman away from her sin (Jn. 7:53-8:11).
4. Again, when questioned by the Pharisees about divorce, Jesus reiterated the Creator’s original meaning of sexuality. “A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become as one (Gen. 2:24). Thus they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together let no one separate” (Mt. 19:3-6).
5. St. Paul used this same text (Gen. 2:24) to teach that Christian marriage takes on a new meaning. It symbolizes the intimate love relationship between Christ and the Church. “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her…This is a great foreshadowing; I mean that it refers to Christ and the Church. In any case, each one should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband” (Eph. 5:25,32ff). Paul himself boasted to the Corinthians that “I have given you in marriage to one husband, presenting you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2).
6. This Pauline image of Christian marriage rests firmly on the conviction that our bodies are members of Christ. “Whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him…Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you – the Spirit you have received from God. You are not your own. You have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:17-20).
C. Redeemed Sexuality
1. In paying the price of our redemption, Jesus Christ wished most of all to restore human relationships to what God intended before original sin distorted and corrupted them. This restoration pertains not only to our relationship with God, but especially to the mutual interrelationships between men and women within the community and in family life. By word and example, Jesus revealed the true nature of our human sexuality and of marriage. More importantly, through his own Resurrection, Jesus redeemed our whole persons, with all our instincts, powers and relationships, including our sexuality.
2. The family and the nation were part of Israel’s covenant with Yahweh. So for Christians today, the marriage relationship between husband and wife, and the total area of human interpersonal relationships between man and woman, are touched by the redeeming grace of Christ in his Spirit, and form an intrinsic part of the Kingdom of God.
3. Sexuality and marriage, then, are not just biological facts for Christians. Rather renewed by God’s love through Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit, they are a real personal power and a perduring state for love, a love which develops, heals, and creates.
4. The Sixth Commandment, then, when viewed through the eyes of faith in the Risen Christ, far from restricting us, actually liberates from two “tyrannies.” The first is the tyranny of self-righteous decency, composed of all the hypocritical standards, moralistic puritanical attitudes and misguided taboos regarding sexuality. The second is the tyranny of “indecency” conducted by the so-called “new” morality that exalts casual, spontaneous sex while rejecting commitment and moral obligation. In rejecting fornication, and the forced violation of sexual integrity in rape, the Commandment is clearly protecting the personal dignity of both men and women, and recalling their social responsibility against scandalizing the young.
5. Both tyrannies mislead people into a tragically deceptive idea of love that holds them captive in a loveless state of unfulfilled desires. Breaking through both tyrannies, the Christian view of sexuality and marriage presents the dignity and authentic freedom of single and married life that is truly fulfilling, desirable, fruitful.
6. For the married, the commandment enjoins a free and responsible fidelity to a conjugal union that is life-long. This means first a joining of man and a woman in the fullness of their personal lives – a real, complete communion at all levels. Secondly, it means a permanent, enduring bond that is “for keeps.” That is why it is right that the total giving of self in sexual intercourse be reserved for this state of marriage as a permanent covenantal bond of personal love. For only within such a communion does sexual union take on its full meaning and become truly human and creative.
7. The high human costs of adultery and of divorce are often covered up by phrases like “having an affair.” In reality, adultery gravely injures the life and character of the individual married persons involved, as well as of the community. Commitments are broken, suspicion and anger aroused, personal trust betrayed, relationships destroyed, children threatened and the whole social fabric of the community weakened (CCC, 2380-86).
8. Despite all sexist propaganda in the mass media, real human freedom and love are not found in “free sex.” In rejecting polygamy, incest, and uncommitted free unions (“living in”), the commandment guides us away from such false, ruinous attempts to fulfill our yearning for true love and communion. But Christ is ever unmindful of our human frailty, and the many temptations constantly bombarding us. His grace is ever present, God’s fidelity to the covenant holds firm and with it our human covenant; in them alone will we find our true human freedom and love.
Q1. What is the value of our sexuality?
A. Human sexuality is God’s gift to us: male and female God created us in his own image and likeness. We share in the divine life of love and creativity not in lonely solitude, but precisely in relating to one another through our sexual natures.
Q2. How does the Sixth Commandment protect our sexuality?
A.
“You shall not
commit adultery” prohibits married persons from entering into sexual union with
someone other than their spouse.
In protecting the family and marriage, with
their two ends of procreation and human completeness, the Sixth Commandment
touches on the very nature of human sexuality and the full range of man-woman
relationships.
Q3. How successful has this Commandment been in
protecting the true value of our sexuality?
A.
The effectivity of
this Commandment has suffered from:
a)
the so-called
“double standard” of morality whereby what is allowed for men is denied for
women;
b)
rigid taboos
and restrictive customs which view sexuality with fear and hostility; and
c)
the consequent
moralistic, legalistic mind-set regarding sexuality.
Q4. What is the Christian view of sexuality?
A. Our sexuality is viewed as a fundamental component of personality, a GOOD thing created by God, restored by the power of Jesus Christ and enriched by the saving activity of the Church, by which the whole person enters into communication with others.
Therefore sexuality is not the same as the sex act. All human persons must develop their God-given gift of sexuality. But some freely choose, for the sake of the Kingdom, not to enter into the sex act.
Q5. What are the consequences of this view of sexuality?
A. From this view of sexuality four consequences follow:
Men and women are:
a) of equal personal dignity and human rights;
b) different but complementary;
c) called to mutual gift of self and reciprocity;
d) as created through love and for love.
Q6. What are the different states of life expressing love?
A. The different states of life for men and women are:
a) conjugal union of the married;
b) consecrated celibacy chosen freely for the sake of the Kingdom;
c) Christian youths before entering into a definite state of life; and
d) The single blessedness chosen by lay faithful.
Q7. What is the Biblical view of sexuality?
A. The Bible describes how from the simple innocence of original creation, sin entered to bring disorder and division into sexual relationships, and the temptation to self-centered hedonism.
Nevertheless Yahweh’s own love for his chosen people is surprisingly portrayed in marriage imagery.
Christ in the Gospels bypassed all the detailed prescriptions of the Law and focused on the essential dignity and value of marriage and sexuality as created by God.
Finally, St. Paul stressed the new meaning of Christian marriage by comparing the love of husband and wife to Christ’s love for his Church.
Q8. How is the Sixth Commandment “liberating”?
A.
When viewed
through faith in the redemptive force of the Risen Christ’s grace, the Sixth
Commandment liberates from the two tyrannies of:
a)
“self-righteous
decency” consisting of hypocritical moralizing and misguided taboos regarding
sexuality; and
b)
“indecency”,
exalting casual, spontaneous sex without commitment or love.
Q9. How does the Sixth Commandment affect the
married?
A.
For the married,
the Commandment enjoins a free, responsible fidelity to life-long conjugal union
that is:
a)
a complete
union of love at all levels in the fullness of their personal lives;
b)
a “for keeps,”
an enduring and permanent bond.
Both these elements act against adultery and
divorce which entail such high human costs.
1. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Ex. 20:17) completes the Sixth Commandment
by going to the interior root and source of disorders of the flesh: covetousness of heart. ‘For from the heart come evil thoughts,
murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, false witness, blasphemy. These are what
defile a person” (Mt. 15:19f). It was covetousness that the cunning serpent
played upon in tempting Eve: “you will be as gods” (Gen. 3:5), and resulting in
their loss of innocence. It was Cain’s envy that led to his resentment and
murder of his brother Abel (Gen. 4:4ff). David’s lust for Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11)
led the chosen king of Judah into evil plotting and murder.
2. Such has been the pattern down through the ages: human covetousness
has been the radical source of sin that alienates us from God and our
fellowmen. Three traditional forms are cited by St. John’s classic text. “All
that is in the world, lust of the flesh, enticements for the eye, pride of
life, is not from the Father” (1 Jn. 2:16).
3. The Ninth Commandment, of course, also rejects the effects of this
covetousness, and the systematized covetousness featured in so much of today’s
Philippine consumerist, sexist society. It calls us to acknowledge our deep
inbred lust for possessions and power, and to venture out in an “Exodus” away
from the “fleshpots of Egypt,” the house of slavery, toward the liberation of
respect and solidarity with one another. We can pray King’s David’s psalm of
repentance: “A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew
within me”(Ps. 51:12).
4. Christ perfected this teaching in his Sermon on the Mount. “You have
heard the commandment, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her
in his heart” (Mt. 5:27). To show how serious he was in this, Jesus added: “If
your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away” (Mt. 5:29).
Likewise St. Paul exhorted his converts: “Put to death whatever in you nature
is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desires and that lust which is
idolatry” (Col. 3:5). To the Ephesians he wrote: “Make no mistake about this:
no fornicator, no unclean or lustful person – in effect an idolater – has any
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God” (Eph. 5:5).
1. Positively, what is called for is purity of heart, or the virtue of chastity. All Christians have the Vocation to Chastity.
Chastity here refers to the wholesome integration of one’s sexuality within
one’s person. This creates in us an inner harmony and unity of body and spirit
that grounds our integrity as persons and in our self-giving in love. As St.
Paul wrote to his beloved Thessalonians: “God wills you all to be holy. He
wants you to keep away from sexual immorality, and each one of you to know how
to control his body in a way that is holy and honorable, not giving way to
selfish lust like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thes. 4:3-5).
2. Chastity deals
with our external acts but precisely as expressing the inner “yearnings of our
heart.” At root, purity of heart is a positive power for authentic human
freedom and love, not a repressive denial of the true value and exercise of our
sexuality. This is proclaimed in the Sixth Beatitude: “Blessed are the clean of
heart, for they will see God!” (Mt. 5:8). The “clean of heart” designates those
who direct their hearts, bodies, and mind toward God. In charity, or
purity of heart (2 Tim. 2:22), in chastity, or purity of body (Col.
3:5), and in orthodoxy, or purity of faith (2 Tim. 2:26). St. Paul sums
this up: “what we are aiming at is…love that springs from a pure heart, a good
conscience, and sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5).
3. Despite its bad press and reputation today, even among many Christian Filipinos,
chastity or purity of heart exercises key functions in the daily, maturing
process of following Christ. Chastity first puts order into our sexual
drives, much as telling the truth orders our speech. This means, second,
that it channels our sexual energies toward a positive, affirmative
service of love and fostering of life. Third, toward that goal, chastity
seeks the limits of our behavior within which our passions can be
directed so that they give rise to joy and peace, not pain, guilt and heartbreak.
