When thinking about the four senses of interpreting Scripture, If the term “moral sense” immediately conjures up thoughts of being puritanically righteous; or if it makes you think, “Uh oh, I better be good!”, or “This is the part where I’ll probably get my hand slapped!” – then welcome to the world of being…human!
After all, living a moral life is no easy feat. Temptations are abundant. It is all too easy to become so self-indulgent and give in to instant gratification, that having the Sacrament of Penance speaks for itself. We know we are flawed. And while we recognize this when we attend Mass, when we pray, when we read Scripture, and through how we go about our lives in general, it can seem that the constant reminders of being flawed can be a bit belaboring and annoying. However, because most of us live in a vicious cycle of striving to be good, but then falling into temptation, then maybe we do indeed need the constant reminders.
Yet living a moral life has other components to it, aside from fighting temptation and generally being a decent human being. The Bible is chalk full of moral guidance – specifically how it relates to God’s expectations for us. Two immediate examples are the 10 Commandments and the Beatitudes (The Sermon on the Mount): Following all of those proclamations and declarations can not only help keep a strong, devoted relationship with God, but also help keeps us centered in how we interact with other people – and all of God’s creation for that matter.
What’s more – and as we keep the four senses of Scripture in mind – much of what is written in the Bible has a moral angle to it. Some moral lessons are offshoots of the 10 Commandments, while a plethora of other lessons throughout the New Testament – especially in the Gospels and letters from St. Paul — show us how to uphold our salvation through Christ.
Knowing that, let’s lock down a more complete definition of the moral sense, and also look at a couple of examples:
Referring again to 117 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the moral sense is succinctly defined this way: “The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written ‘for our instruction’”.
In addition, Catechism 1950 defines moral law as follows: “The moral law is the work of divine Wisdom. Its biblical meaning can be defined as fatherly instruction, God’s pedagogy. It prescribes for man the ways, the rules of conduct that lead to the promised beatitude; it prescribes the ways of evil which him away from God and his love. It is as once firm in its precepts and, in its promises, worthy of love”.
And though, just like the term “moral sense”, the word “law” can equally give the heebie jeebies about having to be perfect in the eyes of God – we thankfully have a book (73 books, to be exact), that give example after example of the human condition: of how we are inherently good (we are in the image of God, after all!), yet we have this pesky problem of caving into sin. We even have stories of God’s appointed messengers flubbing their way through life and sometimes teetering on good morals. Point being: Don’t beat your head against a wall for not being perfect. First, your head will not like you for that. And second, while it is important to strive – everyday – to do what’s right, to be morally strong in our thoughts and actions, we Scripture and the Church’s now 2000-year-old Tradition of helping us grow in our moral obligations. Progress, penance, and prayer are key. Call it the three P’s if you will!
Now, putting the aside the more common examples of moral teaching mentioned earlier, what are other examples of the moral sense in Scripture?
One example is John 14:12: “He who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to the Father.” As Mark Shea (clearly one of my favorite authors on Christian theology) explains in Making Senses Out of Scripture, Paul reminds us that the Church – including its body of believers is central is to God’s work here on Earth.
Therefore, when we grow our relationship with Christ through his salvation, when we keep with church Tradition, when we consistently partake in the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist, when we fully embrace the marriage between Christ and the Church, we can much better keep our morals in check.
Or how about Proverbs 16:32: “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city”. That is, we must always be cognizant of our struggles.
Or how about Ephesians 6:16-17: “In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit”. That is, while this seems to suggest battle in a military sense, this passage is much more about the moral sense: to conquer sin, remain steadfast in God’s holiness, and strive to lead a virtuous life”.
To end with a quote from St. Thomas Aquinas: “so far as the things done in Christ, or so far as the things which signify Christ, are types of what we ought to do, there is the moral sense.”