Why Catholic Morality is More than Ethics

Catholics believe human beings are made to be in communion with God and share in his divine life. The human person is created good, as the crown of creation and made in the image of God but also flawed and marred by sin. There is both a need for grace and an innate vocation to holiness. With this understanding of the human person being radically different from a secular, atheistic definition of a human person, a Catholic morality class in a Catholic college should be totally different from an ethics course at a public funded, junior college. 

Catholic moral life is based on having a “Life in Christ’. Jesus said, “ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. “ (Jn 5:4-5). Unless we have a connection to the Vine and divine life (which happens in the sacraments) then we have no ability to bear fruit.

Jesus is the one who connects sacraments as a prerequisite for morality. When Jesus says, ‘Remain in me, as I also remain in you’, Catholics think of Baptism and Eucharist as the way to be inserted into Christ, to be 'in him'.  ‘Bearing fruit’ is to follow Christ’s model of living and his teachings through our thoughts, actions and words. Jesus goes on to say. ‘If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love’. Remaining in Christ (in a state of grace) makes it possible to love the way God does (agape love) since it is God loving through us. In the Great Command also known as the Law of Love (to love God and others), Jesus taught that the Ten Commandments were supposed to be followed through practicing this kind of love.

Ethics, how ought we to act in society, is devoid of Christ's agape love and indifferent to grace.  It’s actually a branch of philosophy derived from a civil contract. It relies on natural reason and experience. Ethics overlaps with and draws its strength from man-made law. The natural end of ethics is to be a good citizen. It seeks a just society that values and seeks the common good. The closest secular ethics can get to morality is by asserting the scriptural Golden Rule: 'Treat others as you would like to be treated'. In this way ethics, as a pursuit of good citizenship, is for everyone, religious or not.

Catholic morality, on the other hand, is a branch of theology derived from a sacred covenant.  Its sources are reason, experience, and divine revelation which gives us God-made law: the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the Law of Love, and the words and deeds of Jesus as a whole. It asks a different question, “How ought we to act as we live our ‘life in Christ’?”. It presupposes a master to disciple, a unitive relationship between the believer and Christ. It has a supernatural, eschatological end. It surpasses the goal of ethics (a just society, and advancement of the common good). Catholic morality calls us to strive beyond goodness for perfection, sanctification and salvation.

Something very strange happens in Matthew’s gospel. At almost every turn, Jesus raises the bar on the expectations for moral life. For example, he raises the bar on the command to not commit adultery when he adds that anyone who has looked at a woman with lust has already broken that commandment. Jesus, at the end of giving his moral code in the Sermon on the Mount, concludes with the command to be perfect, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5).

Talk about raising the bar! How can we be perfect unless it is God who perfects us?  The strange part is that he later talks about how much easier it will be to be his disciple rather than just a person of the world, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Mt 11:28-30). 

One of the first disputes about ethics versus morality came between the heretic Pelagius and the great theologian, St. Augustine.  Pelagius’ errant idea was that we do not need grace to be good and that original sin does not affect our personal morality. This heresy was rigorously refuted and rejected by St. Augustine. St. Augustine who saw humans as flawed by original sin, advocated for a grace driven morality, founded on the Law of Love. Love of God and then love of neighbor (Mt 22). This type of love is called agape. It is a supernatural gift given to us in seed form in baptism and developed through an ongoing sacramental relationship with God.  Its demands go way beyond the Golden Rule as it calls for self-sacrifice and heroic service for others. Ironically, it is the easier way.

A very helpful visual to use as an analogy for the difference between ethics and morality is a row boat compared to a sailboat. If moral life were like trying to cross the sea to get to an island, ethics would be like taking a rowboat.  It’s possible to get there through acquired virtue, but it requires a ton of hard work and there’s no guarantee. Catholic Morality would be the sailboat. It requires effort, knowledge and skill, but when the sails catch the wind you only have to steer. In this analogy, what is the wind? Infused virtue and grace, specifically sacramental grace. For Catholics in a state of grace, living the moral life is a grace-filled pursuit of happiness rather than a constant punishing effort. Imagine St. Augustine easily sailing past Pelagius who is desperately rowing to catch up. St. Augustine looks back and says, "I told you we needed grace". Pelagius will have to settle for the nearby worldly island of goodness as his destination rather than the more distant island, the paradise of perfection.