My dear parishioners,
Peace! In other bulletins (4 December, 2016-11 June, 2017) we have considered the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on “conscience.” We then turned to Saint John Paul II’s encyclical letter Veritatis splendor (6 August, 1993) which addresses fundamental moral issues, including “conscience” more than one hundred times. These reflections were begun earlier (6 April, 2018-30 May, 2018). Here we now consider a passage from Veritatis splendor, 104.2
Saint John Paul II (+2005) when considering the “Grace and obedience to God’s law” in chapter III reminds us while commenting on the Gospel parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14) that there are “two different attitudes of the moral conscience of man in every age.”
The Holy Father’s recalling the Lord’s parable should have us asking ourselves what is the attitude of our moral conscience? Are we more like the Pharisee or the tax collector? The one was very conscious of his sins and implored the mercy of the Almighty, while the other did not seem to see much need for God’s mercy. Both pride and presumption are sinful (cf. Mark 7:22). If we or the Pharisee would say “I don’t need God’s mercy, it’s all good” we may well be on the wrong path. If we or the tax collector, refuse to despair, but as people of hope, beg and implore God’s all powerful mercy we are on solid ground (cf. Matthew 7:24-25; Luke 6:48). God’s love and mercy are everlasting (cf. Psalm 100:5; 103:17; 117:2; 136:23, 26; Jeremiah 31:3). Hopefully, both the Pharisee and the tax collector went “up to the temple to pray” doing so in obedience to God who commands that we pray (cf. Isaiah 56:6-7). While there was an equal opportunity for both, there was not and equal outcome, the one went home justified. We all have a conscience (equality of opportunity). Unless we well-form our conscience and follow suit we will not have equality of outcome.
That there are two sorts of moral conscience in every age may sound “binary” or “dualistic.” Some see these as having negative connotations, rejecting, for example that the human person is either male or female, or that there is a difference between good and evil (cf. Genesis 5:2; Isaiah 5:20; Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6). Ancient gnostic heresies were often dualistic, attributing the physical universe to one evil deity, while the spiritual universe is attributed to a good deity. Saint Augustine (+430) combated the dualistic (binary) heresy of Manicheanism (from which he personally suffered for a time) and was finally able to write the City of God (especially books 10-22) in which two cities are contrasted, namely that of the Lord God Almighty and that of the fallen world of man under the devil’s sway. There is something binary when considering a well-formed or a mal-formed conscience. There is something binary when confronting the reality of following a well-formed conscience or disregarding a well-formed conscience.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr