Stand Alone Pages on 'Musings of an Old Curmudgeon'

01 October 2019

The Catechism of the Summa - The Second Part: XIX. OF THE DIVINE LAW -- THE DECALOGUE (C)

(C)
 
Do these ten commandments suffice to guide the whole moral life of man in the way of virtue?

Yes, they suffice as regards the principal virtues which have reference to the essential duties of man towards God and his neighbour; but for the perfection of all the virtues it was necessary for them to be further explained and completed by the teaching of the prophets in the Old Law, and still further by the teaching of Jesus Christ and the Apostles in the New Law (C. 3, 11).
 
What is the best way to understand these precepts fully and to understand that which explains or completes them for the perfection of the moral life?

It is to study them by help of each of the virtues considered in detail.
 
Will the study of them thus be made easy?

Yes, for the very nature of the virtue will explain the nature and the obligation of the precept.
 
Will this be at the same time a good way to understand the whole perfection of the New Law?

Yes; because the perfection of this law consists precisely in its relation with the excellence of all the virtues (C. 2; CVIII.).

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