Catechism index

1726 IN BRIEF The Beatitudes teach us the final end to which God calls us: the Kingdom, the vision of God, participation in the divine nature, eternal life, filiation, rest in God.
1727 IN BRIEF The beatitude of eternal life is a gratuitous gift of God. It is supernatural, as is the grace that leads us there.
1728 IN BRIEF The Beatitudes confront us with decisive choices concerning earthly goods; they purify our hearts in order to teach us to love God above all things.
1729 IN BRIEF The beatitude of heaven sets the standards for discernment in the use of earthly goods in keeping with the law of God. Previous - Next Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
1730 MAN'S FREEDOM God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. "God willed that man should be 'left in the hand …
1731 I. Freedom and Responsibility Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free …
1732 I. Freedom and Responsibility As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection …
1733 I. Freedom and Responsibility The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. the choice to disobey and do …
1734 I. Freedom and Responsibility Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis enhance the mastery of the will over its acts.
1735 I. Freedom and Responsibility Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors.
1736 I. Freedom and Responsibility Every act directly willed is imputable to its author: Thus the Lord asked Eve after the sin in the garden: "What is this that you have done?" 29 He asked Cain the …
1737 I. Freedom and Responsibility An effect can be tolerated without being willed by its agent; for instance, a mother's exhaustion from tending her sick child. A bad effect is not imputable if it was not willed …
1738 I. Freedom and Responsibility Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe …
1739 II. Human Freedom in the Economy of Salvation Freedom and sin. Man's freedom is limited and fallible. In fact, man failed. He freely sinned. By refusing God's plan of love, he deceived himself and became a slave to sin. This …
1740 II. Human Freedom in the Economy of Salvation Threats to freedom. the exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything. It is false to maintain that man, "the subject of this freedom," is "an individual …
1741 II. Human Freedom in the Economy of Salvation Liberation and salvation. By his glorious Cross Christ has won salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage. "For freedom Christ has set us free." …
1742 II. Human Freedom in the Economy of Salvation Freedom and grace. the grace of Christ is not in the slightest way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the true and the good that …
1743 IN BRIEF "God willed that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel (cf Sir 15:14), so that he might of his own accord seek his creator and freely attain his …
1744 IN BRIEF Freedom is the power to act or not to act, and so to perform deliberate acts of one's own. Freedom attains perfection in its acts when directed toward God, the sovereign Good.
1745 IN BRIEF Freedom characterizes properly human acts. It makes the human being responsible for acts of which he is the voluntary agent. His deliberate acts properly belong to him.