What gives the Church authority to tell us what’s right and wrong?

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). These are the final words that Jesus speaks to the 11 faithful Apostles before his Ascension into Heaven. This is the Church’s commission, to proclaim Jesus throughout the world, to link people to Jesus through Baptism, and to teach them the commandments of Jesus. The short answer to your question is that Jesus “gives the Church authority to tell us what’s right and wrong.” But let’s dive deeper into the question. 

One could argue that this commission of Jesus is to teach about matters of faith and not on matters of ethics. After all, what has religion to do with ethics and morality? In fact, most religions prior to Christianity didn’t have much to do with ethics. I’ve never heard a story of Zeus presenting to the Greeks an ethical code. 

But the Judeo-Christian religion is different. Ethics and morality are laced throughout the Scriptures. The Old Testament not only contains ethical laws, but it contains prophets who decry the evil behavior of the Israelites and cautionary stories of those who act in evil ways. Above all is the revelation that God loves the lowly such as the widow, the orphan, and the resident foreigner and commands compassion towards them. 

Jesus’ teachings in the New Testament only increase this. He teaches extensively on morals and ethics. The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) is the classic example. And in The Judgment of the Nations (Matt. 24:31-46) the way we treat “these least brothers of mine” is the criterion on which we are judged. There cannot be a doubt that when Jesus commissioned his disciples to spread the Good News it included Jesus’ ethical teachings. 

But why do we need the Church when we have the Bible? For its ethical and moral teachings, the Bible makes for a horrible ethical guide. For one, the Bible’s main purpose is to reveal God to us, not act as an ethics textbook. For another, it deals with issues present in centuries past, and it cannot anticipate the particularities of the 21st century. It is the task of every Christian to take the moral principles given to us by Christ and to live them out in holiness and love in our present day. 

Yet even a quick look at history reveals that Christians do not agree on what is right and what is wrong, despite having the same Bible and the same Lord Jesus. When translating Jesus’ principles to the current day, we make mistakes! And that’s not even considering human greed, selfishness, and malice. Jesus knew that we needed a guide to walk with us through history, helping us to know right from wrong. Without any such guide, an essential element of the Good News—in this case the moral and ethical component—could be lost. 

What makes the Catholic Church such a guide? Is it not just one voice amongst many? No, the Church is much more than that. The Church is the receiver of the Holy Spirit. We see this on Easter Sunday morning when Jesus, “breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22) and on Pentecost morning when “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). Of this Spirit Jesus told his Apostles at the Last Supper, “He will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you” (John 14:26). This gift of the Holy Spirit would later empower the Apostles when deciding whether or not the Gentile Christians needed to follow the Law of Moses to say, “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us” (Acts 15:28). Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to the Church, so that it could correctly preserve the moral and ethical teachings of Jesus throughout the centuries. 

Lastly, following the Church’s guidance on morals and ethics requires us to give up pride and accept humility. Remember the temptation of Eve by the serpent, “God knows well that when you eat of (the tree) your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). The Original Sin was to disregard God’s guidance and to take to oneself the ability to determine good and evil, thus making oneself “like gods.” This temptation is alive and well in today’s world. Secular ethics promote radical self-autonomy: you are the determiner of your ethics, sexual orientation, gender, etc.; not biology, not rationality, not God, and certainly not the Church. No one tells me what I can and cannot do! But this attitude of pride not only disconnects us from God but also from love of neighbor and from reality itself. To avoid this pride, we need a guide that exists outside of ourselves. 

Jesus has both commissioned, and equipped with the Holy Spirit, the Church to be our moral and ethical guide. Following the Church’s guidance, we can correctly apply Jesus’ teachings in our modern world and avoid temptations to pride.