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, 63.
Saint John Paul II (+2005) when considering the “seeking what is true and good” reminds us of the warning against an “easily justified” feeling “in the name of our conscience” found in Psalm 19:12 “Who can discern his errors? Clear me from hidden faults.”
One way we are to discern our errors is by a thorough examination of conscience. Some tools at our disposal for the examination of conscience include the Ten Commandments or Decalogue (cf. Exodus 20: 1-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-21), the Beatitudes (cf. Matthew 5:3-12; Luke 6:20-23) found in Sacred Scripture, the virtues (Cardinal: prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice; Moral: humility, generosity, brotherly love, patience, chastity, temperance, diligence) which we should live and the vices (pride, avarice or greed, envy, wrath or anger, lust, gluttony, sloth or acedia) we should root out (cf. CCC § 1803-1829, 1833-1844, 1866). St. Thomas Aquinas treats the virtues and vices in his Summa Theologiae I-II Q. 55-67, 71-89. We should examine our conscience before the Cross of the Lord who died to save us from our sins. Even the sure and certain teachings of Mother Church (cf. Matthew 16:18-19; 18:18; Luke 10:16) concerning faith and morals help us to know the error of our ways, to examine our conscience, to repent and begin anew. The corporal and spiritual works of mercy (to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless, to visit the sick, to ransom the captive, to bury the dead, to instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to admonish sinners, to bear wrongs patiently, to forgive offences willingly, to comfort the afflicted, to pray for the living and the dead) can also help us to examine our conscience (cf. CCC § 2447).
If, after a thorough examination of conscience we are still unable to find any shortcomings, Psalm 19:12 still asks God’s mercy. Our faults may be hidden from our own perception, but God who is all-seeing, all-knowing, may grant an illumination allowing us to know our faults, avoid them in the future and to repent in the present. We ought not forget Proverbs 24:16 where we learn that the just man falls (or sins) seven times a day… 1 John 1:8 also warns us from self-deception as if we were without any sin. There are seven penitential Psalms which Mother Church recommends to us, they are Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143. The Martyr Saint John Fisher (+1535) wrote an Exposition (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius, 1998) on these Psalms.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr