Tag Archives: Conscience

The Church: Christ’s Voice of Authority

02 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by in Salvation, Sermons

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Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
February 1, 2015

Moses was the one who delivered God’s word to the Israelites in the form of the Law. So when we hear him say today, “God will raise up for you a prophet like me” he must be referring to Someone that would do something similar. And that is exactly what we find in our Gospel today, “immediately on the Sabbath (Jesus) entered the synagogue and taught.” And not only that, but “he taught…as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.” And while there are similarities between the two, this is a more wonderful occurrence than Moses receiving the word of the Law from God because in Jesus we have God Himself delivering the message. An analogy might help to see the significance: Moses precedes Christ as your own shadow precedes you when walking with the sun at your back. Even though the path in front of you is visible, everything in the shadow is darkened to your sight. But, when you turn toward the Sun, everything can be clearly seen. In a similar manner, when the Son of God came and shed His light on the teachings of Moses, the people were astounded by the illumination He provided. Remember what happens when you step out of darkness and into the full light of day. At first, you are blinded and cannot clearly make out your surroundings and that is what happened here when Christ was teaching the people with authority. Therefore, in order to assure those present that what they were beginning to see was real and not an illusion; Jesus speaks again with authority and commands the unclean spirit to come out of the man who was possessed.

From this we are supposed to see clearly that Jesus is not like one of the scribes, who only reiterated the teachings of Moses. Instead, He is God – that is the only way He could speak and command with such Authority. And if this is the case – as we Catholics claim to believe – then shouldn’t we listen to and obey Him? After all, if a demon knows better than to ignore the command of Christ, then we who claim to follow Christ must do nothing less.

But, how do we hear Christ speaking to us so that we may follow Him? One answer to this question would be to follow our conscience. All people, whether they are Catholic or not, understand the obligation to follow their conscience. If we think something is wrong, we should avoid it and if we think something is right we should do it. And if we do the right and avoid the wrong are we not following Christ? This seems to be a simple answer of how we can truly hear Christ speaking to us. But there is a big pitfall in regards to conscience that people constantly overlook, which is this: while we do have an obligation to follow our conscience, we also have a duty to make sure that our conscience is properly formed. If our conscience has not been properly formed then it is possible to do the wrong thing while thinking that we are doing right. In regards to this we must understand that things are not right or wrong just because we happen to think they are. Instead, there is an objective reality that we must acknowledge in order to know what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, following Christ is not as simple as following our conscience. We first need a source of authority that can show us this objective reality about right and wrong.

But where can we find this authority? Certainly, as we learned today in the Gospel reading, Christ is that Authority that we need to guide our lives properly. But, He no longer walks physically among us in order to lead us down the path of salvation. One solution to this problem of a need for the Authority of Christ could be Sacred Scripture; because in it Christ still speaks to us. That is a reason that Scripture is read at every Mass – so that Christ can continue to speak to us. But yet another problem arises from this in that Scripture does not interpret itself. Instead, mankind interprets Scripture; and when we, as individuals, hear or read the words of Christ we can be mistaken about what they mean. Proof of this is easily seen when we look at the fractured state of those who believe in Christ. There are a multitude of so-called denominations, each of which is a result of the private interpretation of Scripture. And so even with Scripture we are left with a lack of Authority to lead us safely down the path of salvation. If only Christ were still here to speak to us so that we would not wander off the path.

And yet, He is here and he does speak to us still – people just don’t want to hear what He has to say. Let me explain how He is still with us and continues to speak to us. Our Lord spent three years teaching His Apostles the Truth about the Kingdom of God and told them, “He who hears you, hears me.”[1] And the Apostles then entrusted this “Sacred deposit of the faith” to the whole Church. And it is the teaching office of the Church, the living Magisterium, that continues to faithfully and fully hand on to succeeding generations what it has received, which is nothing less than the complete teaching of Jesus Christ. Therefore, when the Church speaks authoritatively it is in fact Jesus Himself that is speaking to us and guiding us along our way so that we may not stray from the path of salvation.

And yet many Catholics claim that they cannot accept the Authority that Christ has bestowed upon His Church because her teachings don’t make sense to them. Perhaps there is some truth to that. But we must ask: why is it the case that so many Catholics don’t accept the authoritative teachings of the Church? The answer is quite simple – it is due to the fact that their consciences have been formed and their understanding of Scripture conditioned by a source of authority other than Christ: for example the secular media, Hollywood, politicians, books, music, etc. The thinking is that if they see it on TV or read it on the internet then it must be true.

But I think there is a deeper reason why these people won’t accept the teaching authority of the Church and that reason is pride. They simply don’t want to see the Truth of the Church’s teaching because it doesn’t happen to coincide with their own limited opinion. They have heard what they want to hear from the world and have set that up as their standard of truth. And by so doing they claim to know more than Christ.

But salvation is not found in the world. If it were then the coming of the Son of God as Man would have been unnecessary. But we see in our Gospel today that He did in fact come and He spoke with Authority. And He still speaks to us with that same Authority which knows the way to life everlasting. And so the question that remains is this: will you listen?

[1] CCC §87

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Follow Your (Informed) Conscience

27 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by in C.S. Lewis, Pro-Death 'Catholics', Pro-Life, The Weight of Glory

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(Conscience) can mean (a) the pressure a man feels upon his will to do what he thinks is right; (b) his judgment as to what the content of right and wrong are. In sense (a) conscience is always to be followed. It is the sovereign of the universe, which ‘if it had power as it has right, would absolutely rule the world.’ It is not to be argued with, but obeyed, and even to question it is to incur guilt. But in sense (b) it is a very different matter. People may be mistaken about wrong and right; most people in some degree are mistaken. By what means are mistakes in this field to be corrected?

The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis

That last question is very important. As he rightly says, we are all mistaken to some degree about what is right and what is wrong. As fallen and sinful creatures we can and often do misunderstand or misinterpret the truths that would establish for us what is right and what is wrong. Surely most (all?) of us have encountered a situation in which something we thought for sure was true turned out to be false. If someone tells us this has never happened to them then we can only assume one of three things about them: a) they are perfect and know the good and act on it perfectly – but this is only true of God and perhaps could be said of the good angels that serve Him; b) they are lying to us; c) they are delusional. Basically, if someone (except God Himself) thinks they are right about everything – that they have the ultimate source of knowledge for what is good and evil – then they should not be trusted. To say it another way, we all need to be willing to admit that we make mistakes in our understanding about what is right and what is wrong. If this is not your understanding of yourself then you can stop reading now.

And now that it is just the mere mortals of sound mind left, let us ask the question again: how do we correct our conscience when it is mistaken? And this really requires another question to be answered: how can we even know when our conscience is wrong? First of all, we need to be humble, acknowledge our shortcomings, realize that we do not ‘know it all’, and always be on the search for the Truth; because truth brings knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong. This truth can come to us in different ways: first through intuition. Most people understand that it is not right to just walk up to someone on the street and shoot them in the face. Our basic moral intuition tells us that. On the other hand, many people today would not apply that same understanding to the unborn. Instead, they have been brainwashed by a political and social system that is constantly screaming about a woman’s ‘right’ to reproductive choice. The result is, that according to many people’s conscience, the unborn child, who is really no different from the innocent person walking down the street, does not deserve the same protection. This is obviously an instance of someone’s conscience (and here we are talking about a large group of people) being seriously distorted.

There is another way, though, that we can know our conscience is wrong and that is from authority. An example would be when parents help their children understand that a certain behavior is wrong. And here I am not talking about the parent who simply says, “Stop doing that!” Instead, I am speaking of the parents who take the time to help their children understand why a certain behavior is wrong. The same can be said of the priest in the confessional when he causes you to think to yourself, “Wow! I’ve never thought of it that way before, but he is right.” And of course the ultimate example would be Authority of Christ Himself, who speaks to us through Scripture and also speaks to us through His Church. Truly, it is with Authority that the Chruch teaches us what is right and what is wrong.

And yet, how many so-called Catholics use the excuse “My conscience says it is ok” to vote for pro-abortion politicians, to use contraception, to skip Mass on Sunday, etc. Of course the main problem here is that these people think that if their conscience says it is ok then there is nothing else to consider. But, they are missing the crucial step that is needed to rightly follow your conscience and that is to make sure you have a properly formed conscience. And this formation comes primarily from authority.

Whether we know it or not, everyone’s conscience if formed in large part from authority. What makes the difference between pro-life and pro-abortion Catholics, for instance, is which authority their consciences have been formed by. Those who believe in abortion have been formed by the ‘authority’ of the secular worldview. They have been formed by the opinions of the supposed experts that surround them in the media, movies, music and books. On the other hand, those who are pro-life have formed their conscience in accordance with Authority of the Church, which is nothing less that the teaching of Christ that has been handed down to us throughout the centuries.

