25 March 2012: Fifth Sunday in Lent

Erroneous Judgment

    A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his
conscience.  If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn
himself.  Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance
and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already
committed.

    This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility.  This
is the case when a man "takes little trouble to find out what is true  and good,
or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of
committing sin."  In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he 
commits.

    Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others,
enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of  autonomy of
conscience, rejection of the Church's authority and her teaching, lack  of
conversion and of charity:  these can be at the source of errors of 
judgment in moral conduct.

    If -- on the contrary -- this ignorance is invincible, or the moral  subject is
not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil committed by the  person
cannot be imputed to him.  It remains no less and evil, a privation, a  disorder.
One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral conscience.

    A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith, for charity
proceeds at the same time "from a pure heart and a good conscience and
sincere faith."  "The more a correct conscience prevails, the more do  persons
and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by  objective
standards of moral conduct."
                        -- Catechism of the Catholic Church
                            paragraphs 1790 - 1794

            Create a clean heart in me, O God.  (Psalm 51)

This is the fifth part of a series during Lent on conscience, taken from
the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Next week:  The right to 
religious liberty.

18 March 2012: Fourth Sunday in Lent

To Choose In Accord With Conscience

    Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right
judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the
contrary, an erroneous judgment that departs from them.

    Man is sometimes confronted by situations that make moral
judgments lass assured and decision difficult.  But he must always
seriously seek what is right and good and discern the will of God
expressed in divine law.

    To this purpose, man strives to interpret the data of experience
and the signs of the times assisted by the virtue of prudence, by the
advice of competent people, and by the help of the Holy Sprit and
his gifts.

    Some rules apply in every case:

        -- One may never do evil so that good may result from it;

        -- the Golden Rule:  "Whatever you wish that men would
            do to you, do so to them."

        -- charity always proceeds by way of respect for one's
            neighbor and his conscience:  "Thus sinning against
            your brethren and wounding their conscience...you sin
            against Christ."  Therefore "it is right not to ... do anything
            that makes your brother stumble."

                    -- Catechism of the Catholic Church
                        paragraphs 1786-1789

    "But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works
    may be clearly seen as done in God."  (John 3: 21)

This is the fourth part of a series during Lent on conscience, taken  from
the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Next week: "Erroneous Judgment."

11 March 2012: Third Sunday in Lent

The Formation of Conscience

    Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened.
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.  The education of conscience is 
indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences
and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative 
teachings.

    The education of the conscience is a lifelong task.  From the earliest
years, it awakens the child to the knowledge and practice of the interior law
recognized by conscience.  Prudent education teaches virtue; it prevents or
cures fear, selfishness and pride, resentment arising from guilt, and feelings
of complacency, born of human weakness and faults.  The education of the
conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of heart.

    In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path;
we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice.  We must
also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross.  We are assisted by
the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and
guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.

                        -- Catechism of the Catholic Church
                            paragraphs 1783-1785

    If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.  (Psalm 95)

This is the third part of a series during Lent on conscience, taken  from the
Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Next week:  To Choose in Accord With
Conscience.

4 March 2012: The Second Sunday in Lent

The Judgment of Conscience

        It is important for every person to be sufficiently present to
himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience. 
This requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as life often
distracts us from any reflection, self-examination or introspection:

                Return to your conscience, question it....
                Turn inward, brethren, and in everything you
                do, see God as your witness.  (St. Augustine)

        The dignity of the human person implies and requires uprightness
of moral conscience.  Conscience includes the perception of the
principles of morality (synderesis); their application in the given
circumstances by practical discernment of reasons and goods; and
finally judgment about concrete acts yet to be performed or already
performed.  The truth about the moral good, stated in the law of reason,
is recognized practically and concretely by the prudent judgment of
conscience.  We call that man prudent who chooses in conformity with
this judgment.

        Conscience enables one to assume responsibility for the acts
performed.  If man commits evil, the just judgment of conscience can
remain within him as the witness to the universal truth of the good, at
the same time as the evil of his particular choice.  The verdict  of the
judgment of conscience remains a pledge of hope and mercy.  In
attesting to the fault committed, it calls to mind the forgiveness that must
be asked, the good that must still be practiced, and the virtue that must
be constantly cultivated with the grace of God....

