The Meaning of Conscience

LESSON 3 WE ARE SUMMONED TO DO THE GOOD
Path 7 The Meaning of Conscience
Opening Prayer:
Lord Jesus, we beseech You for the
grace to know
You more deeply and to enter into
Your interiority
so that, imbued by Your own Spirit
CONTEXT What should

ICON I
do?
From sunrise to sunset, we are often confronted

with many choices and we make many decisions. Some
choices and decisions with which we are usually
confronted are: Whether to wake up early to catch up
with the flag ceremony in school, or to wake up late and
miss classes; whether to participate in the classroom
discussion or merely being complacent in class;
whether to do one’s assignment or watch TV; to attend
Mass on Sunday or just stay at home and surf the
internet or maybe chat with friends and barkada, etc.
Many of the choices and decisions we make every
day are routine. A few, perhaps, are important to us or
to others. In all situations, is our conscience at work?
What precisely is conscience? Do we have an adequate
grasp of what it is? Common observations tell us that
there are varied ways of understanding conscience.
Conscience can be understood as simply “being
true to oneself,” with a mental set-up that holds us:
“Malinis ang konsensya ko. Wala akong pakialam sa
iba. Wala naman akong sinasaktan.” (My conscience is
clear. I have nothing to do with others. After all, I am
not hurting anyone.) For some, the sincerity of their
actions is all that matters. Others think that following
the commandments, the laws of the state and of the Church, means that they are truly following
their conscience. They often fall into the idea that anything legal, permissible by the state is also
moral. Still others may think of conscience as merely a feeling of guilt, worry, dissatisfaction,
restlessness or a feeling of “hiya” when they commit wrong. Still others just relegate their
decisions to others. As long as they follow what others would say or advice them to do, it is
45
following their conscience. Do all these ideas give the true meaning of conscience? Let us turn to
the Scriptures and read about Jesus among the Doctors of the Law, and see how He followed His
conscience.
ICON –
EXPOSITION
SACRED SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:41-52 (The Boy Jesus in the Temple)

. . . .He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to
them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced
[in] wisdom and age and favor before God and man.
When Jesus became twelve years of age, He had to take the obligation of the law
upon him. Jesus went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover with His parents, Mary and
Joseph. We may well imagine how the holy city and the Temple and the sacred ritual
captivated Jesus’ attention! During the Passover season, it was a tradition for the
Sanhedrin to assemble in public in the Temple court to discuss the Law, in the presence of
all who would pay attention to religious and theological questions.
When Jesus’ parents returned home, He chose to stay behind. It was not through
carelessness that Mary and Joseph lost Jesus. Joseph thought He was with Mary, and Mary
moreover thought that He was with Joseph. They returned to Jerusalem to look for Him.
And now comes one of the key passages in the life of Jesus. "Your father and I,"
said Mary, "have been looking for You anxiously." "Did You not know," Jesus asked,
"that I must be in my Father's house"? See how very gently but very definitely Jesus refers
to God as His Father. Jesus had been conscious of his relationship with his Father.
This is an account of the day when Jesus manifested His closeness and intimacy to
God. He chose to stay for a while not because He wanted to disobey His parents but
because He knew His divine sonship had precedence over all human relationship. It was
about a higher calling, His mission as the Messiah. He knew that one day He would leave
Mary for the sake of the kingdom. Jesus did not reject His earthly ties; He discharged His
human duties with the highest fidelity. But He knew His identity, His unique relation to
His heavenly Father. This did not make Him arrogant. It did not make Him look down on
His humble parents, the gentle Mary and the hard-working Joseph. He went home with
them and He was obedient to them though He was God's Son.
CHURCH TEACHING: Gaudium et Spes (Constitution of the Church in the Modern

World ) 16
In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose
upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good
and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: Do this,
shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it, is the very dignity46
of man; according to it he will be judged. Conscience is the most secret core and
sanctuary of a man. There, he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths.
Deep within us is a law inscribed by God in our hearts.
“Conscience is our
We experience this every time we decide to perform a moral act. immediate moral guide,
Conscience is at work when we decide what is morally good or judging whether a
morally evil. Conscience is not something we create by particular act is good
ourselves, or merely what was taught us by family, society, etc. and is to be done and
Rather, this law is a force within us. Conscience is our reason whether it is bad and is
to be avoided.”
judging the morality of a concrete thought, word and deed. It is
an integral part of being human which exists in every person,
whether Christian or non-Christian.
Through our conscience, we meet God who calls us as we make a loving

response. It is in this sense that we must follow our conscience, with the assumption that
conscience is genuinely seeking to judge correctly. It is our way of judging the moral
good or evil of a concrete thought, word or deed. It discerns what we should do.
Conscience is truly the art of perceiving good from evil. It is through our conscience that
the good, revealed in the Spirit, are perceived, recognized, and interiorized by faith, and
where they manifest the way in which we must act in order to live in conformity with the
demands of our relationship with the Lord.
Man is created in the image and likeness of God. This is the basis of our dignity.
As true images of God, we need to obey our conscience for in obeying our conscience we
become good, we become the persons we are called to be by God. But if we choose to
disobey our conscience we go against our dignity; we sin. The Catechism for Filipino
Catholics defines conscience as: “The proximate norm of personal morality, our ultimate
subjective norm for discerning moral good and evil of a concrete individual act, with the
ICON of
feeling – being bound to do good and avoid evil.
INTEGRATION
It [conscience] is the inner voice summoning us to love what is good and avoid
what is evil, by applying
Moralsuniversal objective moral norms to our particular acts and thus
commanding: Do this, Goddocalls
not do
us that! (CFC
through our723)
formed conscience to correctly judge what is
morally good or evil.
Moral life is not reduced simply to a life in conformity with a moral

Point for Reflection:
code, or set of commandments, or sometimes to a life which is
In the story
governedwebyhave read
respect. was
With suchJesus
attitudeobedient
we can failto
to His
grow and
mature. Maturing, in fact, consists of becoming aware of our moral
conscience?
obligation to distinguish the good from bad and being able to respond
to genuine or authentic good. Conscience can at times be erroneous
because of ignorance, imperfections and limitations. This means we
judge something objectively good to be evil or something objectively
evil to be good. This error warns us to form our conscience to be able
to make judgments correctly. 47
Explain the role of the Church in the formation of our

Doctrine
God’s call comes to us through our conscience, our interior norm for judging
what is morally good versus evil.
Worship
Prayer helps us to form our conscience to discern the moral good.
Prayer helps us to discern what is good from what is evil as we evaluate

our thoughts, words and deeds. Through prayer, we are able to see
things more clearly. It is a powerful way for us to seek God’s help in
discerning His will for us.
Do you personally find the importance of prayer when you make

moral decisions? Why? /Why not?
SUMMARY VOCABULARY
Conscience is the most Conscience - the inner power which discerns and calls
secret core and sanctuary of a man. us to do what is good and to avoid evil, according to
It is an inner law which commands the law God has written in our hearts.
man to do good and avoid evil.
There he is alone with God, whose Sanctuary - It is a sacred place, especially the most
voice echoes in his depths. It is a sacred part of a sacred place.
norm for judging the morality of an
act whether it is morally good or
morally evil.
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LESSON 3 WE ARE SUMMONED TO DO THE GOOD

Path 7 The Meaning of Conscience

CONTEXT What should

From sunrise to sunset, we are often confronted

SACRED SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:41-52 (The Boy Jesus in the Temple)

CHURCH TEACHING: Gaudium et Spes (Constitution of the Church in the Modern

Through our conscience, we meet God who calls us as we make a loving

Moral life is not reduced simply to a life in conformity with a moral

Explain the role of the Church in the formation of our

Prayer helps us to discern what is good from what is evil as we evaluate

Do you personally find the importance of prayer when you make

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