the law

[billcu1]

I have read that the law is written in our hearts. What exactly does this mean? When we a reconciled is the law written again or is that at baptism? It seems like there’s a lot of laws in Catholicism too maybe not as much as jewish law with washing the hands and ritual baths.

 

[YoungTradCath]

It means that all of us, except maybe psychopaths, have at least an imperfect conscience and should know the difference between right and wrong.

 

[billcu1]

It means that all of us, except maybe psychopaths, have at least an imperfect conscience and should know the difference between right and wrong.

So we have to wait for the holy spirit to write the law in our hearts? I was baptized and didn’t know masturbation was a sin until taught. It’s a moral sin and aren’t we supposesd to know that right off without the law? Without the law there can be no transgression.

 

[fhansen]

I have read that the law is written in our hearts. What exactly does this mean? When we a reconciled is the law written again or is that at baptism? It seems like there’s a lot of laws in Catholicism too maybe not as much as jewish law with washing the hands and ritual baths.

By the Fall of man our consciences have been weakened, obscured, easilly overridden or compromised. The law is still there, but no longer in control simply because God was no longer in control of man ever since the Fall. In fact, our free will consists in the ability to oppose or deny Gods will. By the Atonement, God and man are meant to be reconciled, God becoming the God of man again, and from there He can begin a new work in us, of placing His laws on our hearts and writing them in our minds as per Jer 31. This is the New Covenant.

 

[fred_conty]

Paul makes note of such law when discussing those of his own time who were never bound by Old Testament law: “When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts . . .” (Rom. 2:14-15a).

CCC 2072
Since they express man’s fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their primordial content, grave obligations. They are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart.