Conscience

Conscience doth make cowards of us all."

And a good thing, too! Otherwise, nobody would be safe. So-what is this moral on-off button that tells us to do whatever it commands and to flee from whatever it forbids?

Man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. This law is a reflection of the eternal law by which God governs creation and His children according to a plan conceived in wisdom and love. God enables man to arrive at a deeper knowledge of Himself by recognizing moral truths and living according to them. Man's dignity consists in obeying the eternal law etched in his heart. Alone with God, one hears only God, attends to that still, small voice which tells one to obey the law which God has given for His children's happiness on earth.

A truth, because it is certain, is unchangeable. Theories are subjective, truths are so whether or not I was ever conceived.

Thus, conscience is not for supporting what I would like to think and do, but rather it is the voice of my Father who loves me instructing me how to decide and carry out whatever He wants, though the heavens fall. My decisions direct my steps to where I will pass eternity.

"Freedom of conscience" does not mean freedom to choose as I please and the devil take the hindmost. I am not free to choose whatever seems convenient here and now, or to choose according to the world's standards because "everybody's doing it." I am a creature. I am not absolutely independent. I am merely humanly independent. I may not make arbitrary decisions. John Henry Newman described conscience as "an instrument for detecting moral truth." Ships sailing into unknown harbors proceed slowly while the crew measures the fathoms. Otherwise, the ship may well strike a reef and the vessel may sink with the loss of all hands. Just so does conscience detect moral truths. It interprets a norm which it did not create, is therefore superior to the creature, and must be obeyed.

Conscience is not a bail bondsman for getting me out of trouble. Conscience does not provide alibis. Conscience does not pass the buck. Conscience is the mirror of the eternal law. I must make my decisions accordingly. I must use the great help to salvation as it was meant by God to be used: to unite my weak, fragile human will to His.

Conscience is like a gift of the type that comes with the instructions which advise that "some assembly is required." We cannot put it together any old way. If it is to operate properly we must follow the directions which God has written on our hearts. That way we will learn to distinguish between the blips of an informed conscience and mere ground echoes that clutter our moral radar.

Father Denis O'Brien, M. M.
Spiritual Director, A.L.L.

Taken from Celebrate Life Magazine
with permission
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"God knows how to alter His sentence if you know how to change your life."
(St. Jerome)