        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."

                                        -- Catechism of the Catholic Church
                                                paragraphs 1779-1782

This is the second part of a series during Lent on conscience, taken
from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Next week:  The Formation
of Conscience.                          
                                 Saint Michael Faith Enrichment.

Reflection for the First Sunday of Lent 26 February 2012

An Appeal to God for a Clean Conscience

"Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey.  Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment....For man has in is heart a law inscribed by God.... His conscience is man's most secret core and his sanctuary.  There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths."

Moral conscience, present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil.  It bears witness with the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments.  When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed.  In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right.  It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law:

        Conscience is a law of the mind; yet [Christians] would
        not grant that it is nothing more; I mean that it was not a
        dictate, nor conveyed the notion of responsibility, of duty,
        of a threat and a promise....[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 represen-
        tatives.  Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.
                        (Blessed Cardinal Newman)

                        -- Catechism of the Catholic Church
                            paragraphs 1776-1778


        Your ways, O LORD. make known to me;
            teach me your paths.  (Psalm 25)

Sunday 19 February 2012

Encouragement From Our Holy Father

    One of the most memorable aspects of my Pastoral Visit to the United
States was the opportunity it afforded me to reflect on America's 
historical experience of religious freedom, and specifically the relationship 
between religion and culture.  At the heart of every culture, whether perceived 
or not, is a consensus about the nature of reality and the moral good, and thus 
about the conditions for human flourishing.  In America, that consensus, as 
enshrined in your nation's founding documents, was grounded in a worldview
shaped not only by faith but a commitment to certain ethical principles 
deriving from nature and nature's God.  Today that consensus has eroded significantly 
in the face of powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly 
opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but 
increasingly hostile to Christianity as such.....

    ...[I]t is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United 
States come to realize the grave threats to the Church's public moral witness 
presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the 
political and cultural spheres.  The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly 
appreciated at every level of ecclesial life.  Of particular concern are certain 
attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of 
religion.  Many of you have pointed out that concerted efforts have been made to 
deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals 
and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices.  Others 
have spoken to me of a worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of
worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience.

    Here once more we see the need for an engaged, articulate and well-
formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-a-vis the
dominant culture and with the courage to counter a reductive secularism
which would delegitimize the Church's participation in public debate 
about the issues which are determining the future of American society.  The 
preparation of committed lay leaders and the presentation of a convincing 
articulation of the Christian vision of man and society remain a primary task of the Church 
in your country; as essential components of the new evangelization, these 
concerns must shape the vision and goals of catechetical programs at every 
level....

                        Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI
                        To the Bishops of the United States of America
                        On their Ad Limina Visit
                        Thursday 19 January 2012


       "I say to you, rise...."  (Mark 2:11)
                           

Sunday 12 February 2012

Go, Show Yourself to the Priest

    The confession (or disclosure) of sins, even from a simply human point of view, frees us and facilitates our reconciliation with others.  Through such an admission man looks squarely at the sins he is guilty of, takes responsibility for them, and thereby opens himself again to God and to the communion of the Church in order to make a new future possible.

    Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance:  "All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self- examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue; for these sins sometimes wound the soul more grievously and are more dangerous than those which are committed openly."

        When Christ's faithful strive to confess all the sins that they
        can remember, they undoubtedly place all of them before
        the divine mercy for pardon.  But those who fail to do so and
        knowingly withhold some, place nothing before the divine
        goodness for remission through the mediation of the priest,
        "for if the sick is too ashamed to show his wound to the
        doctor, the medicine cannot heal what it does not know."

    "Individual, integral confession and absolution remain the only ordinary way for the faithful to reconcile themselves with God and the Church, unless physical or moral impossibility excuses from this kind of confession."  Here are profound reasons for this.  Christ is at work in each of the sacraments.  He personally addresses every sinner:  "My son, your sins are forgiven."  He is the physician tending each one of the sick who need him to cure them.  He raises them up and reintegrates them into fraternal communion.  Personal confession is thus the form most expressive of reconciliation with God and with the Church.

                    -- Catechism of the Catholic Church
                        paragraphs 1455, 1456, 1484

        Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
            my guilt I covered not.
        I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD,
            and you took away the guilt of my sin.
                        -- Psalm 32