2651. Duties of Certain Professions.—(a) Judges and Lawyers.—The duties of men of the law were discussed already in 1940 sqq. Clients on their part owe their lawyers fair treatment and just compensation for services, while those who have part in a judicial process must give respect to the judge and other officials of the court and due obedience to their directions.
(b) Teachers and Students.—Teachers must make themselves proficient in their matter and in the art of pedagogy; must take care that their teaching is accurate and beneficial; must be steady, punctual, orderly; must give no example or advice but what is good; must be neither too lenient nor too exacting; must preserve discipline in their classes by correcting, punishing, or expelling as need requires; must be just, neither petting nor bullying, and must award honors and averages according to merit. There may be grave harm and sin in denying important academic degrees (such as S.T.M., S.T.D., J.D.C., M.D.) to the worthy or in conferring them on the unworthy. Students on their part owe to their teachers respect and obedience in class matters, to their parents and themselves diligence in study, and to their school avoidance of cheating and of disorderly conduct. In athletics they should not aim at winning for winning’s sake, or playing for playing’s sake, but at the true goal of a sound mind in a sound body. In the selection of preferred studies they should remember that nothing worth while is won without hard work, and that the true objectives of learning are not mere utility, or gain or diversion, but the culture of mind and of spirit.
(c) Physicians, Surgeons, Nurses, and Druggists.—These persons must have sufficient knowledge and skill, and must keep up with the progress of medical science; they must not deny their services or delay to come when there is urgent need; they must give a case diligence proportionate to its seriousness; they must consult in case of doubt, follow the safer opinions, and use the more likely remedies. In his relations with his patient a doctor must be chaste (e.g., avoiding immoral advice or operations, unnecessary psychoanalytic conversations, or bodily exposures); loyal to the confidences received; honest and charitable, not prescribing useless remedies, or overcharging, or refusing service to the poor; mindful of the religious needs of his patients, being not too ready to exempt them from church duties nor slow to remind them when they should send for the priest. Patients on their part should honor the physician, call him in need, obey his directions, and properly compensate him for his services. What is here said of physicians and surgeons is true also of nurses in their duties and capacities. Pharmacists are bound to exercise great care in filling prescriptions; they should not cooperate with abortion or contraception by selling medicines, instruments or appliances to be used for those purposes; they should not sell drugs, dopes, poisons, liquors, etc., forbidden by law.
Question IV
THE SACRAMENTS
2652. In the three Questions that preceded we spoke of the means by which man is sanctified and is enabled to secure supernatural rewards through the merits of his own works; for the virtues make their possessor as well as his acts morally righteous, while through God’s grace the good deeds done for His sake entitle the doer to the crown of eternal life. In the present Question we pass on to consider certain means by which God is honored by man and man is sanctified through the application to his soul of the merits and passion of Christ; for the Sacraments were instituted by Christ both as external acts of religion (2175, 2244) and as most powerful agencies to begin, restore, and increase the life of holiness.
2653. It should be observed, first, that the present work is concerned with Moral Theology; and, secondly, that it must be confined within the limited number of pages which a two-volume production of convenient size necessitates. Hence the reader will understand why in the Question now beginning we speak only of man’s duties in reference to the Sacraments, and omit other points that do not so strictly pertain to Moral. (a) Thus, the nature, institution, number and effects of the Sacraments belong to Dogma, which the authors hope to treat later in a similar work. (b) The administration of the Sacraments, their rites, rubrics, ceremonies are set forth in ritual books and works on liturgy. (c) The legal rights of ministers, canonical requirements on registration, penal and processual legislation in reference to the Sacraments, and like juridical questions are treated fully in commentaries on pertinent sections of the Code.
Art. 1: THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL; THE SACRAMENTALS
(_Summa Theologica_, III, qq. 60-65.)
2654. Nature of a Sacrament.—In the New Law a Sacrament is an outward sign instituted permanently by Christ to signify and convey grace.
(a) The internal cause or essence of a Sacrament is the outward sign, which has two parts. The indeterminate part or matter is a visible object (e.g., the water of Baptism, the chrism of Confirmation, the bread and wine of the Eucharist, the oil of Extreme Unction, the imposition of hands in Orders) or a perceptible act that looks to another act for its perfectionment (e.g., the confession, etc., of the penitent in penance; the giving of oneself as spouse in Matrimony). The determining part, or form, is either the sacred formula spoken over the material element (e.g., in Baptism the words “I baptize thee, etc.”) or an act that completes another act (e.g., the acceptance of another as spouse in Matrimony). As the matter must be visible or otherwise sense-perceptible, so the form must be audible or at least (in Matrimony) equivalently audible; for a Sacrament is a sensible sign. The words are audible when they are heard or are capable of being heard at least by the minister.