Chapter IV — Duties Toward Self

Duties of a Human Being Toward Himself

From the natural law flow the duties of a human being toward himself. The innate natural law is the power inherent in the human being that moves him toward the preservation, development, and advancement of his material and spiritual nature. But in the human being, as we saw in general ethics, there also exists another law—the innate moral law—which requires that the development, preservation, and advancement of both body and spirit be built upon the principles of morality, that is, of the moral law, written in the heart of the human being. This other law imposes the duty that the human being direct the demands of the natural law according to the commands of the moral law. From this obligation are born the duties of a human being toward himself.

Duties of a Human Being toward Himself.

The duties of man toward himself are many and varied; these can be reduced to two categories: natural duties and moral duties; natural duties are those relating to human nature, both material and spiritual, whose preservation and advancement they seek. Moral duties are those relating to the moral life of man, through which he seeks the direction of the impulses of the material and spiritual man according to the principles of the moral law.

What is the foremost duty?

The duty of preserving, developing, and advancing our material and spiritual nature; The second duty is the regulation of the developing powers of the body and the spirit according to the innate moral law.

Duties toward the Sensible Nature of the Human Being.

What duties does the human being have toward his sensible nature?

The duties toward the preservation of the body and of one’s sensible life. From where do these flow? Our duties toward the body for its preservation, development, and advancement, and for its care in general, flow from both the natural and moral law, because both laws impose love toward ourselves.[1]

The human being naturally loves himself and naturally seeks the perpetuation of his own existence. The natural desire for life is the voice of the natural law that commands care for the body for the perpetuation of our life. Sensory life is the highest earthly good of the human being, and as such we ought to care for it. Since the human being was created for a purposeful and deliberate end, and this end is accomplished through the fulfillment of the moral law, the moral law commands care for the body and sensory life, so that care for our body and sensory life is commanded by both the natural and moral law.

Therefore, the human being has the duty to care for his own body for its preservation, development, and advancement, and for the maintenance of sensory life. Therefore, he ought to avoid everything that can harm it. Care for the body is a timely and indirect care for our spiritual nature, because the body is a servant of the spirit and an instrument serving its demands. And insofar as the spirit is united with the eternal Spirit, the body becomes serviceable to His purposes as well. Hence, care for the body must be such that the body becomes a useful instrument of the spirit and of the divine Spirit working through it.

Life is the highest of the goods, among the natural goods bestowed upon man by God. Therefore, one ought to give it the proper value and not sacrifice it for the sake of natural goods.

The duty of preserving physical life ceases when its maintenance depends on another’s will and is granted under conditions that oppose the moral or religious law. Therefore, the ransoming of physical life through the denial of one’s moral and religious convictions is impiety both toward our spiritual nature and toward God, and a purposeless preservation of life; because it no longer fulfills any purpose. On the contrary, the sacrifice of life in such a case is an obligatory duty and the highest virtue, because the one who sacrifices life for the sake of virtue dies for his appointed purpose in the world. Opposed to the concept of physical life in Christian ethics are cowardice toward death and anxious care for the maintenance of the body and physical life; Christian ethics requires prudent care, free from irrational anxiety and cowardice and fear.

Duties Toward the Harmonious Development of the Powers of the Body.

Physical life requires the harmonious development of the physical powers for harmonious functioning. Therefore it is necessary that the physical powers be developed normally and directed and regulated properly by the spirit for the harmonious functioning of physical life.

Means toward normal development are work and exercise. Through work we both strengthen the powers of the body and procure the means of sustenance that strengthen the body and protect our sensory life. Through exercise the bodily powers are developed normally and the body becomes strong and skillful for the fulfillment of the required tasks. Virtue lies in the mean.

(1) Aristotle says that “both excess and deficiency destroy the soul;” Temperance is preserved in moderation. Labors practiced through long habit,

Our sensory life is also protected by observing the rules of hygiene, moderation in food, restraint of the passions, and generally good conduct of life.

Violation of the duty toward the life of the senses consists in abandoning ourselves and removing all care and attention for the body, in negligence toward treatment during illnesses, in reckless impulse toward dangers, in exposing life to the changes of the seasons out of vanity, and similar things. All these are forms of suicide deserving the greatest censure for violating our duty toward our physical life. Dueling likewise is an exposure of life to the greatest danger for the sake of vanity, because justice could have given satisfaction to the wronged party. Therefore, one who is killed in a duel is also considered a suicide; suicides will give an account before God for the evil stewardship of their life on earth.

How does Holy Scripture view physical life?

Holy Scripture views the life of the senses (a) as the first stage of the spiritual life, as a preparatory school for the soul, which now sees through a mirror in an enigma, but when it is freed from the body will see face to face, because the spiritual life is manifested, developed, and advances toward the perfection to which the soul hastens to arrive through its sensory nature. (1 Corinthians 13:10–13).

(b) Scripture views it as a race in which the human being must compete so that he may be crowned by the God of the contest with the unfading crown of glory. (2 Timothy 4:5; Ephesians 1:33; 1 Corinthians 9:25; 2 Timothy 4:8)

(c) Scripture views it as the greatest of the earthly goods given to the human being by God, as it is also the foremost, because God made the human being so that he might become a partaker of His own

to those who have been trained (Basil). Let us imitate those who practice their drills in the military exercises, who, having acquired skill through maneuvers and formations, enjoy the profit from their training in actual contests.[2] The one who is unpracticed in works is quickly overcome by circumstances (Theol.). “Through much study and practice comes strength and freedom from the weakness caused by passions” (Didymus). “Continuous practice establishes knowledge, just as neglect of practice produces ignorance, and again, practice increases experience through repetition” (Philo).[3] Study is the nurse of knowledge. (See Treasury of Sayings, Vol. 4, ch. 151, p. 818.)

His goodness and blessedness, so that life is the greatest of earthly goods, because through it man becomes a partaker of God’s goodness and blessedness. (Gen. chs. 1, 2, 3.)

Concerning the Duties of the Human Being toward His Rational Nature.

What are the duties of the human being toward his rational nature?

The duties of the human being toward his rational nature are (a) the development of his spiritual powers, their strengthening, and their advancement, and (b) his moral perfection; because, having been formed according to the image of God and according to His likeness, the human being ought to be conformed to the divine, developing spiritually and being perfected morally. Because of this twofold obligation, the duties toward his rational nature are divided into spiritual duties and moral duties.

Spiritual Duties.

What are the spiritual duties? Spiritual duties consist in caring for the preservation, development, advancement, and perfection of our spiritual nature. What do we mean when we speak of spiritual nature? The noetic aspect of the human being, that is, his spiritual faculties. How does the human being preserve, develop, advance, and perfect his spiritual faculties? The human being preserves, develops, advances, and perfects his spiritual faculties through the pursuit of knowledge of himself. Through the pursuit of knowledge of his relation to creation and of his relation to its Creator, the human being finds what he seeks, is led gradually from the particular to the more general, from the individual to the universal, and thus advancing he is perfected. For the canonical development of spiritual faculties, the canonical and natural ministry of the intellect is required. The intellect ministers canonically and naturally when it is maintained in continuous energy and tranquility; it is maintained and undisturbed, when the human being lives a temperate life befitting one who is noetic and made in the image of God; because the bestial life is the greatest obstacle to the canonical and natural ministry of the intellect. The bestial life, which luxuries, pleasures, delights, drinking, and similar things produce, darkens the intellect, deprives it of the power of canonical energy for development, debases it, and condemns it to stagnation.

To prevent such a condition, the human being ought to bridle his own sensory impulses, passions, and desires, so that the clarity of the intellect is not darkened and its free energy is not hindered. We accomplish the restraint of impulses, passions, and desires when we avoid the representations that arouse them.

The spirit in the course of its development needs some guidance; but the human being must also act on his own initiative. He ought to have confidence in his teachers and to receive their opinions, yet not passively but actively; he ought to search, so that he himself may also discover the truth contained in the teaching and act freely according to the measure of his own spiritual development.

The development of the spirit does not reject faith; because faith is the teacher of truth; faith in the teaching is the first step of the ladder leading up to the truth. without faith there is no knowledge, and without knowledge there is no development: “If you do not believe, you will not understand,” says Scripture (Isaiah 7:9).

A duty imposed by the moral law is also the moral development of the imagination, because when it is well directed it becomes a means toward moral perfection, shaping the desire for perfect goodness, perfect beauty, and perfect truth; but when it is badly directed it becomes a means of error and an instrument of corruption, shaping false images and nonexistent pleasures, and inflaming the passions and desires of the body.

Moral Duties.

What are the moral duties toward oneself? The first moral duty of man is to cultivate his spiritual faculties and to regulate them according to the requirements of the moral law.

How ought the faculty of knowledge to be directed?

A human being must direct the power of the cognitive faculty in such a way as to guard the spirit from every deception, because if it is not well directed, it can fall into many delusions and be drawn away from the truth. The spirit is led astray either by a darkening that comes upon it from the influence of the sensory nature, or by erroneous theories born from erroneous judgments. The delusion of the intellect can affect the whole moral life and destroy it, because a deluded mind also leads astray the feeling and the will and disposes them in opposition to the moral law. Therefore a human being must avoid everything that can darken or lead the spirit astray, and must always act with circumspection and reject theories that are opposed to the moral law.

A darkened and disturbed mind also leads the conscience astray, and the delusion of the conscience distorts the truth of the innate moral law and destroys every moral idea. From a darkened mind every vice has sprung. But since the mind is the light within us, if this light within us becomes darkness, how great then will be the darkness within us—the darkness that comes from the impulses, passions, and desires of the body!

Therefore a human being must first of all take care of his spiritual power, the mind.

A moral duty imposed upon the human being by the moral law is also the direction of the will, because a human being can be mistaken either about the moral quality or about the moral value of something and can will evil instead of good. But a human being must always choose the good as the true content of his will. A human being, as a morally free being, can choose either good or evil, but since the choice of evil is not the desire of his own heart—as it was not created together with him—it cannot be the true content of his will. When he wills a false content of his will, he wills what he does not desire; he wills it because he is deluded. Therefore a human being must examine whether what appears in his will as desirable is in harmony with the moral law; and if it is in harmony, he must will it and seek its fulfillment; but if he recognizes that it is opposed to the moral law, then he must reject it as the false content of his own will and cease willing it.

The false content of the will is a product of sin that has darkened our intellect and weakened our will. Holy Scripture also says this. The Apostle Paul says in his epistle to the Romans: “For the will is present with me, but I do not find the ability to perform what is good; for I do not do the good I will, but the evil I do not will, this I practice.” But if I do what I do not will, it is no longer I who perform it, but sin that dwells in me... For I delight in the law of God according to the inner human being. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my intellect, and taking me captive to the law of sin which is in my members. (Romans 7:18–23).

To strengthen the will and to accomplish the good, endurance is required; and endurance is strength of the will drawn from the illumined intellect and the moral law. Through endurance the will is shown to be steadfast and unyielding, and it overcomes the sin that wars within us. The unstable and yielding will lacks the strength that comes from the moral law and the illumined intellect. Steadfastness in carrying out evil is strength drawn from the sin in our members; in such a person the intellect has been darkened and the heart has been hardened.

The character of the strong will that possesses reason and has true content is courage, boldness, confidence, magnanimity, and the other virtues that accompany courage.

The character of an irrational strong will that has false content is reckless audacity, cowardice, rash actions, pettiness, and so on.

The signs of the strengthening of the will are its identification with the divine will, the moral idea. Toward such strengthening of the will, the human being must struggle against the false will dwelling within him; and he prevails in the struggle if he keeps his mind illuminated and fulfills the moral law.

Another duty imposed on the human being by the moral law is the governance of the affective faculty, the heart; just as the will, so also the affective faculty, if it is governed morally, is directed rightly and can become useful and capable of developing the religious and moral

sentiments through which the human being hastens toward divine love and toward the fulfillment of the divine law with God-inspired zeal; But if it is poorly governed, it becomes a destructive instrument that corrupts the moral life of the human being, because it is dominated by the sensory nature, is given over entirely to earthly things, and pursues earthly goods. Feeling governed by reason prefers spiritual goods over earthly things, and seeks its own harmony and accord with the divine law.

The result of the harmony of feeling and the divine law is the inward joy of the heart, the supreme peace and exultation of the soul, the tranquility of the spirit, and the inward assurance of the soul concerning the future enjoyment of the supreme good, with which it feels itself to be in mystical communion. These, then, are the duties toward each one of the spiritual powers. Since, however, the desired perfection can be attained from the harmonious development of all the spiritual powers of the human being, the human being ought to seek this with all his strength.