Why Does the Church Have So Many Moral Rules?

The Church seems to have thousands of moral rules:  Do this.  Don’t do that.  Thou shalt not... 

Believe it or not, Jesus gave us only two basic moral rules or commands:  Love God above all else and love your neighbor as yourself (Mt.  22:37-40).  So why does the Church have so many rules? The two commands need to be adapted to the situation at hand.  In the Old Testament God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites and by extension to us; the first three cover loving God and the next seven cover loving our neighbor.  These are adaptations to real situations—worship, marriage, family, property, relationships, and life itself.

But even these ten have to be adapted.  St.  Thomas Aquinas’s first principle of practical reason, “Do good and avoid evil,” has to be adapted.  This is the natural law that is present in our hearts and established by reason (Catechism, par.  1956).  God gave this universal law to all people so that we could have a starting point on how to behave and thus, how to love.

The Church further guides us in what it means to form and follow our consciences, thus the Church has rules for specific circumstances so that we may love one another as Jesus loves us.    Read more about the Moral Law in the Catechism, paragraphs 1950-1974.

Know your faith.  Live your faith.  Teach your faith.