Lesson 22 - Conscience Formation

(Lesson 22)

Conscience Formation

“My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit…” Romans 9:1

Discussion Guide:

Our conscience is where we find ourselves alone with God. From the core of our souls we make judgments about the morality of our actions. When we “listen” to our correctly formed conscience, we should hear the voice of God. The teachings of the Catholic faith must echo through the conscience. Our intellect and will must strive to obey God’s voice. The formation of conscience is a life-long duty of every believer. As odd as it sounds, even if we have an incorrectly formed conscience, we should still obey it. However, we must never act on a doubtful conscience. While it is possible that we may involuntarily have invincible ignorance, or an incorrectly formed conscience (we would not be culpable for this), we are still responsible for gaining the knowledge and the understanding of the moral teachings of the faith. We must be careful not to become the arbiters of objective truth in our own minds. That duty has been entrusted to the Magesterium (teaching office) of the Church by Jesus Christ himself. Vatican II said it best: "In matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful, for their part, are obliged to accept their bishops' teaching with a ready and respectful allegiance of mind". (The Church, Section 25)

I have often heard it said that “as long as your conscience doesn’t bother you, it’s not a sin”. Common sense and our life experiences teach us otherwise. There are murderers and rapists who have no trouble sleeping at night. That’s a fact! They have malformed consciences with no reference to the laws of God. This is similar to the Catholic who picks and chooses which moral doctrines of the faith he accepts or rejects. We commit the sin of disobedience when we deny the teachings of the faith and arrogantly claim “freedom of conscience” as an excuse for our lack of self-control or faith. CCC 2039: “Personal conscience and reason should not be set in opposition to the moral law or the Magesterium of the Church”. On the other hand, if we truly do not know that we are acting against Church teaching, the wrong we do may not be a personal sin as long as we are following our conscience, albeit malformed, in good faith.

Discussion Points:

· Conscience formation must be in accordance with Church teaching to be correct

· If there is any doubt about a moral choice, seek the council of the Church

· Our conscience can grow dull if we keep ignoring it and justifying our sins

· We should pray for the grace to conform our conscience to the will of God

· We have a duty to educate ourselves concerning the moral norms revealed by the Church

· If we intentionally deny Church teaching, it is a sin against the virtue of faith

· If in good conscience, we act contrary to Church teaching out of ignorance, we do not sin

· We must always follow a certain conscience; but never follow a doubtful one

Excerpts from: Vatican II Documents Regarding Conscience

Deep within their conscience human persons discover a law which they have not laid upon themselves but which they must obey. Its voice, ever calling them to love and to do what is good and avoid evil, tells them inwardly at the right moment: do this, shun that. For human persons have in their hearts a law inscribed by God...

…..The Church in the Modern World, Section 16

...the more a correct conscience prevails, the more do persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by the objective standards of moral conduct. Yet it often happens that conscience goes astray through ignorance which it is unable to avoid, without thereby losing its dignity. This cannot be said of the person who takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin.

…..The Church in the Modern World, Section 27

The Catholic Church has always held to the primacy of conscience and taught that individuals must follow their consciences even when they are wrong.

…..On Religious Liberty, Section 2

(How then do we form a right conscience? Catholics seek to inform their consciences according to reason and revelation as guided by Church teachings.) They believe that by "their faith, aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth, the People of God, guided by the sacred teaching authority (magisterium), and obeying it, receives not the mere word of human beings, but truly the word of God."

…..The Church, Section 12

"in matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful, for their part, are obliged to accept their bishops' teaching with a ready and respectful allegiance of mind".

…..The Church, Section 25

In forming their consciences, the faithful must pay careful attention to the sacred and certain teaching of the Church. For the Catholic Church is by the will of Christ the teacher of truth. It is her duty to proclaim and teach with authority the truth which is Christ and, at the same time, to declare and confirm by her authority the principles of the moral order which spring from human nature itself.

…..On Religious Liberty, Section 14


Conscience Formation

“My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit…” Romans 9:1

Opening Prayer:

Almighty God, the path to wisdom is through faith in Your Word. Help us to hear Your voice in our hearts. Help us to never act against our conscience. Fill us with Your Spirit and guide us into all truth. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen

Theme:

A well-formed conscience is needed to effectively live the Catholic faith. A malformed conscience can lead a soul down the path to destruction. We all need to learn what the Church teaches and to form our consciences accordingly. It is a grave sin to pick and choose what teachings of the faith we will follow based on a misunderstood notion of “freedom of conscience”. Don’t fool yourself or let anyone fool you regarding that fact.

Bible Readings:

Psalm 119:104-105 Through thy precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Romans 2:12-16 All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

1 John 3:19-24 By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.
Explanation of the Bible readings: The psalmist recognizes the need for God’s word to guide the conscience in the same way that a lamp lights the darkness. Apart from the ways of Jesus Christ, we stumble in spiritual blindness on our walk through life. Our conscience can remain dark if we do not make an effort to properly enlighten it. St. Paul explains that our conscience is written on our hearts by God. If people do not know the law of God, they become a law unto themselves. Their right conscience will be their guide apart from the law. This passage is often used as a justification for the teaching about invincible ignorance. If this lack of knowledge is through no fault of their own, they can not be responsible for errors they make in good conscience. If they intentionally avoid the truth, they are guilty of sin. St. John stresses the love of God and the love of neighbor as the path to a right moral conscience. Do unto others as you wish they would do unto you. The teachings of the Church are a certain norm for a proper formation of conscience based on brotherly love and faith in Christ.

1 Corinthians 8:7-13 Do not scandalize the conscience of another
1 Peter 3:16 Keep your conscience clear
1 Timothy 1:19 Rejection of your conscience will shipwreck your faith

Catechism of the Catholic Church:

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."

1777 Moral conscience, present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil. It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

1781 Conscience enables one to assume responsibility for the acts performed. 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:
We shall . . . reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

1782 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."


The Formation of Conscience

1783 Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. 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. The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.

1784 The education of the conscience is a lifelong task….

1785 In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.

1786 Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the contrary, an erroneous judgment that departs from them.

1787 Man is sometimes confronted by situations that make moral judgments less assured and decision difficult. But he must always seriously seek what is right and good and discern the will of God expressed in divine law.

Erroneous Judgment

1790 A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.

1791 This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man "takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin."59 In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.

1792 Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church's authority and her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment in moral conduct.

1793 If - on the contrary - the ignorance is invincible, or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a privation, a disorder. One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral conscience.

1794 A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith, for charity proceeds at the same time "from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith."

The more a correct conscience prevails, the more do persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by objective standards of moral conduct.

1801 Conscience can remain in ignorance or make erroneous judgments. Such ignorance and errors are not always free of guilt.

1802 The Word of God is a light for our path. We must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. This is how moral conscience is formed.

Faith words:

Invincible ignorance: Ignorance is said to be invincible when a person is unable to attain the truth through no fault of their own

Objective truth: A fact entirely independent of merely personal concerns or opinion

Magesterium: The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him. (CCC 100)

Reflection Questions:

What are a few ways of resolving a question of conscience?






Describe a moral decision that may not be obvious according to your conscience alone.







Are there any areas of your life where your conscience may have become dulled?