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 “the Pharisee represents a ‘self-satisfied’ conscience, under the illusion that it is able to observe the law without the help of grace and convinced that it does not need mercy.”
The Holy Father identifies two specific illusions of conscience. In Sacred Scripture we read of other “illusions” in Isaiah 30:8-10, where “rebellious people, deceitful children, unwilling to obey the Lord’s instruction” prefer “pleasant words” and “illusions” to the truth. The role of conscience is to judge rightly and true in matters of good and evil, right and wrong. In our day an age how many would say that the only wrong is to call out wrong or the only evil is to say something is evil? Following the Decalogue and the Beatitudes and the perennial teaching of the Church and the witness of the Saints we can stand on the shoulders of giants, learning the true instruction of the Lord, disposing ourselves to obey the Lord and our well-formed conscience. The Devil, father of lies and deceit, is only too happy for us to be “misguided by the illusions of the devil” (cf. John 8:44; 1 John 3:10; Revelation 12:9; Jean Pierre de Caussade, Third Book on the Obstacles to Abandonment to Divine Providence, letter 3).
It is an error or an illusion that grace is not needed in order to keep the law. This lesson should be clear from the Pelagian heresy. Pelagius (+418) did not believe we need(ed) grace in order to live holy lives. The need we have for grace has been addressed by Saint Augustine variously in On Nature and Grace, On the Proceedings of Pelagius, and On Grace and Free Will. Saint Jerome wrote Against the Pelagians.
It is an error or an illusion that conscience does not need mercy. The Sacred Scripture is clear: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Old Testament has three hundred seventy-three verses which mention “mercy” while there are fifty-seven in the New Testament. Every person on Earth needs God’s mercy. In recognizing our sins through a well-formed conscience, we are able to repent our sins, ask for and receive God’s mercy. Without a well-formed conscience how would we recognize our sins? Repent? Receive mercy? God’s mercy and forgiveness are ultimately revealed in the Cross of Christ.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr