Category: Morality

7 min read

Morality

What Is Conscience?

Father Joseph Parisi

April 12, 2023 7:58 am April 12, 2023

7 min read

26152 views

Comments Off

7 min read

In its fundamental role of judging good or evil — the rightness or wrongness of a person’s choices — conscience is perhaps one of the most misunderstood of all the…

In its fundamental role of judging good or evil — the rightness or wrongness of a person’s choices — conscience is perhaps one of the most misunderstood of all the moral teachings of the Church.

And yet, a properly formed conscience is essential to ordering one’s life toward the service of God, whose will has been clearly revealed in the Scriptures, the authoritative teachings of His Church, and the objective moral truths knowable to human reason from natural law.

Man is a being with a physical body and a spiritual soul. In his body, man finds himself incorporated into the physical universe. Consequently, he is subject to its inherent order and laws. In his spiritual nature, man reflects the image of God himself. Man mirrors the divine personality in his ability to think and to choose. By virtue of his human reason and free will, man can truly be said to have been “made in the likeness of God” (Jas 3:9).

Conscience exists as a faculty of the human soul. Conscience is fed and nourished, ordered and directed by what is presented to it in the rational ability of man to know objective moral truth — that is, to grasp what is truly good and what is truly evil. It does not exist apart from man’s intellect or free will. Contrary to some popular misconceptions, conscience is not the “source” of morality, but rather is its “servant.”

Conscience’s function

Conscience is ordered to the task of holding to the most fundamental of all moral precepts: do good and avoid evil. Informed by divinely revealed moral truths or by the principles of right and wrong, which are perceptible to the human mind from the natural law, conscience renders a judgment about the goodness or evil of a particular act or choice in the specific circumstances of the moment. Conscience then evaluates the choice one has made to determine whether or not the will of God has been observed. In making its judgment, conscience is the application of the principles of morality rather than the source of those moral principles.

For conscience to function properly, it must be well-formed. Conscience must be educated and disciplined in its effort to know the objective moral principles that are available to it either from divinely revealed sources or creation itself.

How is conscience properly formed?

Every person has the moral obligation to see to it that his or her conscience is properly formed. This duty is fulfilled according to the particular circumstances of a person’s life. The Christian conscience is formed in the lifelong process of prayerfully and diligently studying the moral lessons contained in the sacred Scriptures and the authoritative teachings of the Church. Because the Christian conscience is formed by the knowledge of such objective truths, its moral judgments are both accurate and binding. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the Christian person to read and study the Word of God, to engage diligently in the reading of spiritual books and articles, to listen attentively to the sermons of the Church’s sacred pastors and to embrace humbly the moral teachings of the pope and the bishops.

The well-formed Christian conscience is likewise assisted by the practice of both the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity as well as the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. These moral habits not only discipline a person’s errant free will but direct choices toward the service of God and those things that truly are helpful for salvation.

Because all men and women suffer the effects of sin, the human intellect is fallible. As a result, it is possible for the judgment of conscience to be in error. Out of ignorance or even faulty reasoning, conscience may not be able to render a judgment that conforms to objective moral truth.

Sometimes this ignorance can be willful or vincible. In such a situation, a person would have had the means available to overcome a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of a particular moral precept, yet would have rather freely chosen to remain in ignorance. A person acting on the basis of vincible ignorance is morally responsible for the choices that are made.

On the other hand, there are times when a person’s lack of awareness or misunderstanding of a particular moral obligation is not voluntary and, therefore, beyond the ability of the person to overcome it. This is termed invincible ignorance. A person acting on the basis of such invincible ignorance is not morally responsible for his actions or choices. Yet, even though he may not be morally responsible for the evil he committed, he and others may be affected by it. Sadly, such situations often have a serious and negative impact upon one’s spiritual life, disrupting union with God and others.

A Person’s Obligation

Simply put, the most basic principle of Christian moral teaching is the strict obligation a person has to follow the judgment of a well-formed conscience.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the judgment of a properly formed conscience can never contradict the objective moral truth contained in Sacred Scripture or taught by the magisterium of the Church. The Catechism states: “A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator” (No. 1783).

The binding force of conscience does not depend on a person’s decision to follow it or not. Rather, a properly formed conscience is binding because it accurately reflects the mind and will of God himself. Again, the Catechism states, “When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking” (No. 1777).

Because this is so, the Church teaches that not only must a person follow the judgment of a well-formed conscience, but his freedom to do so must always be assured and protected. “Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. ‘He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters’” (No. 1782).

Father Joseph L. Parisi received his Master of Pastoral Theology Degree from the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome in 1974 and the Licentiate in Canon Law from the University of St. Paul in Ottawa, Canada, in 1986.

