Conscience

04-24-2016Weekly ReflectionFr. Brian Jazdzewski

The recent document from Pope Francis regarding the Joy of Love has created a lot of attention to his remarks, the content of the document and the Catholic Church in general. There are a number of topics in the document which are worth commenting on and some which are creating some puzzling dialogue. In Pope Francis' teachings, and in this document in particular, he continues to remind people about being attentive to their conscience. As a consequence of conscience gaining so much attention from the pope, I thought it good to brush up on our definition of conscience. In order for us to understand what God and the pope expect, we ought to gain a clearer picture of those expectations.

Secularly and commonly understood, we often understand conscience as that little voice in our minds which helps us make decisions. Often in illustrations, we imagine a little red devil on one shoulder and a white angel on the other shoulder; each whispering into our ears what decision we ought to make. The voice in our mind helps us weigh out the short and long term consequences of the decision at hand. Although understanding conscience in this way, there are other elements which make conscience a much bigger deal in our moral life. Please ponder these definitions:

• Conscience is a judgment of reason by which the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1795)
• Conscience is the judgment of our reason with regard to the morality, goodness, or badness of an act (The Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright 1987)
• The judgment of the practical intellect deciding, from general principles of faith and reason, the goodness or badness of a way of acting that a person now faces (Pocket Catholic Dictionary, Rev. John J. Hardon, S.J., copyright 1985)

I'm also going to refer back to Vatican II of 1965 which includes these words regarding conscience, "In the depth of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience…Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths" (Gaudium et spes #16). Father Hardon includes these words in his definition of conscience, "always the role of conscience is to decide subjectively on the ethical propriety of a specific action, here and now, for this person, in these circumstances. But always, too, the decision is a mental conclusion derived from objective norms that conscience does not determine on its own, receiving it as given by the Author of nature and divine grace." And, from the Catechism, "a well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. Everyone must avail himself of the means to form his conscience" (CCC #1798).

The content of the above paragraph, coupled with the three definitions of conscience might be summed up in this way. Conscience is a voice which helps us make moral decisions. We then are obliged to actively form our conscience. Avoiding forming our conscience or suggesting ignorance does not reduce our culpability for a bad moral decision. Formation of conscience takes place first through a relationship with our Creator. What follows, through our love of God, is study which helps us discover ways we can reflect our love for Him by making good moral choices. Good conscience formation might mean we have to change our mind so that our moral mind conforms to what God wants of us. In the end, though we'd like to think conscience is simply about making decision, the Church suggests conscience is so much more than that. As created human beings, we operate from that most sacred place of our mind in making decisions. Our responsibility is to hold sacred that most inner place of our minds where we continue to develop a relationship with God. Our inner conversations with God are a time for us to reduce our debate between two voices and tune into the one voice of God. God will always lead us to the true, the good and the beautiful; because of our love for Him we make moral decisions which reflect our love for Him.