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, 59.
Saint John Paul II (+2005) when considering the “judgment of conscience” notes that Saint Paul not only acknowledges “conscience acts as a ‘witness’” but also “reveals the way in which conscience performs that function” citing “conflicting thoughts” in Romans 2:15: “Who shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts between themselves accusing, or also defending one another.”
The Douay-Rheims edition cited here prefers “thoughts between themselves accusing, or also defending one another” for “conflicting thoughts” (English Standard Version, New English Translation). (In the Vulgate, Saint Jerome (+405) puts it this way: “inter se invicem cogitationum accusantium aut etiam defendentium.”) Here we see the conscience in act. Accusing and defending which ever action, desire or the like. The key Greek terms here are kategoreo (to be a plaintiff, to charge with some offence, accuse, object); apologeomai (to give an account, legal plea of oneself, exculpate self, answer for self, make defense, excuse self); and suneidesis(co-perception, moral consciousness, conscience). A well-formed conscience will accuse bad behavior or desires of being bad. A mal-formed conscience tries to defend what is indefensible. The “conflict” arises when the fallen world says “there is no such thing as sin” in general and therefore specifically “no such thing as any particular sin.” This could be what Saint Paul had in mind when, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he wrote with concern that “the Cross of Christ” not “be emptied of its power” namely, to save us from our sins (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:17)! What Saint Paul marveled at was the Gentiles (read: pagans, from Greek ethnos, a race, tribe, foreign-non-Jewish heathen pagan nation or people) had the very Law of God written in their hearts and acted accordingly. How much more ought we, who have the benefit not only of Sacred Scripture but also God’s grace, act accordingly! God, from all eternity, calls us to be holy. In Sacred Scripture God calls us to be holy. In the incarnation, by becoming like us in all things but sin, God calls us to be holy. In the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments, God’s call to holiness is still extended through Mother Church. How will we answer? How will we respond? With enthusiasm? With indifference? The saints throughout the ages have all resoundingly answered in the affirmative to God’s call and grace. Now is our turn to respond with our “yes” to God and our “no” to sin, Satan, and all evil.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr