Day 238: Our Moral Conscience (1776-1782)

• It’s Day 238!!

• ARTICLE 6: MORAL CONSCIENCE

• Gaudium et Spes says in Paragraph 1776, “‘Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment…For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God…His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.’”

• We have a “Jiminy Cricket” in our hearts Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket - Always Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide!

• Unlike Pinocchio who had to be given a conscience, we have deep within us a conscience

• That conscience is placed upon us a voice that is ever calling us to love and to do what is good and to avoid what is evil

• Dr. Mary Healy mentioned how difficult it is to understand

• The conscience is “the aboriginal vicar of Christ”

• It is the pre-original voice of Jesus in our human heart

• Well, what does that even mean?

• What kind of authority does my conscience have when it goes against what God has said?

• We want to get a handle on what our conscience is and what is a judgment of conscience

• THE JUDGMENT OF CONSCIENCE 

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise. We give you glory. We thank you. We ask you to please receive us. Lord, we are here to learn. We are here as disciples. We are not here to tell you how you should be. We are not here to tell you how you should look at us, how you should treat us, how you should make us. We are not here to tell you anything. We are just simply here to learn. We are here to be formed by you. We are here to be taught by you. We are here to be changed and transformed by you. So, Lord God, we bring before you our conscience, our conscience that has been in some ways malformed, our conscience that has been wounded, our conscience that has been deafened. Our conscience that has been hardened and in rebellion, and so often, we need to be softened and we need to be taught. Lord God, transform our conscience. Transform our inner world. Transform our hearts so we can be more and more like you this day and every day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• Gaudium et Spes says in Paragraph 1776, “‘Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment…For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God…His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.’”

• St. Paul said in The Letter to the Romans Ch 1 that there is something good in us still

• We are made in God’s image and likeness

• So we do have an INTELLECT and we do have a WILL

• The intellect has been DARKENED and the will has been WEAKENED because of the Fall

• We still have the ability and capacity to realize that there are some things that are always GOOD and there are some things that are always WRONG

• We have a sense of right and wrong

• This thing that tells us that is “Jiminy Cricket”

• This is our CONSCIENCE that has this SENSE of right and wrong

• Just because we think something is right or wrong doesn’t make it right or wrong

• IN FACT…

• There are a lot of things that we disagree on when it comes to our conscience

• So we have to have a WELL-FORMED CONSCIENCE

• Paragraph 1778 says, “Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed.”

• Conscience is a JUDGMENT OF REASON

• Too often we associate conscience with feelings or passions

• BUT…

• CONSCIENCE IS A JUDGMENT OF REASON!!

• This is a REALLY BIG DIFFERENCE

• The world around us sees conscience as that GUT FEELING we get

• In that gut feeling, we are really referring to our passions

• Like that seems fine or that seems off as opposed to what the Church is saying

• You could have that feeling of queasiness or that feeling of, “no, this seems confirmed”

• CONSCIENCE IS A JUDGMENT OF REASON!!

• That means the work of our intellect is NECESSARY 

• Why is this important?

• Because our intellect is still there

• Our intellect has the ability to apprehend TRUTH

• Our intellect has the ability to see this is GOOD or this is NOT GOOD or this is TRUE or this is FALSE

• We have to use this tool we have been given

• The intellect

• The brain

• Our mind

• Our reason

• We have to use our intellect in order to form our conscience

• Our conscience can be MALFORMED

• THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!!

• Our conscience can be NUMBED

• Our conscience can be DEAFENED

• One of the reasons why we need to have a well-formed conscience is because the louder and louder the world around us becomes, the harder and harder it becomes to actually attend to the voice of conscience

• Paragraph 1779 says, “It is important for every person to be sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience.”

• How many of us are present to ourselves?

• What does that mean?

• Do I have the ability to stand in line and not look at my phone?

• Do I have the ability to drive in my car for long distances and not turn on the radio or podcasts?

• Do I have the ability to sit in silence without immediately driving myself crazy or without immediately having 1,000 different distractions?

• Am I adequately present to myself, or do I find myself constantly distracting myself from what the Catechism calls “interiority”?

• We live in a culture that devotes itself to the passions

• “If it feels good, do it”

• BUT…

• We also live in a culture that is incredibly distracted

• Sometimes we don’t even know what we think

• We don’t even know what we are feeling

• In a world of constant distraction, we rarely stop

• How many times have you gone to the fridge because you’re bored?

• You’re not even hungry yet you go to the fridge and open it and look around in it and you don’t even realize you’re just bored

• How many times have we felt angry about something when we’re not really angry, we’re just nervous?

• Or we aren’t mad at anyone, we’re just scared and afraid?

• WE DO NOT OFTEN ATTEND TO OURSELVES!!

• We don’t necessarily know what we are thinking or what we are feeling

• If we have that interiority, we become closer and closer to that

• We need interiority for a good conscience

• Paragraph 1780 says, “The dignity of the human person implies and requires uprightness of moral conscience. Conscience includes the perception of the principles of morality (synderesis)...”

• So what is that?

• Remember Christian Smith who stated, “The conclusion was a majority of American young adults have neither the ability nor the categories to make moral decisions.”

• The principles of morality will be those categories

• How do we even understand the right and wrong?

• How do we even understand good and evil?

• Paragraph 1780 continues, “...their application in the given circumstances by practical discernment of reasons and goods; and finally judgment about concrete acts yet to be performed or already performed.”

• There has to be some kind of assessment

• All of these have to be present for a person to have PRUDENT JUDGMENT OF CONSCIENCE

• That’s just the beginning

• So interiority, am I present to myself?

• Beyond that, do I have principles of morality?

• How do we apply those principles in given circumstances?

• How do we practically discern between goods and competing goods and other reasons?

• How do we judge well?

• Because we need to have that prudent judgment

• We need to be able to JUDGE WELL

• Paragraph 1781 says, “Conscience enables one to assume responsibility for the acts performed.”

• That’s wonderful

• That is good

• Remember, we have responsibility

• When we have freedom, we need responsibility

• Paragraph 1781 continues, “If man commits evil, the just judgment of conscience can remain within him as the witness to the universal truth of the good, at the same time as the evil of his particular choice. The verdict of the judgment of conscience remains a pledge of hope and mercy. In attesting to the fault committed, it calls to mind the forgiveness that must be asked, the good that must still be practiced, and the virtue that must be constantly cultivated with the grace of God…”

• So here is a person who does wrong

• AND YET…

• The judgment of conscience can be there

• They can actually still know the universal truth of the good and as a witness of the evil of his particular choice

• Sometimes when we reach out our hands to the evil, we don’t automatically become evil

• The voice of conscience remains in us saying, “That was wrong.”

• When we do evil, the voice of conscience remains in us saying, “That was evil. You knew the good, and you did the evil thing.”

• Even in the midst of our particular choices of choosing evil, the judgment of conscience convicts us of that choice and reminds us of the good

• That is why it says, “the verdict of the judgment of conscience remains a pledge of hope and mercy…”

• It calls to mind the reality that we need to ask for forgiveness

• There is a good to be CHOSEN

• There is a good that STILL NEEDS TO BE PRACTICED

• Paragraph 1782 says, “Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. ‘He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters.”

• This is often misunderstood

• Every person has the right to act in conscience and in freedom

• Being made in God’s image and likeness, you have been made as a being that can will to choose so that you can be able to choose

• A person can never be forcibly converted

• The Church stands directly against that

• A person can never be forced to act contrary to their conscience nor must they be prevented from acting according to their conscience

• What this does not mean is that just because we do not want to do something, it does not mean that if we have to do it it is a violation of our conscience

• Imagine a kid saying he does not want to eat his green beans 

• He’ll tell his parents that they are violating his conscience by forcing him to eat green beans

• That’s not the same thing

• What the Church is saying is that if the child believed that eating the green beans would be the wrong thing to do, a sin, or if they’re poisoned, for the parents to force the kid to eat them, ok that would be a violation of conscience

• BUT…

• To say, “I don’t want to do that, therefore I have to act according to my conscience.”

• That is not the same thing

• There can be a level more serious than green beans

• The principle remains the same

• A person cannot be forced to act contrary to their conscience

• If you came across someone who said, “I know all about Christianity and I do not accept Jesus.”

• To forcibly baptize this person would be wrong

• To force them to act contrary to their conscience would be wrong

• We may never do that

• We may never force someone to act contrary to their conscience

• We can’t prevent someone from acting according to their conscience, especially in religious matters

• Remember that conscience is a judgment of REASON

• Because of that, we can get things wrong because our reason and intellect can be misled, mistaken, or malformed

• Therefore, our conscience needs to be formed

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!