What’s right for you…

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by in Josef Pieper, Morality, Politically Incorrect, Truth

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He who wishes to know and to do the good must turn his gaze upon the objective world of being. Not upon his own 'ideas', not upon his 'conscience', not upon 'values', not upon arbitrarily established 'ideals' and 'models'. He must turn away from his own act and fix his eyes upon reality.

From Living the Truth, by Josef Pieper

The quote above is from the second half of the book that is cited. The second half is titled Reality and the Good. Although I have only finished reading the first few pages, which the author titles “The Thesis”, it appears that this essay is in regards to how mankind can know right and wrong and therefore be able to do that which is good. This is evidenced by the three sentences that precede the above quote where Pieper writes, “All obligation is based upon being. Reality is the foundation of ethics. The good is that which is in accord with reality.”

When I first started this essay I had to read those three sentences several times. They seemed to me to be disjointed – that they did not fit together. It now seems to me that the reason it seemed disjointed was because of my lack of background in philosophy. After all, you cannot really understand what someone is trying to say to you unless you understand his frame of reference. But as I continued reading the thesis statement the point the author is making began to make sense to me.

In order to understand this we must first have a correct understanding of reality. First of all, mankind is not the author or definer of what is true or good, but he can come to know it. In other words, we do not create the reality in which we live, instead we exist within an objective reality. And we experience this objective reality through our sense perception. It is through our senses that we experience the things around us. 'Things' here is to be understood as the word res from philosophy. Pieper says, “Res is everything that is 'presented' to our sense perception or our intellectual cognition, all that has being independently of our thinking.” Another word from philosophy, realis, is taken from res and denotes reality. Of this Pieper says, “Reality (in the sense of realis) is the whole of being which is independent of thought.” And elsewhere says, “Reality is the basis of the good.” Also realis means “that to be good is to do justice to objective being…the good is that which is in accord with objective reality.” “All laws and moral principles may be reduced to reality.” 'Reality' here meaning objective being outside ourselves.

As a result of all of this the author makes the conclusion that this “makes impossible the attitude of always referring to oneself and to the judgment of one's conscience*, which is considered as providing the norm in each instance. We are forced now to look through and beyond our own moral judgment to the norm presented to us by the objective reality of being.” I most heartily agree with this conclusion. [*Just a side note: here the author is referring to people who use their consciences as an excuse to do whatever they want. He is not referring to the use of our conscience in the correct sense. The Church teaches that a “human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience.” (CCC §1800) But the Church also teaches us that we must have a well-formed conscience that “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) This is completely the opposite of using your conscience as a scapegoat to do whatever you want to do.]

But our modern society most certainly does not agree. The world is no longer viewed objectively by society but instead it is interpreted in a relativistic way. What I mean can be shown through an example: people who don't want to abide by traditional norms of moral behavior seem to have adopted the slogan, “What is right for you may not be right for me.” (You can replace right with moral or with good.)

Now to a certain extent this slogan is correct. For instance, if someone has cancer it would be right for them to have chemotherapy because that is one of the only methods we have to get rid of cancer. Whereas for someone else, who does not have cancer, it would not be right to have chemotherapy because to a person who is healthy chemotherapy is poisonous. Like I said, this would be a proper way to understand the above slogan.

But in saying this slogan our modern society means something completely different. For them the slogan turns everything upside down. To use the previous example about cancer – when modern society says “what is right for you may not be right for me” it isn't talking about whether or not a person should have chemotherapy. Instead, it is trying to change the rules to such an extent as to say that there is nothing wrong with cancer in the first place and that we don't need anything to fix it. Obviously, this is just crazy talk.

With this in mind we can begin to understand why our modern society is so disordered. It has left behind any idea of objective truth (like cancer is bad for you) in favor of just doing what feels right. And obviously, the chemotherapy this society needs (that being objective standards to determine morality) to fix its diseased nature would not feel right (because it would cause people to have to let go of the fantasy world they have created for themselves where right and wrong is determined by their own judgments). But nevertheless, objective truth is the only medicine that will cure us.

 

And the winner is…

30 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Catholic Obligations, Politically Incorrect, Pro-Life, Repentance, Salvation, What's Wrong with the World?

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The title to today's post will make sense in a moment. First, please start with the quotes below. (Let it be known that I in no way support any of the following quotes.

We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members. Continue reading →