YOUCAT Question n. 333 – Part IV. Is there a natural law that everyone can know?
(Youcat answer - repeated) If people
are to do good and avoid evil, certainty about what is good or evil must be
inscribed within them. In fact there is such a moral law that is, so to speak, “natural”
to men and can be known in principle by every person by reason.
A
deepening through CCC
(CCC 1955 a) The "divine and
natural" law (GS 89 § 1) shows man the way to follow so as to practice the
good and attain his end. The natural law states the first and essential
precepts which govern the moral life. It hinges upon the desire for God and
submission to him, who is the source and judge of all that is good, as well as
upon the sense that the other is one's equal. Its principal precepts are
expressed in the Decalogue. This law is called "natural," not in
reference to the nature of irrational beings, but because reason which decrees
it properly belongs to human nature: Where then are these rules written, if not
in the book of that light we call the truth? In it is written every just law;
from it the law passes into the heart of the man who does justice, not that it
migrates into it, but that it places its imprint on it, like a seal on a ring
that passes onto wax, without leaving the ring (St. Augustine, De Trin. 14, 15, 21: PL 42,1052).1955 a
Reflecting
and meditating
(Youcat comment) The natural
moral law is valid for everyone. It tells men what fundamental rights and
duties they have and thus forms the real foundation for life together in the
family, in society, and in the State. Because our natural knowledge is often
troubled by sin and human weakness, a person needs God’s help and his
Revelation in order to stay on the right path.
(CCC
Comment)
(CCC 1955 b) The natural law is nothing other than the
light of understanding placed in us by God; through it we know what we must do
and what we must avoid. God has given this light or law at the creation (St. Thomas Aquinas, Dec. praec. I).
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