Thus purity of heart, fourth, demands that we develop a certain self-control
to meet the temptations and challenges presented by community daily life. Such
self-control constitutes a good part of what it means to grow up toward
becoming mature, responsible men and women and disciples of Jesus Christ.
4. Chastity or
purity of heart, then, can be a major decisive factor in Christian “growing
up.” The self-control developed by a chaste heart first frees us from
our selfish self-centeredness, and opens us to the penetrating realization of
our need for others. Whether we fulfill this need through marriage or a
celibate life, does not alter the basic truth: our sexuality clearly tells us
we are incomplete without others. Second, growing up to being fully a
man or woman means learning to respect and nourish positive attitudes towards
others. Thus St. Paul urges the Galatians: “Let us do good to all, but
especially to those who belong to the family of the faith” (Gal. 6:10). If we
do not seek the good of others, we harm the body of Christ. To respect and
nourish relations with others means being willing to sacrifice our time and
selves for them, encouraging them, helping them when we can.
5. A third aspect of growing up to full maturity involves discernment.
We learn when to say “yes” to an opportunity for positive growth and fuller
relationships, and when to say a definite “no” to the dark urges playing on our
vulnerable weaknesses. Finally, being a mature man or woman involves the
ability to discern true, authentic love from its many counterfeits of
infatuation, desire, or simple lust. Christian purity of heart, strengthened
and supported by a fervent sacramental and prayer life, greatly helps this
discernment by its simplicity, its greater clarity of understanding and
firmness of will, and its genuine openness to the other as gift.
1. But “in order for the value of sexuality to reach its full
realization, education for chastity is absolutely essential, for it is a
virtue that develops a person’s authentic maturity and makes him or her capable
of respecting and fostering the “nuptial meaning” of the body…Fruit of the
grace of God and of our cooperation, chastity tends to harmonize the different
components of the human person, and to overcome the frailty of human nature,
marked by sin, so that each person can follow the vocation to which God has
called” (Educ. Guid. In Hum. Love, 18).
2. What is of utmost importance in the education and practice of chastity
is motivation. This means taking seriously our imagination, which
is the key factor in arousing or controlling the human sexual drive. It means
focusing on the values of our sexuality which ground the moral norms.
Values such as personal growth in interpersonal dialogue and the gift of self
in love, creative fecundity and the transmission of human life. Only when such
values are appreciated can personal responsibility in controlling our sexuality
be effectively taught.
3. Especially for the Filipino, this long process of education in
chastity ought to be centered in the family. This is so because chastity is FOR
LOVE. It opens out naturally in friendship. Now in our culture, the
family is the first and most natural setting wherein the Filipino experiences
being loved and loving. But unfortunately it seems most Filipino youth learn
more about sex from their peer group, the barkada, and from mass media,
than from any other source. Hence parents must be brought to fuller realization
of their duty to educate their children in the essential Catholic vision of
sex. Moreover, this education for chastity in the family will not be effective
if not supported and developed in the school, parish and Christian community.
Each must accept its proper responsibility in fostering a healthy Christian climate
toward interpersonal relationships and their proper bodily expressions.
1. Since chastity or purity of heart is directed toward love, it pertains
directly to all persons according to their different states of life. This
includes both married and single persons. Chastity for the married consists in fidelity to their marriage vows, and to their respect and
reverence for what is good and lovely in their marriage. Self-control is demanded by chastity of both single persons
and of married couples. In both, this “mastering of self” is an integral part
of the formation of good character and the spirit of self-sacrifice. These are
indispensable virtues needed for the stability and well-being of both single
persons and of married couples in their conjugal love. For the married,
chastity becomes the strongest protection against not only adultery but also divorce. Both adultery and divorce bring disorder
into family unity and into society itself, breaking the marriage vows of life-long
self-giving in conjugal love.
2. Regarding contraception,
the Church has insisted that
“marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the begetting
and educating of children.” Hence while rejecting artificial means of
contraception and birth control, the Church encourages natural family planning to
ensure that the procreation, nurture and education of the children might be
achieved in a truly human and Christian way.
3. In the Philippines today, a growing drive for population control
has given rise to anxieties and misgivings among many Catholic Filipinos.
Clearly unlimited pre-creation of children, or rearing children by chance
rather than choice, are not responsible ways of acting. Nevertheless the
population problem is not primarily one of numbers, but of the care of persons,
and the improvement of the quality of human life. This involves not only food,
clothing and shelter, but spiritual endowments such as conscience and freedom
and moral integrity. Would it not be the height of folly to strive for greater
material prosperity at the cost of violence done to personal conscience,
freedom in decision-making, the exercise of moral integrity? The key to the
problem is not in external means of control through mechanical and chemical contraceptives,
but rather in the development and maturation of inner mastery of one’s sexual
behavior – in the chastity and self-control demanded by the stable commitment
of marriage.
4. The chastity of the single person is seen in
both virginity chosen for the sake of the Kingdom and single-blessedness. The
single person also has a vocation to love, not in the form of marriage, but in
love’s “dynamism, inherent in sexuality, of self-giving openness to others.”
The chastity of the celibate “seeks to obtain its strengthening and
transfiguring by the presence of the Spirit, who teaches us to love the Father
and the brethren, after the example of the Lord Jesus.” Such chastity rules out
all sexual intercourse which by its definitive nature finds its proper meaning
in the married state alone.
5. Chastity for both married and single also combats the search for
solitary sexual pleasure in masturbation. This complex and delicate problem has
repercussions on the integral growth of the person. Masturbation is an abuse of
our sexual powers because it lacks the sexuality’s essential relationship which
is ordered towards self-giving love and the service of life according to God’s
design. Often it is a result of deficient affective growth, and/or a symptom of
much deeper personal problems.
6. Thus while recognizing the objective moral gravity of masturbation, it
is most important to look into its psychological and emotional factors.
Attention should be focused more on the “heart” of the person rather than on
the mechanics of the act. Chastity helps those caught in the habit of
masturbation to look into their hearts and reflect on their values and supposed
needs that cause such acts. For the Christian, the Body of Christ is not
promoted by those who turn in on themselves and hoard one of their most
precious God-given gifts instead of sharing it with others in responsible
interpersonal relationships.
7. Understanding human sexuality correctly includes recognition of
heterosexuality as normative, while respecting the personhood of those with
homosexual tendencies. Homosexuality represents another grave impediment to
integral sexual growth of a person. St. Paul condemns both male and female
homosexual acts as God’s punishment for idolatry, the worship of unnatural lust
(Rom. 1:18-32). But care must be taken to distinguish between a condition of
homosexual orientation for which the homosexual cannot be held responsible, and
homosexual acts.
8. Like everyone
else, the homosexual is called to chastity. Chastity here rejects homosexual
acts as lacking the essential openness to service of life. But as with the
solitary abuse of masturbation, while recognizing its grave objective moral
disorientation, it is important to seek the factors impelling the person’s
homosexuality. Among such conditions one can cite the absence of supportive
parental relationships, false education, lack of normal sexual development,
poor habits and even peer pressure.
9. Finally, the virtue of chastity and purity of heart stand in direct
opposition to prostitution and pornography. In the Philippine context,
both present extreme cases of exploitation and injustice, foisted on the poor
by the affluent. Rather than primarily a problem in sexual morality, both are
too often simply the consequences of dire poverty and destitution. Yet both
constitute a dehumanizing, self-centered and immoral use of our God-given
sexuality.
10. A prostitute is robbed of his/her dignity as a person by being
reduced to a mere means for the selfish pleasure of the buyer. There is absolutely
no commitment, no love, no service of life. Pornography propagates the
sexually obscene and licentious in a dehumanizing and exploitative manner. By
reducing persons to sex objects for illicit pleasure, it substitutes
self-centered, commitment-less “Playboy” fantasies, for genuine loving
interpersonal relationships. Both prostitution and pornography flourish as
parasites on a society that has become morally sick and sexually confused.
1. Catholic sexual morality is based clearly on the doctrines that 1) God created every human person precisely as male or female in
his own image and likeness; 2) that the Risen Christ has healed and perfected
our whole persons, including our sexuality, through 3) the Holy Spirit,
received from God, indwelling in our bodies. Moreover, the doctrine of original
sin and the consequent disordered desires we experience in concupiscence show
why it is so difficult to so integrate our own sexuality. We need this
integration to think and act responsibly, with due respect for the sexuality
and marriage of others.
2. This indicates the urgent necessity of developing the sound Christian
virtues of chastity and purity of heart, modesty and self-control. But the
basis and motivating inspiration for such virtue practice can only come from
regular personal prayer and sacramental life,
especially contact with the Risen Christ in the Eucharist, the Sacrament of
his universal love.
Experiential Sharing: Share
your observations and personal experiences on one or two of the specific sins
against Chastity mentioned above.
1. The Gospel
portrait of Jesus is one of a man who was completely at ease with his own
sexuality and with both men and women. He was a dominating figure who taught
with authority, and showed extraordinary power in casting out devils, calming
nature’s storms, and working “signs” to draw his people to faith. Yet he
nevertheless was gentle and humble of heart, compassionate for all, especially
the weary and heavily burdened. He love children and made friends among men and
women with equal ease. When he met sexual frailty, it was always with great
compassion and understanding. In short, he touched people deeply, and allowed
others to touch him likewise.
2. Thus the Christian ideal of sexuality and marriage is based directly
on Jesus of Nazareth, our Lord and Savior. From him we learn that sexuality is
a matter of the whole person as created by God and therefore sacred; that it
deals with relationships that come from the heart, and therefore ultimately
involves commitment to love and the service of life.
Q10. How does the Ninth Commandment protect human
sexuality?
A.
“You shall not
covet your neighbor’s wife” goes to the interior root and source of the
disorders of the flesh by prohibiting covetousness, or evil desires of the
heart. It also rejects the many effects of this covetousness common in modern
sexist consumerist society.
Q11. How do we positively fulfill the Ninth
Commandment?
A.
Positively, the
Ninth Commandment enjoins purity of heart or the virtue of chastity which
signifies the spiritual energy capable of defending love from the perils of
selfishness and aggressiveness.
Q12. What does the virtue of chastity do?
A. Chastity
a) puts order into our use of sexuality;
b) channels our sexual energies toward the positive service of love;
c) seeks the proper limits within which our passions can be reasonably directed toward authentic joy and peace; and
d) demands that we develop the needed self-control for married as well as single persons.
Q13. What does “growing up” to maturity mean?
A. Growing up toward authentic integration of our sexuality entails:
a) freeing ourselves from our own natural self-centeredness, to realize our intrinsic need for others;
b) learning to respect and nourish positive attitudes towards others; and
c) discerning when to say “No,” and the difference between authentic love and its many counterfeit imitations.
Q14. In what does “education for chastity” consist?
A. Education for chastity involves:
a) developing strong motivation through positive focus on the authentic values of our sexuality;
b) the importance of our imagination, and the family context, and
c) the integration of the biological, affective, social and spiritual elements of sexuality.
Q15. What is the Church’s position on population control?
A. The Church encourages natural family planning, but holds that the key to the population problem is not in external means of control such as mechanical and chemical contraceptives, but in inner mastery over one’s sexual behavior through chastity and self-control.
Q16. What is the Church’s position on masturbation and homosexuality?
A. Chastity for married and single alike fosters integral sexual growth of the person. Both masturbation and homosexuality hinder achieving such sexual maturity by turning away from the self-giving love and service to life that is the nature of human sexuality from the Christian view.
Likewise, pornography and prostitution dehumanize and exploit human persons, robbing them of their true dignity by reducing them to “sex-objects.” Neither offers any authentic commitment, love, or service of life.
Cease doing
evil, learn to do good.
Make justice your aim: redress the wronged,
hear the
orphan’s plea, defend the widow…
Release those bound unjustly,
untie the
thongs of the yoke;
set free the
oppressed, break every yoke;
share your
bread with the hungry,
shelter the
oppressed and the homeless;
clothe the
naked and turn not your back on your own”
(Isaiah 1:16;
58:7).
I ask you, how
can God’s love survive
in a man who has enough of this world’s goods
yet closes his heart to his brother
when he sees him in need?
Little children, let us love in deed and in
truth
and not merely talk about it”
(1 John 3:17-18).
1. Now we take up explicitly a
most pressing Christian social challenge today: to work for true justice
and peace. “Action on behalf of justice, and participation in the
transformation of the world, appears as an essential dimension in the
preaching of the Gospel…the promotion of human rights is a requirement of
the Gospel” (Justice in the World).
2. In recent times, the Church has come to a heightened awareness that Christ calls all Christians not only to a personal conversion of mind and heart. He also calls us to social responsibility, to work for the renewal of our communities through love, justice, peace and freedom. This lesson shows how this social responsibility can be brought out by using the traditional structure of the Seventh and Tenth Commandments which treat of personal freedom, possessions and talents, and of the “desires of the heart.” For these Commandments are the living Word of God that has developed through the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Beyond their historical origins at the foot of Mt. Sinai, they clarify and guide us, Christian Filipinos, today in our Faith’s call to social responsibility.
1. Of prime importance throughout the Philippines today is the question of justice. Our common problem is stealing on all levels: among individuals, between families, between businesses and corporations, between private firms and the government. Widespread poverty, injustice, and exploitation of both people and natural resources, and the violation of human rights, continue to plague Filipinos. Land reform programs have generally proven ineffectual because of radical changes in their original provisions due to political pressures. Many labor organizations gravitate toward becoming either “company unions,” protecting the interests of management, or Communist-inspired pressure groups who are more interested in unrest and disorder than the workers’ authentic good.
2. Even on the local town level in the provinces, simple cooperatives have frequently encountered serious difficulties due to the greed and corruption of their organizers. On the national level, conflicts continually arise between the expanding needs of industrial growth and the rights of individual Filipinos. Commercial interests over-ride practical ecological concern for the country’s natural resources. Political stability and security are endangered by ideological pressure groups, sometimes employing violence and terrorism.
3. PCP II’s call for “Renewed Integral Evangelization” puts primary stress on “social transformation”. This responds to a basic problem pointed out by our Bishops for many years. For a great many Catholic Filipinos “development and the structural changes it entails have no connection with faith and the sacraments. Injustice and ignorance are not among the sins ordinarily acknowledged.” But in recent years most Filipino Christians have come to realize that “poverty, violence and the task of building a new society with its own intrinsic values are questions that relate to salvation itself.” Yet as Christians and Filipinos, “we have to admit personal and collective failure to share our goods among our people.” We must “analyze the root causes of misery – not only in terms of individual selfishness, but in terms of socio-economic, political and religious structures that may be causing, or maintaining, these injustices.”
4. Thus the Church has been engaged in an on-going process of “conscientization” in our social responsibilities as Filipino Christians. Unfortunately sufficient care has not always been exercised to avoid one-sided, ideological half-truths, such as the “Christian” Marxists’ call for “total liberation,” even by violent means. PCP II has stressed that Faith judges ideology not the other way around. Exaggerations in liberation theory have largely been corrected, but on the personal level of well-intentioned but poorly guided idealistic youth, the residue of mistaken initiatives, unfulfilled promises, and shrunken dreams, have left their mark.
5. To effectively carry through a program that actually “builds justice” in a truly Filipino and Christian manner demands a double recognition. First, that the struggle for liberation, justice and peace is really part of authentic Christian Faith. Second, that Christian Faith has an essential irreplaceable role to play in achieving justice for the Filipino. As Catholic Filipinos, we must take responsibility for building a just society. Each of us is called by Christ to do our part in working to reduce and eliminate the grave injustices that plague our country and harm our people.
EXPERIENTIAL SHARING: Share your observations about or your personal experience of “social justice” conditions obtaining in our country today. What efforts have you given toward the building of a just society in our country?
1. “You shall not steal” (Ex. 20:15; Dt. 5:19) has undergone a development through history. The story of Joseph, favorite son of Jacob, whose envious brothers sold him into slavery for twenty pieces of silvery (Gen. 37), exemplifies its original prohibition against kidnapping. Each Commandment of the second Tablet, then, referred to a basic social right of the free Israelite: life (5th Commandment), marriage (6th Commandment), freedom (7th Commandment), honor (8th Commandment), and property (9th and 10th Commandments). Kidnapping has particular relevance to today’s world-wide problem of terrorism. Taking hostages for ransom has become a political strategy that is not unknown even in our own country. The 7th Commandment makes it very clear: we cannot use a person’s life and liberty as a means to extort money or political advantage from others, no matter how noble the cause.
2. The Commandment’s prohibition was then extended beyond kidnapping to the many other less dramatic ways of robbing another’s freedom, many ways of exploiting others and stealing from them what is rightfully theirs. Exploitation in food, housing, and clothing, endangers personal freedom. Operations like financial manipulative speculation, tax evasion, gambling debts, over-pricing, arson for insurance, and the like, rob others and hurt the common good.
3. To be realistic, then, contemporary Catholic morality takes comprehensive understanding of the 7th Commandment. From 1) its original focus on the kidnapping of persons, the object of the commandments was legitimately extended in history to include 2) the theft of possessions essentially needed for personal freedom. Finally, in today’s economic world, many more hidden ways of enslaving and oppressing have arisen. Therefore “You shall not steal” now refers not only to privately owned personal possessions, but also 3) to public properties, social structures and conditions which should serve the common good.
4. This needs to be emphasized since we Filipinos often show little care and concern for what does not directly relate to us or our families. The basis for the proper social concern is simply our concrete socio-economic situation. As the Gospel reminds us, our freedom and dignity as human persons and as Christians are intimately tied up with economic and property relationships.
5. We are personal embodied spirits: as embodied, we absolutely need food, shelter and clothing to survive. As personal spirits, we are born, grow up and mature within family and community interpersonal relationships, creating for us a “cultural,” not mere animal, life, under God, our personal, transcendent Creator-Redeemer. Vatican II describes our human situation as follows:
“Therefore there must be made available to all men everything necessary for leading a life truly human, such as food, clothing, and shelter; the right to choose a state of life freely and to found a family, the right to education, to employment, to a good reputation, to respect and to appropriate information, to activity in accordance with the upright norm of one’s own conscience, to protection of privacy and to rightful freedom in matters religious too” (GS, 26).
6. In addition, today we realize that this also involves respect for the dignity and integrity of creation. PCP II urges “a passionate care of our earth and our environment.” Some environmental destruction arises from survival needs of the poor (slash and burn upland agriculture, and dynamite fishing). “But the greater sin against the integrity of God’s creation” is committed by those who “with impunity pollute rivers, seas and lakes with industrial wastes, and for profit systematically destroy our forests (causing) the destruction by droughts and floods.” In brief, we recognize today as never before the moral demand for responsible dominion over nature.
1. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, or anything else that belongs to him” (Ex. 20:15-17; Dt. 5:21). This Commandment goes behind the Seventh and deals with the disordered desires of the heart, its covetousness, from which stealing and exploitation of our neighbor arise. It forbids not only unjust craving for another’s property, but also envy at the success of others. Envy is a capital sin, exemplified in Cain’s “envy-hatred-murder” sinful pattern. Death itself is said to have come into the world “only through the Devil’s envy, as those who belong to him find to their cost” (Wis. 2:24).
2. The prophet Amos expressed Yahweh’s sharp condemnation of those who, while observing the religious feasts and the Sabbath rest, plot how they make greater profit by robbing others. “We will diminish the ephah (measure), add to the shekel (unit-weight), and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell” (Amos 8:5-6).
3. When Christ warned “from the heart come evil thoughts,” stealing was one of his specific examples (Mt. 15:19). He moreover linked possessions and heart together: “Remember, where your treasure is, there your heart is also” (Mt. 6:21).
4. An insight into the almost diabolical hold money and possessions can have on our hearts is offered by a strange event recounted in Acts. Peter and John had come to the Samaritans to pray and impose hands on them so they would receive the Holy Spirit. A certain Simon observed this, and offered money to Peter and John if they would give him that power of conferring the Spirit. Peter replied: “May you and your money rot for thinking that God’s gift can be bought!…You heart is not upright before God. Repent of your evil ways. Pray that the Lord may pardon you for thinking the way you have” (Acts 8:20-22).
5. How difficult such “reform” may be is illustrated by the touching story, recounted in all three Synoptic Gospels, of the rich young man asking Jesus what is necessary to share eternal life. Jesus replied with a brief list of the commandments. The man replied: “I have kept all these since I was a boy.” Jesus then presented him the challenge: “Sell all you have and give to the poor and follow me.” At these words the man’s face fell. He went away sad, for he had many possessions” (Lk. 10:17-31).
6. What often goes unnoticed is that Gospel incident is that Jesus challenged the young man precisely in terms of the Tenth Commandment: about his possessions and their hold on his heart. Whether or not he was holding on covetously to what should be shared with the poor, the young man failed the test; apparently the Tenth Commandment was one he had not kept since he was a boy.
7. Christ’s challenge to the young man used attachment to possessions as the test for the whole vocation of following Christ. He challenged all: “None of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all his possessions” (Lk. 14:33). This indicates that the Tenth Commandment in some way touches the heart of the Christian vocation, of what it means to serve God. Like the First Commandment, the Tenth makes a total, radical demand that we must serve God with our whole hearts as well as in our outward actions.
8. But this is precisely the real problem: we seem powerless to check our disordered desires and reform our hearts. St. Paul confessed: “I should never have known what evil desire was unless the lay had said: ‘You shall not covet.’ Sin seized that opportunity; it used the commandment to rouse in me every kind of covetousness” (Rom. 7:7-8). Through this commandment, Paul realized that God called for total dedication of heart and of desire, not just external acts. This forced him to admit his powerlessness to fulfill the law. “What a wretched man I am! Who can free me from this body under the power of death?” (Rom. 7:24).
9. Paul found the answer: “All praise to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:25). The Tenth Commandment, then, does not lead us to despair, but to fuller recognition of our redemption through Jesus Christ. “Do not covet” becomes “You have no need to covet!” In answer to Paul’s repeated pleas to have a “thorn of the flesh” removed, Christ replied, “My grace is enough for you, for in weakness power reaches perfection.” Paul then wrote, “And so I willingly boast of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell with me” (2 Cor. 12:8-9). To cure our self-centeredness, then, is God’s work through Christ, in the Spirit. “A new heart I will give you and place a new spirit within you” (Ez. 36:26). “The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2).
10. Both the Seventh and Tenth Commandments, then, govern our basic relationships in justice with others: the Seventh deals with our outward actions regarding possessions and social structures, while the Tenth focuses on the inner desires of our hearts from which our external actions originate. So St. Paul exhorts us: “If we live in the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s lead. Let us never be boastful, or provoking one another, envious of one another” (Gal. 5:25f).
REVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q1. What is an essential dimension of preaching the Gospel today?
A. “Action on behalf of justice, and participation in the transformation of the world and the promotion of human rights, appears as an essential dimension of preaching the Gospel today.”
Q2. What are some major problems throughout the Philippines today?
A. The question of justice, and the problems of stealing on all levels, due primarily to the widespread poverty, violation of human rights, and the exploitation of both persons and natural resources, are major problems of our country. PCP II calls for a real “social transformation” that responds to the challenges of building a new society of justice and peace.
Q3. How does the Seventh Commandment foster social justice?
A. “You shall not steal” covers all ways of robbing others’ freedom by stealing what is rightfully theirs.
In today’s economic world, this prohibition includes both private possessions and public properties, and actions such as corporation manipulation, unjust trade agreements, and the like. PCP II urges “a passionate care of our earth and our environment.”
Q4. How does the Tenth Commandment foster social justice?
A. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, or anything else that belongs to him” prohibits the distorted desires of the heart from which stealing and exploitation of our neighbors arise.
It forbids not only unjust craving but also envy at another’s success, such as seen in Cain’s “envy-hatred-murder” pattern.
Q5. What is the real problem raised by the Tenth Commandment?
A.
The Tenth
Commandment lays bare our powerlessness to check all our disordered desires,
and thus reform our lives not only exteriorly but especially interiorly.
Christ’s encounter with the “rich young man” brings out the almost diabolical
hold which riches have on us. We thus come to realize our basic need to be
saved by God’s merciful love and power.
1. The Gospels give us a clear picture of the basics for Christian social responsibility. First, John the Baptist prepared the people for Jesus by preaching reform. “Reform your lives! The Kingdom of God is at hand” (Mt. 3:2). In examples particularly relevant to us today, John admonished tax collectors: “Exact nothing over and above your fixed amount,” and warned soldiers: “don’t bully anyone, denounce no one falsely, and be content with your pay” (Lk. 3:12f).
2. Second, Jesus pushed this to an interior reform or conversion that focused on our inner priorities: “No one can serve two masters…You cannot give yourself to God and mammon” (Mt. 6:24). The Kingdom of God must take precedence over all our self-centered concerns of family, popularity and private possessions.
3. Third, there is the question of restitution. Jesus praised Zaccheus who reported: “If I have defrauded anyone in the least, I pay him back fourfold” (Lk. 19:8). But this action was only part of the larger ideal of sharing with other what Zaccheus had grasped from Christ: “I give half my belongings, Lord, to the poor.”
4. Behind these three attitudes of reform, conversion and restitution, Jesus was calling his people to a basic trust in him and in God their heavenly Father. “Ask and you will receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it will be opened to you…If you with all your sins, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to anyone who asks him!” (Mt. 7:7-11).
5. Most Christian Filipinos have heard from their childhood how Jesus spoke of the way God, in his Providence, feeds the birds of the air and clothes the wild flowers in the filed “beyond Solomon in all his glory.” Therefore, “O weak in faith! Stop worrying over questions like, ‘What are we to eat, or what are we to drink or what are we to wear?’ The unbelievers are always running after these things. Your heavenly Father knows all that you need. Seek first his kingship over you, his way of holiness, and all these things will be given you besides” (Mt. 6:31-33).
6. This attitude of trust in God is echoed in the traditional Filipino attitude of bahala na. Some claim that has led to a certain fatalism, and a lack of energy, discipline, and purpose needed for personal, familial and national development. Actually such fatalism is not the result of authentic trust in God our Father as revealed by Jesus Christ. Rather it is based on mistaken belief in some magic force or luck (swerte) that supposedly renders our own efforts unnecessary or useless.
7. PCP II clarifies that in reality, “Bahala na ang Maykapal” expresses a deep trust in God’s care that actually calls for our social responsibility. St. Paul gives a simple example: “The man who has been stealing must steal no longer, but rather let him work with his hands at honest labor so that he will have something to share with those in need” (Eph. 4:28).
1. A primary concern of the Catholic Church in our era has been the social dimension of Christian living. The social doctrine of the Church has developed in response to the evolution of modern economics, and the new conditions of work this has brought about. The following is just one forceful presentation of the Church’s concern:
“The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of freedom and a force for liberation…liberation that is first and foremost liberation from the radical slavery of sin. Its end and its goal is the freedom of the sons of God, which is the gift of grace. It calls for freedom from many different kinds of slavery in the cultural, economic, social and political spheres, all of which derive ultimately from sin, and so prevent people from living in a manner befitting their dignity” (Inst. On Theol. of Lib., Intro).
2. The Church’s action in the temporal sphere, then, “is not political, or economic, or technical” since her competence like her mission is religious and moral in nature. Her specific contribution is the “strengthening of the spiritual and moral bases of society. Within this basic stress on the moral and spiritual dimensions of the temporal sphere, PCP II has proposed more specific teaching, particularly regarding the political and social areas.
3. Political Community. Following Vatican II, PCP II laid down general guidelines governing the Church’s relation to the political community. Political authority’s legitimate autonomy in working for the common good must be exercised within the limits of the moral order. The Church has the role of critical solidarity with the government in defending the moral order. As a “good rule of thumb” to follow, PCP II proposed that pastors have competence in the moral principles governing politics, while laity have competence in active and direct partisan politics. Both “clergy and laity must be involved in the area of politics when moral and Gospel values are at stake.”
4. PCP II neatly summarized the truths that must guide Filipino Catholics’ participation in political life: a) the basic standard is pursuit of the common good; b) characterized by the defense and promotion of justice; c) inspired and guided by the spirit of service; d) imbued with the love of preference for the poor; and e) that empowering people be carried out both as a process and as a goal of political activity. Catholics must try to infuse into the political order the over-all value of solidarity, which urges “the activity and responsible participation of all in public life.”
5. Social Teaching. The
Church’s social doctrine is the result of careful reflection on the complex
realities of human life in society today, in the light of faith, and the
Church’s tradition. It constitutes an integral part of her evangelizing
mission. It simply applies the word of God to people’s lives and the life of society,
in all their concrete socio-economic realities. Thus the Church offers: “1) principles
for reflection, 2) criteria of judgment, and 3) criteria
for action”.
6. The concrete socio-economic
realities of the Philippines are not too obvious: “the widening chasm between
the rich and the poor, the reality of unemployment, the problems of
malnutrition, of hunger, of violation of human rights.” But the growing
response has been equally clear. Average Filipino Catholics have entered a real
process of conscientization regarding their social
responsibilities as disciples of Jesus Christ, united in the Catholic
community. This conscientization has brought to sharpened awareness, first, our
basic human rights: economic (right to work, to a just
wage, to property), social (right to assembly, to free association), political
(right to vote, to equality before the law, to emigrate/immigrate), cultural
(right to education, to freedom of speech), and religious (right to
worship). Second, it has introduced the relatively new concept of social
sin.
1. PCP II carefully explains how sins like pride, selfishness, greed, and hatred come to infect habitual patterns of human interaction. This produces “sinful social structures” which can harden into institutions. Some terrible effects of these sinful structures are seen in the uncared for, malnourished “street children,” the wretchedness of the jobless and homeless, the crimes, graft and corruption, continued widespread violation of basic human rights.
2. Thus, besides the personal sins of individuals (such as thoughts and desires of lust and jealousy), and interpersonal sins corrupting relationships (e.g. gossip, adultery), there are societal sins located in social structures, situations and groups which oppress persons, violate their human dignity, stifle freedom, and foster unjust inequality.
3. This idea of social sin or “group stealing” is difficult for the average Filipino Catholic. We normally think of sin in terms of personal, concrete individual acts against a particular law of God or the Church. But such a restricted idea of sin must be broadened today in view of our social responsibilities as Christians. John Paul II explains different meaning of social sin in detail:
“To speak of social sin means: 1) to recognize that, by virtue of human solidarity, each individual’s sins in some way affects others. 2) Some sins by their very matter constitute a direct attack on one’s neighbor – social sins against love of neighbor, against justice in interpersonal relationships, against the rights of the human person, against others’ freedom, against the common good. 3) Sinful relationships between various human communities, in class struggle and confrontation between blocs of nations” (Rec. Paenit. 16).
4. Finally, there are situations or structures of sin, in which certain social groups, institutions or organizations cause or support evil, or when they are in a position to eliminate or limit the evils, fail to do so, and through secret complicity or indifference side-step the effort and sacrifice required. Structures of sin, therefore, “are rooted in personal sin and thus always linked to the concrete acts of individuals who introduce these structures, consolidate them, and make them difficult to remove. Thus they grow stronger, spread and become the source of others sins, and so influence people’s behavior.”
5. The intrinsic connection between “social sin” and personal sin must be stressed. For some, overly influenced by socio-political analysis, have gone to the extreme of locating “evil principally or uniquely in bad social, political or economic “structures” as though all other evils came from them” If such were the case, we could save ourselves simply by creating different economic and socio-political or economic “structures”. But Christian Faith proclaims that “the root of evil lies in free and responsible persons who have to be converted by the grace of Jesus Christ in order to live and act as new creatures in the love of neighbor and in the effective search for justice, self-control and the exercise of virtue.”
6. The problem of injustice and exploitation, of “Group stealing,” then, cannot ultimately be resolved except through genuine spiritual conversion. Such a conversion would necessarily entail: 1) changing the evil desires of our hearts; 2) reforming our social relationships; and 3) reforming our attitudes and the social structures we create to reinforce our attitudes.
7. How difficult this is in the
concrete can easily be seen by even a cursory view of typical “social sins” in
the Philippine society today. In the preceding lesson we faced the social sins
of sexism, prostitution and pornography. In this lesson on human freedom in
terms of self and possessions, PCP II offers examples of two typical sinful
attitudes: the all-consuming desire for profit and the thirst
for power.
8. Consumerism is another clear example of “social sin.” It becomes a vice by effecting certain typical changes: 1) we become enslaved by our possessions and obsessed with getting more; 2) thus closing ourselves off to our own spiritual needs; and 3) to the poverty and unjust exploitation of others.
1. PCP II states the characteristic principle of Christian social doctrine: that “God destined the earth and all it contains for ALL peoples so that all created things would be hared by all under the guidance of justice tempered by charity.” The right to private property is valid and necessary, but it does not nullify the value of this principle. Private property, in fact, is under a “social mortgage,” which means that it has an intrinsically social function.” Paul VI indicated the limits of the right as follows: “Private property does not constitute for anyone an absolute and unconditional right. No one is justified in keeping for his exclusive use what he does not need, when others lack necessities” (Pop. Prog., 23).
2. The Seventh Commandment guards property from two kinds of theft. The prophets constantly warned against theft “from above,” the rich robbing the poor. But there is also theft “from below,” or the have-nots taking unjustifiably from those who have. Property is misused objectively when it becomes a means of exercising power over others, instead of helping to improve the common quality of life. Exclusive control over the means of production, for example, creates a power that endangers social justice and pace. Subjectively, property is misused when greed and craving for possessions become the goal of life, destroying the human dignity of both rich and poor.
3. Thus, private property often plays a key role in a destructive process whose pattern is symbolized for us in the three temptations undergone by Christ in the desert: from possessions (turn to stones into bread) to honor (win favor by magical deeds) to power (kingdom of the world).
4. Concrete examples of such abusive use of property in our Philippine scene are not hard to discern. As theft “from above” there are the exorbitant interest rates being charged by banks and insurance firms; rich landowners and multi-national corporations taking advantage of the small farmer or businessman; bribery; violation of business contracts; refusal to pay just wages; tax evasion schemes and falsification of documents; excessive gambling; irresponsible borrowing, and refusal to repay legitimate debts.
5. As thefts “from below” there are the widespread practices of shoplifting; stealing office/factory/school supplies; office work-hours wasted in sloth; borrowing and never returning; cheating with false weights or the use of inferior materials; smuggling; and over-charging to make excessive profits. Many of these examples are small and insignificant in themselves, but together they create a situation in which simple honesty cannot be counted on, and consequently everyone suffers continuously and often grievously.
EXPERIENTIAL SHARING: Share your personal experiences of thefts “from above” and thefts “from below.” How widespread are these? Discuss how these can be minimized or even eradicated.
Q6. What is the Gospel picture of social responsibility?
A. The Gospels sketch social responsibility in terms of:
a) reform of life, as in John the Baptist’s preaching;
b) conversion of heart, as sketched in Jesus’ parables;
c) restitution, as praised by Jesus in Zaccheus. Basic to all three stages is a fundamental trust in God as all-Provident Father.
Q7. What role does the Church play in temporal affairs?
A. The Church’s action “is not political, or economic, or technical, but rather religious and moral in nature, strengthening the spiritual and moral bases of society.”
The Church’s social doctrine offers:
a) principles for reflection;
b) criteria for judgments; and
c) criteria for action.
Typical concerns of the Church are human rights and new insights such as the notion of social sin.
Q8. What are the Church’s guiding truths for Filipino Catholics in political life?
A. The basic truths for political involvement proposed by the Church are:
a) pursuit of the common good as objective basis;
b) in defense and promotion of justice for all;
c) inspired and guided by the spirit of service;
d) imbued with the love of preference for the poor;
e) empowering people be carried out both as process and goal of political activity.
Q9. What is meant by social sin?
A. The term “social sin” is used to describe situations or structures which cause or support evil, or fail through complicity or indifference to redress evils when it was possible. Such sinful structures are always “rooted in personal sin”. “Typical social sins” in the Philippine context include sexism (prostitution, pornography), consumerism and militarism.
Q10. What is the Church’s position on private property?
A. The right to private property is valid and necessary, but second to the intrinsically social function of all property. The Seventh and Tenth Commandments protect property from theft “from above” (rich and powerful robbing the poor) and theft “from below” (the have-nots robbing the well-to-do).
1. In view of such a complex social situation riddled with abuses of all kinds, the Church calls for renewed common effort. “Whenever people work together, inspired by the aim of securing the dignity of every human being and of building a society based on justice…ways and means will be found to share the fruits of progress with all in the community.” Thus John Paul II told Filipino farmers and workers: “You have the right to live and be treated in accordance with your human dignity; at the same time, you have the corresponding duty to treat others in the same way…to meet your social responsibilities in a worthy and Christian way.”
2. The Basis. The Church’s social teaching, then, is based on the intrinsic dignity of every human person. Moreover we are called to recognize a human solidarity that takes on specifically Christian dimensions: “awareness of the common fatherhood of God, of the brotherhood of all in Christ – “children in the Son” – and of the presence and life-giving action of the Holy Spirit.”
3. Certain consequences flow from this basis of the Christian vision for social justice. John Paul II drew one strong conclusion when he proclaimed: “one can never justify any violation of the fundamental dignity of the human person or of the basic rights that safeguard this dignity…Social organization exists only for the service of man and for the protection of his dignity; it cannot claim to serve the common good when human rights are not safeguarded.”
4. To bring about this practical recognition of human dignity in social justice, the Church’s social doctrine has stressed a number of fundamental principles. They deal with integral human development, the value of work, the preferential option for the poor, and the dynamic link between justice and Christian love. To begin with, the Church teaches that human development and liberation cannot be limited the to the socio-economic and political dimensions of human life. It must include “things of the spirit.” One concrete example of this is the “spirituality of work.”
1. In recent times great emphasis has been given to work. “Work is one of the characteristic that distinguish man from the rest of creatures…work is the mark of a person operating within a communion of persons.” Regarding social justice, “Human work is a key – probably the essential key – to the whole social question.” From the Bible’s mission to subdue the earth (Gen. 1:28) emerges work in the objective sense: man dominating the earth by more and more highly perfected machinery. But this dominion introduces work in the subjective sense, the person who is the subject of work. Here Christ effected a radical change by instituting through word and example the “Gospel of Work” which shows that “the primary basis for the value of work is man himself, who is the subject.”
2. Primacy Work as Subjective. The priority of the subjective meaning of work is expressed in various ways. One way is that, “in the final analysis, it is always mean who is the purpose of work. Work is for man, not man for work.” The basic value of work develops in three spheres. First, the personal sphere wherein through work the person “achieves fulfillment as a human being.” Second, the family life sphere, since the family is a community made possible by work and the first school of work. Third, the sphere of the great society to which a person belongs on the basis of particular cultural and historical links. These three spheres bring out the value of work in its subjective dimension, i.e. the concrete reality of the worker, which takes precedence over work’s objective dimension.
3. A second
way is “the principle of the priority of labor over capital.” Today’s
instruments or work, highly developed through science and technology, are
customarily thought of as capital. Yet they are themselves the result of the
historical heritage of human labor.
4. Still a third way is to stress the principle of “the primacy of man over things. All there ways merely spell out the basic truth “of the substantial and real priority of the subjectivity of human labor…independently of the nature of the services provided by the worker.” This means not only that the worker should receive due remuneration for his work, but that in some real sense, he is ultimately working “for himself.”
5. Consequences: Rights. From this appreciation of human work flow three basic rights: 1) the right to work; 2) the right to a just share in the fruits of the work; and 3) the right to organize “for the purpose of defending their interests and contributing as responsible partners to the common good.” PCP II adds the rights to rest, to decent work environment, to profit-sharing, and to strike under certain conditions.
6. Obligations. But work is not only a human right, it is “an obligation, a duty on the part of man.” We have a moral obligation to work: 1) to maintain and develop our humanity, according to the Creator’s plan, 2) for the aid and support of our families, our country and the whole human family. PCP II affirms that workers must “discharge their responsibilities properly.”
7. Both rights and duties are greatly enhanced in a Christian “spirituality of work” proposed in PCP II as part of a larger “spirituality of Social Transformation.” First, through work we “share in the activity of the Creator, and, within the limits of our own human capabilities, continue to develop and perfect that activity. Second, “by enduring the toil for work in union with Christ, we collaborate with the Son of God for the redemption of humanity. Thus John Paul II explained to the workers: “Christ himself immeasurably ennobled and sanctified all human work by his work as a carpenter in Nazareth and by his many other labors, thus conferring on workers a special solidarity with himself and giving them a share in his own redemptive work.”
1. The Church’s social doctrine is marked with a “preferential option for the poor.” PCP II asserts that this option, following Christ’s own. “takes on great urgency in our country where a very great number of our people wallow in abject poverty and misery, while tremendous social privileges and deference are accorded the rich and powerful.” This option, however, must be properly understood. The Church obviously desires to bring the message of salvation to every human being, to every culture and social environment, but in the first place to those who are most in need. Thus “the preference for the poor is a Christian preference.” For Christ came to proclaim a message of salvation to the poor. It is “an option in the exercise of Christian charity to which the whole tradition of the Church bears witness. It affects the life of each Christian inasmuch as he or she seeks to imitate the life of Christ. But it applies equally to our social responsibilities and hence to our manner of living.”
2. The basis for this option is Christ’s own teaching and action, revealing God’s own love. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor: God and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind recover their sight, cripples walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, dead men are raised to life, and the poor have the good news preached to them” (Lk. 7:22).
3. But the poor are not mere receivers of the Gospel, they are also bearers of God’s Work, evangelizers, constantly challenging the Christian community to conversion. The poor incarnate the evangelical values in their lives. “Blessed are you poor, the kingdom of God is yours; Blessed are you who hunger, you will be filled; Blessed are you who are weeping, you shall laugh; Blessed are you when people hate you, exclude and insult you, and denounce you name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and exult, for your reward shall be great in heaven” (Lk. 6:20-23).
4. Such a Christian option surely pertains directly to our specific situation wherein for so many Filipinos poverty, exploitation and injustice have become their “way of life.” As Christian Filipinos, then, we are challenged by this preference for the poor to respond to this situation in a sincere “commitment to justice.” John Paul II put this challenge in world-wide perspective: “This love of preference for the poor cannot but embrace the immense multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the homeless, those without medical care and, above all, those without hope of a better future. To ignore these realities would mean becoming like the ‘rich man’ who pretended not to know the beggar Lazarus lying his gate” (Lk. 16:19-31).
Justice is traditional explained in
three types: commutative – regarding obligations between persons;
legal – referring to what citizens owe the community; and distributive
– treating the community’s obligations to its citizens.
1. But for the Christian, dynamically linked with the rational demands of justice is Christ’s fundamental command of LOVE. PCP II states: “While the demand for justice is implied in love, still “justice attains its inner fullness only in love. For in justice, the other person can remain ‘another,’ an alien. In love the other is a friend, even a brother and sister in Christ.”
2. Therefore, “evangelical love, and the vocation to be children of God to which all are called, have as a consequence the direct and imperative requirement of respect for all human beings in their rights to life and dignity. There is no gap between love of neighbor and desire for justice. To contrast the two is to distort both love and justice.” PCP II summarizes this by quoting John XXIII’s Mater et Magistra: “justice and love are the principal laws of social life.”
3. The theory is clear enough: “Love implies an absolute demand for justice, i.e., the recognition of the dignity and rights of one’s neighbor. And justice attains its inner fullness only in love. Because every person is truly a visible image of the invisible God and is brother/sister of Christ, the Christian finds in every person God himself and God’s absolute demand for justice and love.”
4. Yet the real problem is not in the theory, but in the praxis. Justice taken only as an impartial legal structure to render everyone his/her due usually works well only if all have equal advantages and opportunities – which simply is not the case. Something much stronger than the “letter of the law” is needed to get each one his/her due. “Justice alone is not enough; it can lead to the negation and destruction of itself if that deeper power which is love is not allowed to shape human life in its various dimensions.”
1. But in stressing love we are not referring to the pious, self-centered individualistic “charity” of the rich who give out of their superabundance, often acquired through unjust exploitation of the poor. Rather we are referring to a charity that “is never able to be separated from justice.”
2. Since we Filipino Catholics constitute the great majority of our nation, we hold the primary responsibility for building a just Philippine society. Contrary to the commonly voiced opinion that politics and public life are “dirty” and to be shunned, PCP II “stands on record to urge lay faithful to participate actively and lead in renewing politics in accordance with the values of the Good News of Jesus.”
3. This directive is in complete accord with the Church’s consistent teaching praising the “work of those, who as a service to others, dedicate themselves to the public good of the faithful must bear witness to those human and Gospel values that are intimately connected with political activity itself, such as liberty and justice, solidarity, faithful and unselfish dedication for the good of all, a simple life-style, and a preferential love for the poor and the least.”
4. But this
Christian service of society and others in justice and love can never be
achieved on one’s own. PCP II points out that the problems of modern society
are too complex and interdependent. The have to be approached through the moral
and social virtue of solidarity. “Solidarity” here does
not mean merely a spirit of camaraderie or “team spirit,” nor some vague
feeling of compassion or good will. Rather it stands for a “firm and
persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good, i.e.
to the good of all and of each individual because we are responsible for
all.”
5. Such commitment embraces both the object of social programs – poverty and injustice, peace promotion on all levels, preservation of natural resources, and the like. It also embraces the means – outlawing the use of violence and the abuse of individual person’s rights in the pursuit of the common good. Moreover it extends internationally to the interrelations between all nations.
1. The basic social obligations of Catholic morality outlines draw directly on the doctrinal truth of creation, as well as on the additional truths of Christ’s redemptive incarnation and the sanctifying mission of the Spirit. But what is most needed is a vigorous development of these traditional truths in a Filipino social context, and within as on-going evolutionary perspective.
2. The worship dimension and this thrust social justice are equally essential to each other. PCP II declares that “the social apostolate without worship will lose its source of strength, while worship without the social apostolate will turn into worship divorced from life.” Worship overcomes any temptation to “ideology” in our social catechesis by its concrete focus on the spiritual dimension of integral human liberation/development, together with the economic, social and political. Likewise, the social thrust is needed for authentic worship to keep it from self-centered, idolatrous hypocrisy. That is really what the two Great Love Commandments make plain in their inner interrelation.
EXPERIENTIAL SHARING: Cite unjust situations that you have observed or experienced in your social environment. What practical actions can you take in order to reform and build a just society?
Q11. What is the basis for the Church’s social teaching?
A. The intrinsic dignity of every human person and the basic human solidarity are the basis for the Church’s social teaching.
Q12. What is the Church’s teaching on work?
A. Work as one distinguishing characteristics of human beings, is an essential key to the social question, especially when seen in terms of the person who is the subject/agent of work and the primary basis for its value.
Q13. What is meant by the “primacy of work as subjective”?
A. This phrase stresses:
a) human persons are the purpose of work. i.e. work is to achieve human fulfillment, first in the family, then in the larger community;
b) the priority of labor over capital,
c) the primacy of persons over things.
Q14. What are the consequences of this primacy?
A. The primacy of work as subjective grounds three basic rights:
a) the right to work;
b) the right to a just share in the fruits of the work;
c) the right to organize to defend the worker’s interests.
Q15. What duties go with these rights?
A. The right to work also involves the duty to work, and the right to a just salary involves the duty to work honestly. Both rights and duties are enhanced by a proper “spirituality of work” which develops the insight of seeing work as “sharing in the activity of the Creator.”
Q16. What is meant by “preferential option for the poor”?
A. This option is a “Christian preference” by which the Church desires to bring the message of salvation to every human being, to every culture and social environment, but in the first place to those who are most in need. It follows the teaching and example of Christ himself, and the exercise of Christian charity to which the whole tradition of the Church bears witness.
Q17. How are justice and Christian charity related?
A. Christian love implies an absolute demand for justice, and justice attains its inner fullness only in love.
Q18. What constitutes a primary responsibility for Filipino Christians?
A. Christian Filipinos today face a major responsibility in working to build a just Philippine society. We are called to bear witness to the human and Gospel values that are intimately involved in the economic, social and political areas of activity.
If you live
according to my teaching,
you are truly my disciples;
then you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.
(John 8:31-32)
Your hearts and
minds must be made completely new.
You must put on
the new self which is created in God’s likeness,
and reveals itself in the true life that is
upright and holy.
No more lying,
then! Everyone must tell the truth to his brother,
for we are all
members together in the body of Christ.
(Ephesians
4:23-25)
1. This lesson takes up the final specific way we are to “love our neighbors,” namely, by respecting their honor and good name in our everyday speech. We do this through speaking truthfully, especially in public testimony. The theme of truthful witness flows naturally from the concern for justice in the preceding lesson. For just as we are commanded not to steal our neighbor’s goods by using false measures and weights, so we are commanded not to steal their good name and honor by false or idle words in conversation with others. False words pervert justice even more than false weights do, for they pollute the source and well-spring of social relationships that ground our communities and our whole culture.
2. Respecting truth, then, involves much more than “telling the truth,” or merely avoiding “verbal offenses” or “lying.” Modern man is caught up in the continuous process of searching for truth – through modern physical and social sciences, through history, philosophy and the arts. We all participate in this search for truth in our own unique ways: in reflecting on our lives, in constant dialogue with others, in our community activities – and especially in our converse with God in prayer. If we stop this search for truth, we become intolerant and intolerably self-centered and self-satisfied. Without truth we can neither develop authentically as human persons, nor relate positively to others in community.
3. Truth actually envelops our whole being. 1) There is the truth of our thoughts when they correspond to reality and are not erroneous. 2) Then there is the truth of our words, when we honestly declare what we really think and are not lying. Finally, 3) there is the truth of our actions that correspond to our words, so we are not hypocrites who say one thing and do another. Each kind of truth – of our thoughts, our words, and our actions – relates to others, and like our very persons is essentially relational. Truth, then, is not some private possession of ours, “all-our-own.” Rather it is the center, the meaning, and the goal of our lives as members of the human community and as disciples of Christ. Thus Christ proclaimed before Pilate: “For this was I born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth” (Jn. 18:37).
1. We Filipinos naturally value one who is honest in speaking and acting. We reject pretense (pagkukunwari), empty words and promises (palabas-lang, PAKITANG TAO), or double-faced persons (doble-cara), and over-acting (OA, porma lang). Dishonesty and hypocrisy are condemned because we see how they can turn a person’s whole life into a “living lie.” Yet, on the other hand, most of us are so fond of gossip (tsismis) that it has almost become a major pre-occupation. Despite occasional warnings in Sunday sermons perhaps, we never really take seriously the harmful effects that careless gossip can cause to individuals and to the community itself.
2. Until, of course, we ourselves become the object of gossip. Then we become so concerned about our own and our family’s reputation that we will go to any lengths to safeguard our good name, even at the expense of others. Or we do things like attending Mass on Sundays, or “generously” contributing to some charitable cause, to have “good standing” in the community, and possibly enhance our business and political interests. For many of us, “What will the neighbors say?” seems to be a stronger motivating factor than truth or justice.
