Daily prayer, good deeds help keep conscience strong

Article 135 - Catechism of the Catholic Church Series
Paragraphs 1776 -1794

Isn’t it true that there is much in our lives that we forget or perhaps simply suppress? I recalled one such memory recently when I heard the word “glockenspiel” mentioned on a television show...In my mind, I was suddenly transported back to the days of my youth when, throughout grammar school and into high school, I played the guitar and the clarinet. A tragic accident during my teenage years, however, caused me to break both arms and wrists; and, as a result, I no longer enjoyed the dexterity (fine motor skills) to play these instruments. Realizing my disappointment, my band instructor showed up at my house one Saturday morning with a musical instrument unfamiliar to me. He suggested that I could participate in the upcoming concerts for the current academic year with a new instrument called the glockenspiel, a percussion instrument easy to learn because it is composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano or organ. The added advantage was that the two wooden mallets used to play the instrument would also help strengthen my wrists and arms.

Similarly, like broken limbs, our conscience needs strengthening on a regular basis due to a lack of correct and consistent exercise. Whether we are preparing for Confession, for an upcoming Penance Service, or simply reflecting on daily habits, a regular examination of conscience is a wonderful way to open our hearts and to reaffirm our love for Jesus.

The Catechism explains: “Deep within our conscience we discover a law which we have not laid upon ourselves but which we must obey. Its voice, ever calling us to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in our heart at the right moment” (ccc 1776). To say it more simply, as my mom would explain to us children, conscience is the little voice within each of us that tells us the difference between right and wrong.

In elaboration, the Catechism in paragraph 1777 tells us that one’s conscience helps us:
1. judge particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil,
2. bear witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn,
3. listen and, if practicing prudence, ... hear God speaking.

The following paragraph explains: “Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that we are going to perform, are in the process of performing, or have already completed. In all we say and do, we are obliged to follow faithfully what we know to be just and right. It is by the judgment of our conscience that we perceive and recognize the prescriptions of the divine law” (ccc 1778).

Next, we are challenged to follow the “voice of conscience,” which is referred to as interiority. “This requirement of interiority,” the Catechism tells us, “is all the more necessary as life often distracts us from any reflection, self-examination or introspection” (ccc 1779). In his discussion of conscience, fourth century Bishop and Theologian, Saint Augustine, teaches: “Return to your conscience, question it... Turn inward, brethren, and in everything you do, see God as your witness” (Commentary on Saint John’s Gospel).

The Second Vatican Council’s 1965 “Declaration on Religious Freedom” teaches, “We must not be forced to act contrary to our conscience. Nor must we be prevented from acting according to our conscience, especially in religious matters.” Of course, when directed to not act in a manner that is contrary to our conscience, the assumption is that we not act contrary to an “informed” conscience. As the Catechism puts it, “Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful” (Dignitatis Humanae, 3 § 2).

Other points to consider when discussing the formation of conscience include:
1. “the education of the conscience as a lifelong task,” (ccc 1784),
2. “in the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path” (ccc 1785),
3. “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” (ccc 1786).
The final part in this section of the Catechism deals with “the erroneous conscience” and the conditions under which people are responsible for their actions, if not their very demeanor, and the conditions under which they are not responsible.

The source of errors of judgment in moral conduct can include: “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, [as well as] lack of conversion and of charity” (1792).

Although we must always obey certain judgments of our conscience, if we deliberately act against it, we would freely condemn ourselves. Yet it can happen that our moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts not yet performed or acts already committed.

As such, like our bodies, our conscience needs strengthening through prayer and good deeds on a daily basis. Only correct and consistent spiritual exercise will keep our conscience from becoming erroneous and instead make it something beautiful for God.

Father Hillier serves as Director of the Office of the Pontifical Mission Societies, Censor Librorum and oversees the Office for Persons with Disabilities