Finding Happiness: An Introduction to Morality

By James E. Boardman

What is true Christian morality? How does God want us to live our lives? Why does God care how we live our lives and why should I care about God's law? Is God real and is His law universal and objective? In this clear guide to understanding Christian morality, James Boardman explains the importance of virtue and ethics. With a Thomistic and Aristotelian basis, he guides the reader through a journey in morality. By examining the sin of Adam and Eve, vices and virtues, the effects of the Sacraments, the true definition of grace, and much more, the reader will develop an understanding of and a deep appreciation for Christian morality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781365661358

Book preview

Afterword

Preface

By James Boardman

First, I give thanks to the Holy Ghost who, when I retired, almost audibly shouted to me WRITE! I couldn’t shake or ignore His Voice. Now my only prayer is that I have let myself be sufficiently open to His Leading, and that the words of this course are truly God’s Words meant for you.

Next, I would like to dedicate the writing of this course to my great friends Deacon Mike and Peggy Galligher. If it weren’t for both of them, my wife and I would still be drifting on the low tide of extremely liberal Protestantism. Both Mike and Peggy were and remain powerful Catholic influences and close friends in both our lives. Peggy is a veritable Catholic Encyclopedia! Thanks and blessings to you both.

I also want to thank Matthew Plese, CEO of The Goldhead Group, which sponsors CatechismClass.com, for affording me, completely unknown to him, the opportunity to participate in this work. Matthew, you are a true blessing to the tens of thousands who use CatechismClass.com.

Portions of this course were written in Joshua Tree and Yosemite National Parks, where the magnificence of God’s creation is everywhere evident and almost overwhelming to the senses. There were times at those places where I had to move from the keyboard, go outside and just praise God. Many times did I remember and recite to myself the Words of Saint John at the beginning of his Gospel : In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:1-4

And I give thanks to John Michael Talbot, whose music was an almost constant companion during this writing. But I must admit my penchant for Irish music as well, and the Irish Tenors and Celtic Thunder were also great background.

I thank you, the participants in this course, for being involved in spreading The Truth to all those around you. As Ambassadors of Christ, keep up God’s Work!

Finally, I would be remiss if I excluded thanks to my wife of forty-six years, Elly, for allowing me to take up more than half the table space to use as my writing and research desk (see the picture below) in our traveling home. I don’t know how she does it, but she manages to keep me well fed and hydrated around my working mess, keeps the bills paid and even coerces me to get up and move about now and again.

Inside our little Arctic Fox RV

Let me finish with Jesus’s Words from the Gospel of Saint Matthew :

Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth: and he that seeketh, findeth: and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Matthew 7:7-8

Lesson One

Man’s Betrayal of his Creator

Adam and Eve After the Fall Albrecht Durer

Introduction

To even begin to understand the concept of morality or of Catholic Morality, we must first understand the concept and reality of sin.

In the Old Testament book of Genesis, we are told that God created man in His own image. God placed his creation in paradise – the Garden of Eden.

Whether this rendering of creation is an allegory, an ancient Hebrew oral tradition or actual fact of history is of no consequence for this study. Suffice it to say that God said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth. And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth. And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat: And to all beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done." Genesis 1:26-31

And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning: wherein he placed man whom he had formed. And the Lord God brought forth of the ground all manner of trees, fair to behold, and pleasant to eat of. Genesis 2:7-10

Our first father and mother were created perfect in every way in which a man or woman can be perfect. They were created as perfect as was Jesus in his humanity. They were as perfect as was Mary, Jesus’s mother (the subject of Mary’s perfection is discussed in detail in CatechismClass.com’s course Mariology). And God created for them an environment of ultimate perfection.

When God created man (אדם in Hebrew can be translated either as Adam or as man), He did not hand our first father and mother a long list of rules or commandments to follow – not even ten! He gave Adam no long list of dos and don’ts. Rather, God gave Adam a beautiful world over which he was to have complete dominion – with one exception, one rule: Adam and Eve were not to eat of The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Every other plant and animal was given to them. They even were allowed to eat of The Tree of Life.

But, as with Jesus and Mary and each of us, God created Adam and Eve with both an innate moral code and free will. This moral code and free will gave them (and gives us today) the freedom to choose between doing right or doing wrong.

And as we do time and time again, Adam and Eve made the wrong choice. Like a seven-year-old who is told you only can eat one cookie, but no more, and who hides a second cookie in his pocket when Mom isn’t looking, Eve and Adam chose to take just one tiny bite of the fruit of this Tree of Knowledge; one tiny bite to see just what it was that was so special about it – to see why God forbade it.

And thus sin entered the human race, accompanied by chaos, violence and death. We refer to this sin of Adam and Eve as original sin. This original sin, the Church teaches, has been passed down from father and mother to son and to daughter ever since, with often horrifying consequences.

In this first lesson, we will study the consequences wrought by original sin and the ramifications to each individual Christian in his or her quest to lead a moral life.

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Prayers

Father in heaven, you have given us a mind to know you, a will to serve you, and a heart to love you. Be with us today in all that we do, so that your light may shine out in our lives. We pray that we may be today what you created us to be, and may praise your name in all that we do and say.

We pray for your Church: may it be a true light to all nations; May the Spirit of your Son Jesus guide the words and actions of all Christians today. We pray for all who are searching for truth: bring them your light and your love.