3. Much is said in newspapers, magazines and TV talk shows about the “credibility gap” which has developed in many spheres of Filipino life. Who can be trusted? Who should be believed? Whose statements are credible and trustworthy? Because of some highly publicized scandals and anomalies, credibility has suffered in various government agencies, political parties, educational institutions, business corporations, news media, and advertising.
4. Yet with it all, as Christians, we Filipinos have a deep-down, unquenchable longing for truth. What needs to be developed in our modern Filipino culture is a more critical sense to discern the truth from falsehood, the genuine from the sham, the authentic from the imitation. Amidst all the confusion, deception and manipulation, we Filipinos must discover that truth which Christ promised “will set us free,” and enable us to live together in mutual respect and harmony.
EXPERIENTIAL SHARING: Cite concrete examples from your experience about the validity and “truth” about the situations cited in the Context. Discuss on how to set ourselves free from these corruptions of the “truth”.
1. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Ex. 20:16; Dt. 5:20). Like the other Commandments, this Commandment must be understood in the context of the Covenant. For truth and truthful witness in the Judaeo-Christian tradition are never just an individual “private matter.” Neither do they refer to some impersonal, philo-scientific notion of “unveiling” objective reality. Rather truth means primarily that quality of human interpersonal relationships and behavior that is
2. This understanding of truth is co-natural to us Filipinos. We habitually view everything in terms of the personal. The Eighth Commandment, then, is clearly aimed against the serious, destructive perversions of the truth that radically damage the life of the community. Moreover we can relate this Eighth Commandment with the Second since both commandments deal with speaking a “name” which stands for the whole person. The Second Commandment, of course, commands absolute reverence and respect in using God’s name, whereas the Eighth deals with the honor and respect owed to our fellow community members in our speech.
1. In its original meaning in the Old Testament, the Eighth Commandment referred to public witness given in a court of law, upon which the life or death of the defendant often depended. The freedom and very life of fellow human beings, therefore, were at stake. This explains the severity of the punishment for breaking the commandment. For example, Jezebel had two “scoundrels” give false witness against Naboth in order to have him stoned to death, so that Ahab, her husband King, could take possession of Naboth’s small vineyard. In punishment, the Lord sent Elijah to Ahab declaring: “Because you have given yourself up to evil, I will destroy you…because of leading Israel into sin” (1 Kgs. 21:21-22).
2. A second example is given in the trial of Susanna, wherein the two elders who had given false testimony, were, “according to the law of Moses, put to death” (Dan. 13:62; Dt. 19:18-19). Both examples clearly bring out the extreme social importance of giving truthful witness.
3. The prophets were likewise strong in denouncing false witness, especially Israel’s infidelity to Yahweh. Hoseah charged the people with perversity: “You have cultivated wickedness, reaped perversity, and eaten the fruit of falsehood” (Hos. 10:13). Amost castigated them “because of the lies which their fathers followed” (Amos 2:4). Isaiah admitted “we have made lies our refuge and in falsehood we have found a hiding place” (Is. 28:15). Thus Yahweh declared: “Your lips speak falsehood, and your tongues utter deceit. No one brings suit justly, and no one pleads truthfully” (Is. 59:3-4). Even the Psalmist attacked evil judges: “Do you indeed like gods pronounce justice and judge fairly, you mean of rank? Nay, you willingly commit crimes; on earth you look to the fruits of extortion” (Ps. 58:2-3). The Old Testament condemned false witness, then, because it aggressively attacked the fidelity owed to Yahweh and fellow Israelites, on which the very life of the covenant rested.
4. In the New Testament, Christ showed himself not only 1) Lord of the Commandments, but also 2) a man of the commandments. Jesus is LORD of the Eighth Commandment because “For this was I born, for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Anyone committed to the truth hears my voice” (Jn. 18:37). As Lord, Jesus commanded: “You have heard the commandments ‘Do not take a false oath.’ What I tell you is: do not swear at all…Say ‘Yes’ when you mean ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ when you mean ‘No’. Anything beyond that is from the evil one” (Mt. 5:33-37). For Christians Jesus himself becomes the norm for the truth of our basic relationship with God. “Who is the liar? He who denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is the anti-Christ, denying the Father and the Son” (1 Jn. 2:22).
5. As a man of the Commandments, Jesus was always himself, never “playing roles” or “putting on a false face” to impress others or win their allegiance. He was always true to himself and completely open to others, dealing with them not in abstract generalities, but in truth, i.e., in the reality of their concrete situation. Thus did Jesus act in calling common fishermen like Peter, Andrew, James and John, to be his disciples (Lk. 5:1-11). So also in receiving Nicodemus, the Pharisee, who came by night (Jn. 3:1). In curing the Roman centurion’s servant boy (Mt. 8:5-13), or the daughter of the pagan Canaanite woman (Mk. 7:24-30), Jesus was just exercising his saving mission. Most of all, he reveled his true identity in forgiving the sins of the paralytic (Mk. 2:10) and the penitent woman (Lk. 7:36f). In all his relationships with the high and the low, Jesus related to the concrete person before him, exactly the way he/she was, both consciously within and exteriorly without.
1. Jesus proclaimed the liberating power of truth. “I am the light of the world; no follower of mine shall ever walk in darkness; no, he shall possess the light of life…If you live according to my teaching, you are truly my disciples; then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:12,32). Illumined in this light, all useless talk is condemned: “I assure you, on judgment day people will be held accountable for every unguarded word they speak. By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Mt. 12:37).
2. But the strongest condemnation was reserved for those whose actions did not correspond to their words: “Their words are bold but their deeds are few. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen…Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, beautiful to look at on the outside, but inside full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evil doing” (Mt. 23:4=5,27-28).
3. In contrast, Christ called his disciples to imitate his transparent openness to truth in their thoughts, words and actions. 1) Christ prayed that because “they have known that in truth I came from you, Father…consecrate them in truth, and I consecrate myself for them, that they may be consecrated in truth” (Jn. 17:9,19). 2) They were to say what they knew was the truth. “If we say, ‘we are free of the guilt of sin,’ we deceive ourselves; the truth is not to be found in us” (1 Jn. 1:8). 3) They were called to act according to what they said. “If we say, ‘we have fellowship with him,’ while continuing to walk in darkness, we are liars and do not act in truth” (1 Jn. 1:6). “The man who claims, ‘I have known him,’ without keeping his commandments, is a liar; in such a one there is no truth” (1 Jn. 2:4). For Christ’s disciples, St. Paul counsels: “We cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the sake of truth” (2 Cor. 13:8).
1. The liberating power of truth intensifies the universal need to seek the truth, and brings out more sharply its intrinsic social dimension. The inescapable human need for truth is grounded on the dignity of every man and woman. “It is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons, that is, beings endowed with reason and free will and therefore bearing personal responsibility, are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth, once they come to know it, and direct their whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth” (DH,2).
2. Moreover the very pursuit of truth has an essentially social dimension. “The search for truth, however, must be carried out in a manner that is appropriate to the dignity of the human person and his social nature, namely, by free enquiry with the help of teaching or instruction, communication and dialogue. It is by these means that men share with each other the truth they have discovered, in such a way that they help one another in the search for truth. Moreover, it is by personal assent that they must adhere to the truth they have discovered” (DH,3).
3. Moreover as Christians we are all called to witness to the truth, as the martyrs did of old to an extraordinary degree. St. Paul wrote to Timothy: “never be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of the hardship which the Gospel entails, with the strength that comes from God” (2 Tim. 1:8).
Q1. Why is the question of “truth” taken up here?
A. Respecting the honor and good name of others in our everyday speech is an essential way of “loving our neighbor.” We do this especially in giving public witness.
Q2. What is “truth” as taken up in this lesson?
A. Truth can refer to our:
a) thoughts insofar as they correspond to reality, and therefore are not erroneous;
b) words when we say what we think and are not lying; and finally
c) actions when we do what we say and are not hypocrites who say one thing and do another.
Q3. How important is “truth” for Christian moral life?
A. In our age of “credibility gaps,” we realize the importance of truth simply to enable us to live and work together in family and community, and to grow into the integrity we are called to as disciples of Christ. In his encyclical “Splendor of the Truth,” John Paul II has rested the whole of Christian morality firmly on truth.
Q4. How does the Eighth Commandment foster truth,
justice and love?
A.
“You shall not
bear false witness against your neighbor” prohibits destructive perversions of
the truth that damage the life of the covenant community. Like all the others,
the Eighth Commandment must be understood in the context of the Covenant. It
thus touches the truth involved in the human interpersonal relationships of
justice and love that ground the community’s life.
Q5. What is the specifically Christian view of
this “truth”?
A.
The covenant
community is built up by the truth that is:
a)
grounded in God
the Father, the Source of all Truth;
b) fully revealed in his Son, Jesus Christ, who is the Truth, come to set us free, and
c) indwelling in us in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.
Q6. How is the “truth” grounded in Scripture?
A.
In the Old
Testament, false witnesses were punished severely. The prophets denounced the
whole people’s false witness in their infidelity to Yahweh. In the New
Testament, Christ is both
a)
Lord of the
Eighth Commandment as the “truth” in himself, and
b) Man of the Commandment as always being perfectly honest, truthful, and open with everyone he encountered.
Q7. How is truth “liberating”?
A.
Christ as the
Truth liberates by freeing us from ignorance, prejudice, lying and hypocrisy.
He taught and prayed for his disciples that they be open and true in their
thoughts, words and deeds.
Q8. What is meant by the “social dimension” of
truth?
A.
Truth’s intrinsic
social dimension flows from the very nature of human persons who need truth
simply to exist and grow as persons and members of the human community. Without
truthful personal, interpersonal and societal relationships, human persons
wither and die.
Today Christian Filipinos are called to follow Christ their Lord in truthful personal, interpersonal, and communitarian relations. Ordinary conversation and dialogue are the usual ways by which we come to know one another. We thus develop close personal relationships within our families and beyond, without hypocrisy of sham. The goal of all speech and communication is not just self-expression, but the building up of love relationships with others to form a genuine community. Simply listening to another, or encouraging with an occasional word of praise, can do wonders. Our truthful words and actions can be truly creative. They can build up the speaker/doer into a person of integrity and honesty. They can create in the listeners/witnesses a positive atmosphere of fidelity, trust, and communion, as well as offer good example for imitation.
1. Lying is the most common and direct offense against the truth. Whereas truthfulness is the virtue by which we speak and act according to reality, lying is the intentional misrepresentation of the truth by word, gesture, or even silence. To deliberately intend to mislead other persons who have the right to know the truth can do real violence to them. For it denies them the knowledge they need to make their judgments and decisions. Moreover lying plants seeds of division and mistrust in the minds of others, and thus weakens the whole network of social relationships which constitute the community. The evil of lying, of course, varies with the nature of the truth it distorts, the circumstances, the intentions of the person telling the lie, and the damage suffered by its victims.
2. St. James offers a vivid description of the evils of the tongue:
See how tiny the spark is that sets a huge forest ablaze. The tongue is such a flame. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire…no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. We use it to say, “Praise be the Lord and Father”; then we use it to curse human beings, though they are made in the likeness of God. Blessing and curse come out of the same mouth (Jas 3:5-10).
3. But why do we fall into telling lies? The reasons are manifold, depending on our own complex make-up and situation. But lies often begin with self-deception. Such deception comes from the fact that in our conscious relating to others, we are threefold: 1) the way we really are, 2) the way we think we are, and 3) the way we would like to be. Now the gap between (2) the way we thin we are, and (3) the way we would like to be, is often quite large. This causes us frustration, and a hidden, often unconscious attempt to reduce the other to our level. For example, instead of realizing and admitting we are aroused by envy, we criticize our neighbor for being greedy and enjoying ill-gotten possessions. Lying in these cases is really an act of aggression which strikes out against the other.
4. Such lying can seriously harm: 1) the integrity and reputation of the person lied about; 2) those hearing the lie who are thereby led into error; 3) the peace and harmony of the community; and finally, 4) the genuine good of the person who lied. For liars become victims of their own lies, losing their self-respect before others, and shackling their own freedom by the web of entanglements woven by their own deception.
5. But there are many kinds, motivations, and situations of lying. There are the common so-called “white lies” of boasting (pasiklab), exaggerating one’s qualities or actions to gain favor with others. Other lies are caused by fear, escapist lying (palusot), or for saving face (preserving one’s supposed good image before others, or avoiding possible recriminations). Sometimes it is just a case of careless lying (sabi-sabi), or simple flattery (bola). Often these individual lies are of small moment, but the damage done to the persons involved, especially in the situations created and the bad habits formed, is not easily rectified.
6. But other lies can be of a more serious nature. Lies told from malice, to harm others; lies of propaganda or for profit, by government offices, or, more commonly, in commercial advertising, which intentionally deceive and lead others into error; lies of hypocrisy or of half-truths by which the truth is twisted or slanted to seem to say something which is not so. Contrived flattery of others can be lying when it is obviously exaggerated in order to gain undue favor of authorities, or win favor with another in personal relations or in politics. Even silence (pa-simple) can be a lie when it is the coward’s “refuge” to void trouble or to support something known to be wrong.
7. More serious still are false
witness and perjury which take place when the lie is
spoken in public, particularly in a court of justice. Through such lying
innocent persons may be condemned, or guilty persons exonerated, thereby
compromising the exercise of justice in the community. For someone “to swear to
tell truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” and then go back on his
word, is to be guilty of perjury.
1. In detraction and slander/calumny we destroy the good name of our neighbors by publicly revealing, without necessity, their hidden faults. The faults may be real, as in detraction, or invented – which is worse – as in calumny and slander. Both cases, however, sin against charity and justice, for we unnecessarily deprive another of his right to a good name and the esteem of his fellowmen. What perhaps is more common is “tale-bearing” among children, and gossip (tsismis) among adults. We find such faults listed by St. Paul: “I fear that when I come I may find you not such as I wish…that there may be discord, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, slander and gossip, self-conceit, and disorder” (2 Cor. 12:20). The tragedy here is not so much in cases where legal action against libel is possible. Rather it is the more common occurrence of reputations destroyed by false rumors and innuendoes, which create prejudices, suspicions, rash judgments, and irrational hostile attitudes without any real basis.
2. In terms of personal morality, a few general moral principles are helpful. First, truth is a value in itself; therefore, we have the general duty to tell the truth (truthfulness); only a greater obligation in charity – real love for others – can, in certain specific circumstances, suspend this duty. Second, normally we owe the truth to those who have the right to know. But not everyone has a right to know everything we know, especially if the persons are indiscreet, or the knowledge would harm them. Third, the common good can demand at times – for example in testifying in a court case – that the witness tell the truth even if this might cause difficulty to family or friends.
3. Truth in love. St. Paul urges: “Let us profess the truth in love and grow to the full maturity of Christ the head” (Eph. 4:15). So lying and falsehood are not the only problems we meet in truthful communication. To speak the truth in love cannot be done automatically; it is something we have to learn. For example, some are so anxious “to be loved,” to get along with others, that they are afraid to confront them with the truth. Others never listen enough to others to be able to speak the truth in love.
4. A third type of persons uses truth to beat others down, rather than to build up relationships. They are so proud of their absolute truthfulness that they ruthlessly use “truth” to hurt others. The genuine truth fostered by the Commandment and in the light of Christ always looks to the persons in their concrete human situation, involving loving concern for the neighbor. A good rule of thumb, then, is to ask three questions: “Is it true?”; “Is it necessary?”; “Is it kind?” The basic value remains the same: to love one’s neighbor as oneself.
5. The “right to communication of the truth” is neither unconditional nor absolute. Rather it must conform to the Gospel law of love of neighbor which comes first. Serving the truth is always first of all serving others, in the specific concrete events and realities of their lives. We are, therefore, called upon to judge whether or not it is appropriate to remain silent about what need not be known. Common reasons would be the good and security of others, respect for their private lives, or the avoidance of scandal.
6. Beyond these universal reasons, there are the particular law of secrecy which binds the confessor, and certain professional codes which require strict confidentiality, such as in the relationship between doctor and patient, or between lawyer and client.
7. But perhaps the greatest challenge to truthful communication today comes from mass media. First, there is modern advertising, which has become a full-pledged industry whose major goal is to sell the product in question, whether or not it has any particular objective value, by creating a felt-need in the prospective buyers. Reputable advertising agencies have already recognized their responsibility for honest and truthful presentations. In some cases they have voluntarily produced a production code that rejects misleading and exaggerating claims, the use of sexist means to arouse false needs and desires, and the like.
8. Second, since newspapers, radio and TV are the major sources of information for the average Filipino, they have the responsibility for truthful, fair, and objective presentation of the news. They must strive to respect both the nature of the facts and the limits of their critical judgment of others.
1. To speak the truth about one’s neighbor involves every Christian in bearing witness to Jesus Christ. For in identifying himself with the least of his brethren, Jesus has become neighbor to each of us. As such he has become in a real way, dependent on the witness of others. After sharing everything with his disciples during his earthly life, Jesus as the Risen Christ sent them his Spirit with the mission: “you are to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The disciples were to give a faithful account of what they had personally experienced.
2. As disciples of Christ we Christian Filipinos have received this same call. We are to be Jesus Christ’s witnesses before men and women today. To be such, we must “rid ourselves of all malice and all deceit, insincerity, envy and all slander” (1 Pt. 2:1), in order “to put on the new self created in God’s image, whose justice and holiness are born of truth” (Eph. 4:24). As followers of Christ who is Truth itself (Jn. 18:37) St. Paul urges us as he wrote to Timothy: “never be ashamed of your testimony to the Lord” (2 Tim. 1:8). Through truthful harmony between thoughts and words, and between words and actions, we are “to love in deed and in truth, and not merely talk about it” (1 Jn. 3:18).
3. Yet despite our best efforts, we know our witness is bound to be imperfect and distorted. Jesus foresaw this and made provisions to strengthen us. “When the Paraclete comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me. And you must bear witness as well” (Jn. 15:26,27). If truth for us is not mere words or proposition, but ultimately Christ himself, then to “live in the truth” means to share in his life. This sharing we call grace – our sharing, through the spirit, in Christ’s own life of loving God and neighbor. Truth and love are thus united in the Christian disciple’s following of Christ.
1. This lesson on the morality of loving our neighbor by telling the truth, has consistently brought out its doctrinal basis: the created human person’s intrinsic dignity. As this was the doctrinal ground for justice regarding one’s possessions, so it is even more so here concerned with justice regarding one’s good name. The Christian truths of creation, redemption, divine indwelling, and final destiny guarantee our inalienable dignity as persons.
2. Less clear perhaps is the intrinsic connection between telling the truth and prayer and worship. For it is not only a question of truthful worship – “when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth” (Jn. 4:23). Rather it is a case of the personal prayer and liturgical worship needed “to speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). For this demands a spiritual maturity and discernment that only comes through a vibrant spiritual life of growth in the Spirit and ever closer intimacy with Christ our Savior.
EXPERIENTIAL SHARING: Share your personal experience of being the victim of lies in whatever form (gossip, detraction, slander, rash judgment, prejudices, etc.). How were you affected? What was your reaction or response? What did you learn from the experience?
Q9. How do we offend against truth?
A. We sin against truth most commonly by the many forms of lying, as well as by tale-bearing, gossip, rash judgments, prejudices, detraction, slander and perjury.
Q10. How can telling lies harm the community?
A. Telling lies about oneself or others can harm:
a) the integrity of the person lied about;
b) those hearing the lie and led into error;
c) the peace and harmony of the community; and
d) the genuine good of the person who lied.
Q11. Why do people tell lies?
A. In practice, there are all kinds of motives and situations that lead us into telling lies:
a) exaggerations to impress others;
b) fear of others, or of saving face before others;
c) flattery.
More serious are lies that are told:
d) from malice to harm others;
e) from greed to deceive and gain the upper hand;
f) from hypocritical motives;
g) as false witness or perjury in courts of justice.
Q12. How should we foster truth in community?
A. St. Paul urges us to “profess the truth in love.” This demands a certain maturity and discernment. For we can offend against genuine truth when we use it to harm others. When, for example, we publicly proclaim to those who do not need to know, harmful “brute facts” about someone. Before proclaiming any “truth” we should ask three questions: “Is it true?” “Is it necessary?” “Is it kind?”
Q13. What is meant by “Christian witness to truth”?
A. In speaking the truth about our neighbor, we inescapably bear witness to Jesus Christ who has identified himself with our neighbor.
Christ himself has become dependent upon the witness of others, first, by his chosen twelve, then down through the ages by his disciples. We Filipinos today are called to offer witness to Christ our Truth, through the power of the Holy Spirit sent us.