“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, tells him
inwardly at the right moment: do this, shun that.
For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. His
dignity lies in observing this law, and by it he will be
judged. His conscience is man’s most secret core,
and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God
whose voice echoes in his depths. By conscience,
in a wonderful way, that law is made known which
is fulfilled in the love of God and of one’s
neighbor.”
Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, #16
The Bible and Conscience
In the Old Testament and Gospels the
idea of “conscience” is commonly
expressed using the term “heart”: in
Hebrew, leb; in Greek, kardia: and in
Latin, cor. The word “heart” is one of
the most important terms in Scripture,
with more than 800 references to the
human heart.
The Bible and Conscience
The heart is the center of emotions, feelings,
moods, and passions; the heart is the
source of thought and reflection; the heart
listens and understands; the heart is the
source of wisdom and justice and discerns
good and evil; the heart is the center of
freedom and decisions, obedience and
devotion, will and intentionality. Immorality
and unbelief are due to hardness of heart.
The Bible and Conscience
Moral character is determined by
one’s heart; a pure heart seeks God
and a person with a righteous heart is
God’s own. God meets human beings
within the heart and only God knows
the heart of a person.
The English word “conscience” is translated
from the Latin word conscientia, a word
which means “to know together” (cum,
together and scientia, to know). Thus, the
Latin roots of the word “conscience” reveal
an important aspect of the meaning of the
word: Conscience means to know
together, that is, to know with others.
Conscience is not solitary or individual, it is
personal and relational.
Moral Conscience
There are three dimensions of moral
conscience:
Conscience is a capacity, a process,
and a judgment.
CAPACITY
Conscience is our “built-in”
capacity or ability to know and
do the good.
Conscience is heart of a
person where human freedom
has a sacred encounter with
the God who created us and
calls us to love and maintain
moral order.
Human beings must be free
to follow their conscience
and human beings have an
obligation to follow their
conscience.
PROCESS
Conscience is formed and
developed by our search for
moral truth, the way that we seek
to discover goodness and value
in our life.
The responsibility to follow one’s
conscience entails a
responsibility to form one’s
conscience. Formation of
conscience is a life-long task
through which we experience
progressive growth in personal
freedom, moral responsibility, and
peace of heart.
Conscience can be
undeveloped or
malformed. Conscience
means listening to God’s
call at the deepest core of
your being.
Conscience requires critical
reflection, self-examination
and introspection, and
freedom to act in accord with
the truth.
The words of Christ call
Christians to form our
conscience so it is open to
continuous conversion to the
Lord and to the love of what
is good.
The Church helps guide
Christians in the formation of
conscience through the
Magisterium, or teaching
authority the Church received
from Christ.
JUDGMENT or making a
DECISION
do
good and avoid evil in
specific acts.
Conscience is a judgment of reason to
Conscience is deciding and
choosing to do something, doing
it, and then reflecting on that
judgment in light of becoming the
person we wish to be.
A judgment of conscience
imposes an obligation on the
person to perform a particular
act at the appropriate
moment.
A person is obliged to follow
one’s conscience.
The judgment of conscience is an
exercise in freedom; no one can
be compelled to act against
one’s conscience without
harming human dignity.
Errors of Conscience or Right
judgment: Conscience can
make a right judgment in
accordance with reason and
God’s moral law, or, conscience
can make an erroneous
judgment that departs from
reason and God’s moral law.
An erroneous conscience makes errors
in judgment because it is shaped by
ignorance of Christ and the Word of
God, mistaken ideas, bad example
given by others, indifference to the
truth, or is conformed to the world, or is
accustomed to habits of vice and sin, or
due to a malicious will.
A person with an erroneous
conscience mistakenly believes
something is true or good or right,
but it is not. Subjective error about
moral good can never be
confused with objective moral
truth.
Culpability: A person with an
erroneous conscience may or may
not be culpable of sin. If one’s error
results from a lack of concern for
moral truth in which one has become
blind through habits of sin, then that
person is culpably erroneous.
Culpability: In other words, there is a
moral difference between a person
who should have known better and
could have know better and a person
who could not possibly have known
anything else when deciding to act a
certain way in light of one’s
understanding of right and wrong.
Primary sources consulted:
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Liturgical Press, 2004.
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