The Character and Directions of Our Lives

The moral choices we make determine the character and direction of our lives.

Our lives are inexorably oriented toward or away from God in our moral choices. If we say we choose to strengthen and nourish our relationship with God, we are pledging to respect and observe what is morally good and true. Conscience makes possible our choice to embrace God in our lives. Our obedience to the judgments of a properly formed conscience is itself a choice for God and for His life to grow within us. Yet, even in those moments of selfishness and sin, when we choose to ignore or deny what has been judged as good and true, it is the voice of our conscience which calls out to us to admit our moral failing and seek the forgiveness of God.

Perhaps the nobility and dignity of man’s conscience has been most beautifully described in the poetic words of Cardinal John Henry Newman: “Conscience is a messenger of Him who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by His representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ” (Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, 1855).

Comments Off

4 min read

Morality

Why Do People Do Good?

Sister Anna Marie McGuan

March 21, 2023 6:00 am March 21, 2023

4 min read

4976 views

Comments Off

4 min read

Humans always act for a purpose. Voluntary acts are by definition purposeful. Involuntary acts, which we don’t choose – such as breathing – are not something to which we can…

Humans always act for a purpose. Voluntary acts are by definition purposeful. Involuntary acts, which we don’t choose – such as breathing – are not something to which we can ascribe to a goal or purpose. We pursue goals to achieve results we believe are good, or we may pursue a goal to possess or enjoy something. We enjoy things that are good, not things that are bad.

One way to look at love is when humans strive to enjoy and possess the good. This is how human beings are made, but not just human beings. Animals, plants and, in fact, all matter is made this way. Everything acts for a purpose in a way that is proper to that thing. For example, animals live, move and reproduce by instinct. Plants grow, nourish themselves and also reproduce. Animals and plants have a kind of love proper to them. They attain to these things because they are fulfilling their purpose — they’re doing what they were made to do. However, they don’t perform any voluntary acts. They don’t get to choose their purpose — it’s simply written into their DNA.

Human beings also have DNA, which determines certain things about them (brown hair, black hair; brown eyes, blue eyes; male, female; etc.). DNA, however, cannot tell us everything about why we do what we do. This becomes, then, an important distinction. What makes me different from an acorn is certainly my DNA, but also my freely chosen purpose. Irrational nature (plants and animals) just naturally fulfills its purpose without making any choice to do so. Rational nature (humans) has a purpose, too, but it must be chosen.

Morality has at its root one basic question: What is my ultimate goal? Another way of putting it is: What do I love? Or you could ask: What will definitively satisfy me?

At first, we may think there are lots of things that could provide satisfaction. But like plants and animals, our purpose is achieved by living in accord with what we were made for. What one thing, if I love it, will make me complete? What am I made to love? That is what really satisfies me — that’s what will really define me.

But is my ultimate good the same as yours? In other words, is there an objective good worth pursuing for everybody? The simple answer is, “Yes, absolutely.”

Consult your own experience and name the happiest people you know. Without fail, the people who are good are also the happiest people. This doesn’t mean that you don’t face difficult situations, that you don’t occasionally have fits of anger or experience deep sadness. It does mean that your fundamental outlook is one of virtue. In a given situation, you know what to do and how to do it in a way that upholds your dignity and the dignity of those around you. Your interior disposition is one of looking for and naturally, peacefully pursuing whatever is good to do in a given situation. So, if you are at work, you work diligently, without giving into distraction or procrastination. If you are married, you love your wife and children without hesitation and without selfishness. Your outlook is one of desiring the true good for each person, yourself first, and then those around you. And, if we don’t know what the true good is for ourselves, we will have a hard time doing good for anyone else. You know what is right and will actually be happier doing what you know is right. You do that through your choices.

All this does not mean that rules aren’t important; they are, but they are not the most important part of the moral life. It is much more important to pursue and love what is truly good so that you can be happy. To do this, the help of grace and the interior promptings of the Holy Spirit are needed, which can be followed with the help of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord. These gifts of the Holy Spirit push me (interiorly) to freely believe, hope in and love the good. If we can follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit within us to grow in faith, hope and love of God, we will be truly happy.

So, the moral life comes down to fulfilling what will really satisfy your deepest longing for happiness. Let’s return to our original question: “Why do people do good?” The answer is that doing good makes us happy and fulfilled. If you open up to God and begin to act for the good with his help, you will be authentically human, truly happy and truly good.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan is with the Religious Sisters of Mercy in Alma, Michigan.

Comments Off

6 min read

Morality

Why Do We Need a Moral Code?

Sister Anna Marie McGuan

September 13, 2019 8:40 am September 13, 2019

6 min read

5914 views

Comments Off

6 min read

Human persons are moral beings. We all have an innate sense of good and evil or right and wrong. Some may argue against this, claiming that what is good for…

Human persons are moral beings. We all have an innate sense of good and evil or right and wrong. Some may argue against this, claiming that what is good for one person is not necessarily good for another. That might be true in certain circumstances, for example, taking a different job. But total moral relativity (“There is no difference between good and evil”) and ethical subjectivism (“I am free so I can do what I want/I decide what is good or evil without reference to another”) are false. One’s suffering of an instance of violence or injustice can help in understanding that. As soon as a man or woman experiences an injustice, he or she knows the treatment received was wrong. In addition, they can acknowledge by reflecting on their own conduct that good things are to be pursued and evil things are to be avoided.

Despite this knowledge, however undeveloped it may be, men do evil deeds. Under the pretense of some “good,” a person can do all sorts of things that are harmful to the self and to others. For example, a person doesn’t steal in order to commit a crime; he or she steals in order to obtain a desired object. The object is usually a material one; the action is deemed “good” in the judgment of the person doing it because a desire is fulfilled. At the same time, that action is a violation of justice, private property, etc., and objectively it is a morally wrong action, in spite of all the reasons one may give to justify it. Stealing is wrong. In such a case, before the person steals he can consult the moral code (or “law”) to know clearly what really is good and what really is evil. The law, in that sense, is the boundary setter. Licit, or illicit? It answers the question.

This, however, is a minimalist way of looking at ethics. The moral law is a means to the end; it is not the goal of life. One could say that it gives the rules of the game, but there is far more to playing the game than knowing what is fair and foul territory. In baseball, for example, how does a coach or a parent teach a kid baseball? First, he shows him a video of the best players. Then he puts a glove on his hand and hits him ground balls. Then he teaches him how to throw. Then he puts a bat in his hand and sets up the tee. He doesn’t give him the dimensions of the baseball diamond, or explain what a dropped third strike is. Not right away, at least.

Not only that, the coach has to instill in the players the understanding that good practice creates good technique, which in turn creates good players. Keeping the rules is not the goal, but one has to do so in order to actually play the game. To play the game well, the great player knows the rules, learns the techniques, and practices them diligently. Plus, she always keeps her head in the game. As everyone knows, baseball is 80 percent mental (even though Yogi Berra insisted that 90 percent of the game is half mental, and he was a stickler on statistics.)

In the same way that a Little Leaguer doesn’t learn the rules of baseball and forsake picking up the bat and stepping into the batter’s box, so human persons as moral agents don’t learn how to lead the good life and then set their hearts on evil. To be a great person — that is, a morally good human being — one looks at and imitates the best people, learns what the moral law is (love of God and neighbor, in a nutshell), and practices good acts. This is the ethical equivalent of stepping into the batter’s box of life. As the prophet Micah wrote: “You have been told, O mortal, what is good, / and what the Lord requires of you: / Only to do justice and to love goodness, / and to walk humbly with your God” (Mi 6:8).

Man needs the moral law because it is an objective standard; it is something, in a sense, outside of him that every person can consult. It answers the question, “What must I do to be a truly good person?” It forbids the thoughts and actions that turn people away from that goal, away from God, and away from friendship.

At the same time, the moral law is something within us; it is a real participation in the wisdom and goodness of God. As moral agents, human beings do not create what is good and what is evil; they recognize it as it truly is. The task for each person is to mature that seminal understanding of pursuing good and avoiding evil throughout life. Just like batting practice improves the hitter’s ability to drive to the opposite field if done correctly, good actions become part of a person and enable him or her to become happier. Swinging a thousand times will perfect things like stride, shoulder angle, grip on the bat, etc.; repeated good actions perfect one’s ability to choose and to act; this is called virtue. The moral law becomes part of how one plays the game.

After a while, when the batter swings, she does not have to explicitly think, “I have to keep my elbow up,” or “Swing level, swing level.” So also in the moral life. A man doesn’t need to tell himself, “Don’t steal, it’s not right to steal, that’s not mine!” Being honest and fair will become part of him, provided he practices justice consistently. Eventually, he won’t even want to steal. The idea itself becomes repugnant, and the same goes for other immoral behavior, but it takes practice.

The model for this way of looking at ethics can be found in any saint or truly good person, but especially in Jesus Christ. This is why Saint Paul could say, “For to me life is Christ” (Phil 1:21). If he could say that, it meant that his actions were those that Jesus would do. He is the perfect rule; if a man or woman conforms to that standard, he or she becomes freer, more able to play the game with abandon and joy.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan is with the Religious Sisters of Mercy in Alma, Michigan.

Comments Off