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ShareThisNatural Law
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Simplified
Already Written on Man's Heart (2070-2071)
Although revealed by God, these commandments show the essential duties and fundamental rights inherent in human nature. They are a privileged expression of the natural law. "God planted the precepts of the natural law in the heart of man and then reminded him of them through the Decalogue" (St. Irenaeus).
Sinful humanity, although capable of discovering them, needed this help to realize all the requirements of natural law. "A full explanation was necessary because the light of reason was obscured and the will had gone astray" (St. Bonaventure). We know God's commandments by the Church's teaching and by the voice of moral conscience.
Obliging Everyone Everywhere (2072-2073)
Because the commandments express fundamental duties to God and neighbor, they reveal obligations which are grave, fundamentally immutable, and obliging always and everywhere. No one can dispense them because God engraved them on the human heart.
Sometimes the obligations involve matter which are light.
Jesus' Power Within (2074)
"He who abides in me bears much fruit" (Jn 15:5). When we believe in Jesus, he himself becomes the living, interior rule of our activity. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (Jn 15:12).
