Questions to Guide Your Reading

Pope John Paul II, The Splendor of Truth (Veritatis splendor)

Introduction: Jesus Christ, the True Light that Enlightens Every One

1. According to JP II, how are we made holy?

2. According to JP II, can the darkness of error or sin ever totally take away from man the light of God the Creator?

3. According to JP II, no one can escape from the fundamental questions. What are they?

4. According to JP II, what is the decisive answer to every one of man's questions -- his religious and moral questions in particular?

5. On which path, according to JP II, is the way of salvation open to all?

Chapter I: "Teacher, What Good Must I Do ...?": Christ and the Answer to the Question About Morality

1. This entire chapter (Chapter I) is an exegesis of what biblical text?

"Someone came to him...."

1. According to JP II, for the rich young man who comes to Christ, the question is not so much what rules are to be followed, but about what? How does this apply to us?

"Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?"

1. According to JP II, the young man senses that there is a connection between the fulfillment of his own destiny and what?

2. According to JP II, why must people today turn to Christ once again?

"There is only one who is good"

1. Who is the only one who can, according to JP II, answer the question about what is good? Thus, to ask about the good means what?

2. What, according to JP II, is the source of man's happiness?

3. What, according to JP II, is the ultimate purpose of man's life?

4. How does what man is and what he must do become clear to us? How in particular is this revealed in the Old Testament?

5. According to JP II, the moral life is a reponse to what?

6. What, according to JP II, is the very core, the heart of the Law?

7. But, if God alone is the Good, then what must we say about human effort, even the most rigorous observance of the law and the commandments?

"If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."

1. According to JP II, only God can answer the question about the good because he is the Good. But God has already given an answer to this question. How?

2. What, according to JP II, is the natural law?

3. . According to JP II, the gift of the Decalogue was a promise and sign of the New Covenant, when what was to happen?

4. According to JP II, Jesus's words communicate to the young man that there is a close connection between eternal life and what?

5. The commandments, says JP II, are linked to a promise. What was the "object of the promise in the Old Covenant? What is the object of the promise in the New Covenant?

6. What commandments does Jesus mention in his response to the young man? What is the fundamental commandment to which these commandments of the Decalogue are related?

7. The commandments, says JP II, represent the basic condition for what? They are also the first necessary step on the journey towards what?

8. Without love of neighbor, what is not possible, according to JP II?

9. What does Jesus say about the Law in the Sermon on the Mount?

10. According to JP II, how does Jesus bring God's commandments to fulfillment?

11. According to JP II, Jesus himself is the living "fulfillment" of the Law. How?

"If you wish to be perfect"

1. After Jesus tells the young man to keep the commandments, he replies: "I have kept all these; what do I still lack?" One interpretation of this response would be to say that the young man doesn't understand how hard it is really to follow the Law in its fullness. JP II has a somewhat more charitable interpretation (although not entirely unrelated). What is it? What, in other words, according to JP II, does the young man realize as he stands in the presence of Jesus?

2. What is Jesus's advice to the young man at this point in the story?

3. What, according to JP II, is that which "opens us up to eternal life and indeed is eternal life"?

4. What, according to JP II, is the "absolutely essential ground in which the desire for perfection can take root and mature?

5. What, according to JP II, are the "conditions for the moral growth of man, who has been called to perfection"?

6. How do those who live "by the flesh" experience God's laws?

7. How do those who are impelled by love and who "walk by the Spirit" experience God's law?

8. To whom is the call to perfect love made?

"Come, follow me"

1. What, according to JP II, is the essential and primordial foundation of Christian morality? What does this entail?

2. "Following Christ," says JP II, "is not [only] an outward imitation...." What is it?

"With God all things are possible"

1.According to JP II, to imitate and live out the love of Christ is not possible for man by his own strength alone. (This is the point of Jesus saying that it is harder for he rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than it is for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle; a similar lesson is made about divorce.) How then are these things to be done?

2. Does love bring about the keeping of the commandments, or does the keeping of the commandments bring about love?

3. According to St. Augustine (and JP II), does the gift of grace lessen the moral demands of the Law?

"Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age"

1. How does JP II interpret this verse?  How does it fit into the context of his overall exegesis? (Hint:  To whom, other than the rich young man, is Jesus talking?  To whom, in other words, are these words addressed?)

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