Give us, Lord, a humble, quiet, peaceable, patient, tender and charitable mind, and in all our thoughts, words and deeds a taste of the Holy Ghost. Give us, Lord, a lively faith, a firm hope, a fervent charity – a love of you. Take from us all luke-warmness in delight in thinking of you and your grace and your tender compassion towards us. These things that we pray for, Lord, give us grace to labor for: through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.

The Our Father

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

The Prayer Vincent Van Goth (c. 1888)

Lectionary

All Scripture readings in this course are taken from the Douay-Rheims version of the Holy Bible. If you have taken the time to enroll in and pay for this book, one of the many excellent ones offered by CatechismClass.com, how much more worth would you find in investing in an approved Catholic Bible?

Saint Jerome translates the Vulgate

In preparation for this lesson, please read the following Scripture:

A reading from the Book of Proverbs:

I will shew thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by the paths of equity: Which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when thou runnest thou shalt not meet a stumblingblock. Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it, because it is thy life. Be not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee. Flee from it, pass not by it: go aside, and forsake it. For they sleep not except they have done evil: and their sleep is taken away unless they have made some to fall. They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity. But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day. The way of the wicked is darksome: they know not where they fall. My son, hearken to my words, and incline thy ear to my sayings. Proverbs 4:11-20

A reading from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans:

"For why did Christ, when as yet we were weak, according to the time, die for the ungodly? For scarce for a just man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man some one would dare to die. But God commendeth his charity towards us; because when as yet we were sinners, according to the time, Christ died for us; much more therefore, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

"And not only so; but also we glory in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received reconciliation. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned. For until the law sin was in the world; but sin was not imputed, when the law was not. But death reigned from Adam unto Moses, even over them also who have not sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam, who is a figure of him who was to come. But not as the offence, so also the gift. For if by the offence of one, many died; much more the grace of God, and the gift, by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

"And not as it was by one sin, so also is the gift. For judgment indeed was by one unto condemnation; but grace is of many offences, unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned through one; much more they who receive abundance of grace, and of the gift, and of justice, shall reign in life through one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offence of one, unto all men to condemnation; so also by the justice of one, unto all men to justification of life. For as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners; so also by the obedience of one, many shall be made just. Now the law entered in, that sin might abound. And where sin abounded, grace did more abound.

That as sin hath reigned to death; so also grace might reign by justice unto life everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:6-21

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Church Documents

Catechism of the Catholic Church, #385-409

Compendium, Catechism of the Catholic Church, #72-78

Baltimore Catechism, #54-62

The first readings are from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

385. God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil. Where does evil come from? I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution, said St. Augustine, and his own painful quest would only be resolved by his conversion to the living God. For the mystery of lawlessness is clarified only in the light of the mystery of our religion. The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace. We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is its conqueror.

I. Where Sin Abounded, Grace Abounded All the More The reality of sin

386. Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity’s rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history.

387. Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the sin committed at mankind’s origins. Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of God’s plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one another.

Original Sin—an essential truth of the faith

388. With the progress of Revelation, the reality of sin is also illuminated. Although to some extent the People of God in the Old Testament had tried to understand the pathos of the human condition in the light of the history of the fall narrated in Genesis, they could not grasp this story’s ultimate meaning, which is revealed only in the light of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We must know Christ as the source of grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin. The Spirit-Paraclete, sent by the risen Christ, came to convict the world concerning sin, by revealing him who is its Redeemer.

389. The doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the reverse side of the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all men, that all need salvation, and that salvation is offered to all through Christ. The Church, which has the mind of Christ, knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ.

How to read the account of the Fall

390. The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.

II. The Fall of the Angels

391. Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church’s Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called Satan or the devil. The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.

392. Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. This fall consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: You will be like God. The devil has sinned from the beginning; he is a liar and the father of lies.

393. It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death.

394. Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls a murderer from the beginning, who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.

395. The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God’s reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries—of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature—to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.

Freedom put to the test

396. God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The prohibition against eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil spells this out: for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.

Man’s first sin

397. Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.

398. In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully divinized by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to be like God, but without God, before God, and not in accordance with God.

399. Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness. They become afraid of the God of whom they have conceived a distorted image—that of a God jealous of his prerogatives.

400. The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. Because of man, creation is now subject to its bondage to decay. Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will return to the ground, for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history.

401. After that first sin, the world is virtually inundated by sin. There is Cain’s murder of his brother Abel and the universal corruption which follows in the wake of sin. Likewise, sin frequently manifests itself in the history of Israel, especially as infidelity to the God of the Covenant and as transgression of the Law of Moses. And even after Christ’s atonement, sin raises its head in countless ways among Christians. Scripture and the Church’s Tradition continually recall the presence and universality of sin in man’s history:

What Revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our own experience. For when man looks into his own heart he finds that he is drawn toward what is wrong and sunk in many evils which cannot come from his good creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his source, man has also upset the relationship which should link him to his last end; and at the same time he has broken the right order that should reign within himself as well as between himself and other men and all creatures.

The consequences of Adam’s sin for humanity

402. All men are implicated in Adam’s sin, as St. Paul affirms: By one man’s disobedience many [that is, all men] were made sinners: sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned…. The Apostle contrasts the universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ. Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men.

403. Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination toward evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam’s sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the death of the soul. Because of this certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed personal sin.

404. How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? The whole human race is in Adam as one body of one man. By this "unity of