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, 55.
Saint John Paul II (+2005) cites the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 16, which highlights “the value of conscience” “as the sanctuary of man, where he is alone with God whose voice echoes within him.” As a Father of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and later as Bishop of Rome the Holy Father helped elaborate and implement its teaching. Three things jump out here: The value of conscience, conscience as sanctuary, and conscience where God’s voice echoes within us.
The value of conscience is not something quaint or old fashioned, good only for the likes of Sts Thomas Becket (+1170), Thomas More (+1535) or Martin Luther King Jr (+1968). Martyrs of conscience would rather suffer for the truth than to discard the truth known. The highly decorated Sergeant Alvin C. York (+1964), a native son of Tennessee, began service in the Army during World War I (1914-1918), as a “conscientious objector” due to his religious doctrine forbidding violence. The protection of conscience has been enshrined in law (e.g. Social Security Act 1968; Church Amendment 1973; Hyde/Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment 2004), showing the value of conscience. That such laws had to be written, however, also shows how much conscience is under attack.
Not only is conscience valuable in itself, but also as a sanctuary. What does it mean to consider conscience as s sanctuary? Just as there are nature reserves and bird sanctuaries, the place where we commune with God is the sanctuary par excellence. Sacred Scripture is replete with references to the dwelling place of the Lord (cf. Hebrews 9:24; 2 Corinthians 5:1; Exodus 25:8) not to mention the Temple of the Lord (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; Jeremiah 7:4; Zechariah 6:13). When Victor Hugo (+1885) had Quasimodo famously invoke the protective cry “Sanctuary” in order to save Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) it was not an innovation.
Sometimes the voice of conscience is depicted as an angel on our shoulder (the devil on the shoulder is the anti-conscience). Walt Disney (+1966) in Pinocchio (1940) depicted the guide of conscience as Jiminy Cricket. These representations reflect how conscience is God’s voice echoing within us. False assertions of conscience posit that which is contrary to the deposit of faith found in Sacred Scripture and the perennial teaching of Mother Church (Magisterium). The God who commands us to not bear false witness (Exodus 20:16; Deuteronomy 5:20) does not say one thing in Holy Writ and then contradict Himself in our inmost self.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr