Let Your
Conscience
be your Guide
The Church teaches us that we must
obey our consciences. But, in a culture
based on moral relativism, that can be a dangerous statement. We live in an age that teaches, “What’s true
for you may not be true for me,” or, “We all create our own truth.” Hopefully these statements sound nonsensical
to us as Catholics, who know not only that Truth exists, but that Truth is not
just a concept, it is a Person with whom we are called to have an intimate
relationship.
This, of course, is why, when the
Church tells us that we must follow our consciences, she reminds us that we
have a serious duty to form our consciences correctly. We are bound to obey our properly-formed consciences.
Do we have properly formed consciences? It’s an important thing to examine from time
to time. What other types of conscience
might we have? I would like to briefly
explore five types of consciences. There
are, of course, other more comprehensive and precise ways to approach the
topic, so if you’ve got the proper citation in Thomas Aquinas handy, I’m sure
you’re better off going there, but I’ll do the best I can.
1) The Dead Conscience: A dead conscience
is really unconcerned with ideas such as right and wrong, or good and evil,
except when the owner of a dead conscience suffers some evil. This is what we might find in Thomas Hobbes’s
delusional idea of the natural man. It
would be purely concerned with self-interest, and other people would be seen
simply as tools to be used or discarded as they can serve some narcissistic
purpose. Of course, some serious
psychotic mental disorder may produce a dead conscience, as may have happened
with the young man who shot up the Colorado movie theater. (Though I understand mental disorders are
rarely the cause of criminal behavior.)
Most of us feel safe from having this kind of
conscience. But the truth is, sometimes
we can display it. We can have the
tendency to justify certain things to a degree that we clearly mistreat others. But our highly developed skills of
rationalization blind our consciences to that fact.
2) A
poorly-formed conscience – Sadly, this may be the most common conscience we encounter
today. The good news is that a
poorly-formed conscience is concerned with right and wrong, but unfortunately
it often does not correctly identify right and wrong. This is the poster child for our relativistic
twenty-first century morality. This
conscience may be formed according to each person’s personal preferences, or
maybe by the prevailing social norms.
For example, one might not consider fornication
to be anything sinful, but cheating with your best friend’s girlfriend, “That’s
just wrong.” Abortion is about a woman’s
“right to choose.” Going to Mass isn’t
an issue of right or wrong; it’s just a matter of how each person best relates
to God, whatever they may perceive him or her to be.
If society approves, it’s not wrong. If I feel in my heart that it’s right, then
it’s right. This conscience resides in
the emotions.
3) A well-formed conscience – This conscience is
formed according to some standard outside of myself, something absolute, and
something true. It resides in the
intellect, not the emotions. As
Catholics, we know that God is the one who reveals to us what is good and what is
evil. The sin of our first parents was
the desire for “knowledge of good and evil.”
They wanted to define what was good and what was evil. God told them the forbidden fruit was bad,
but they decided otherwise. Of course,
such a decision has consequences. God
doesn’t give us moral laws so He can assert His authority. He made us and knows what we need to thrive
and be truly happy, and His commandments, even when they are hard, serve that
end.
God has revealed to us His moral law through the
Scripture and primarily through the Church.
So our well-formed conscience must be formed by the teaching of the
Church. That teaching comes from
God. If God and I disagree about
something, one thing I can be absolutely sure about, is that I am the one that
is wrong.
If I don’t completely understand the reasons
behind a moral prohibition or command, I must humbly submit myself to it anyway. Obedience is one of the highest virtues. It shouldn’t surprise us, after all. I don’t have the wisdom or foresight that God
has. The Church, of course, does
encourage us to learn, though. Pray and
study and find out the reasons behind the moral laws God has given us. We will surely grow in doing so.
The prime example of this in our day is artificial
birth control. Studies suggest that many
Catholics don’t understand the Church’s prohibition against it and the vast
majority don’t obey. This remains a
serious sin, whether we understand or not.
We know this teaching, authoritatively coming from the Church, is coming
from God. I suspect, standing before
God, if He were to ask us why we consistently disobeyed a command He gave so
clearly through His vicars, we would be embarrassed to give Him the lame
excuses we have concocted.
But I wonder how many people have tried to
understand the teaching. It is
beautiful. How many of us have read Humanae Vitae, for example? If we do, we will see the Wisdom of God. Many Protestants, whose communities dropped
this teaching in the last century, have rediscovered it through prayer and
study. I once explained it to Mormon
missionaries who originally considered it silly, but after our discussion
understood and appreciated it.
The point is, that if we have a well-formed
conscience we are being obedient, not to our own wills or the trends of our
age, but to the eternal and unchanging God.
This obedience does not take away our freedom. We always have free will. But when we conform our minds and hearts to
reality, we are truly free, free from error and free to thrive.
God made us.
He knows what is best for us. The
manufacturer of my car tells me I should put unleaded gas in its tank. If, in a bout of unbridled self-empowerment,
I use my freedom to put grape juice in it instead, there will be problems. I am free to do that if I choose, but my car
will not work as it should; it will not thrive.
I am free to ignore the commands God has given, but I should not be
surprised when things do not run smoothly and I do not thrive as I would like.
4) A
Delicate Conscience – This is the well-formed conscience on steroids. It is the conscience of the Saints. A delicate conscience is well-formed, but is
more sensitive than that of the average person.
A delicate conscience is not content with avoiding mortal sin only;
venial sin vexes it (though not to the point of obsession). A delicate conscience examines not only the
action but also the motivation behind the action. A delicate conscience may find imperfections
in an act that is objectively good because it was done with pride, for
example. It is also sensitive to sins of
omission. A missed opportunity to show
love or concern, for example.
The delicate conscience is born of love; love of
God and love of neighbor. It continually
seeks to be more conformed to Jesus Christ, but it does so peacefully. These little things are seen not as grave
sins that will separate us from God, though they will still be repented of. A person with a delicate conscience is almost
certainly perpetually in a state of grace.
They are seen as opportunities to grow closer to God, to more easily
bring His Love to other people.
5) A
Scrupulous Conscience – This is a tough one because many who desire a delicate conscience can
fall into scrupulosity. A difference is
this: a delicate conscience is the fruit of love, a scrupulous conscience is often
the fruit of fear (usually of hell).
A scrupulous conscience sees sin where there is
no sin, or misidentifies venial sins as mortal sins. A scrupulous person may
fret over whether he can receive the Eucharist because he was short with his
wife as they were getting ready for Mass.
Or perhaps he feels the need to rush to Confession because he forgot to
pray his daily rosary. Sometimes a
person may have a vague sense of sinfulness although there is no specific
incident that led to it. Scruples are a
mental, not a spiritual problem. It is a
common form of obsession that I believe
all people get over something.
Spiritual people may just get it regarding religion. The best way that I know of to deal with
scruples is to find a good spiritual director who is experienced in dealing with
it. Be patient. And trust in God’s love for us. He is not looking for a reason to cast us
into hell. He desires that all men be
saved, and I suspect there is a special place in His Heart (and in Heaven) for
people who have dealt with this issue.
Many saints at one point or another have dealt
with it. St. Therese of Liseux struggled
for a time and was brought through it with good spiritual direction. St. Francis de Sales had a very difficult
time with scruples for a while. One day
he finally, in frustration, prayed from the heart, “Lord, if I am going to be
separated from you for all eternity, then I am going to love you the best I can
while I’m still on earth.” The story is
that his scruples were cured immediately.
Of course, it has proven dangerous, too. Martin Luther’s scruples are what led to the
creation of his doctrine of sola fide. If he could not escape sin, in his mind he
had to make sin irrelevant. The result,
of course, has been a wound in the Body of Christ that has been gaping for five
centuries.
It is important to be patient if you struggle
with scruples or if someone you loves does.
Seek a good spiritual director, and perhaps a good Catholic
psychologist, and do not give up. If God
has permitted this cross, it is only for the manifestation of His Glory and the
salvation of many souls. Offer it for
that.
Why was I inspired to write this article? To be honest, I have no idea how some of
these ideas pop into my head. But I know
this: from time to time I can possess each of these five consciences. It is important, at least for me, and I
expect for most of us, to take stock of ourselves in this way periodically. Often I will have a well-formed or delicate
conscience. Then, there are times I can
rationalize myself into a conscience that is formed according to my own will
and convenience. And there are times I
need the help of a priest to deal with creeping scrupulosity. It is important to know what kind of
conscience we have, and what kind of conscience we want. With God’s grace, we can truly be people of
good conscience and then we will be a light in this world.
