Why do the consciences of young people not rebel against this situation,
especially against the moral evil which flows from personal choices?...The
normal thing would be for conscience to point out the mortal danger to the
individual and to humanity contained in the easy acceptance of evil and
sin. And yet, it is not always so. Is it because conscience itself is
losing the ability to distinguish good from evil? --Pope John Paul II,
Cherry Creek State Park
We've been talking, it seems like forever, about defending human life,
especially unborn life. I've emphasized it a lot because Pope John Paul II
emphasized it a lot -- and still emphasizes it a lot. He obviously thinks
this is a major problem, especially for youth. But, in this particular
passage, he asks an interesting question. How did it get this way? How are
so many youth getting sucked into this anti-life mentality? Don't today's
youth have consciences?
His questions bring up question we've been asking. What exactly is the
conscience? How does it work? Are we supposed to follow our consciences
no matter what?
I remember hearing my friends say, "Well, I know you think it's wrong,"
("it" meaning "sleeping with my boyfriend/having an
abortion/shoplifting/dumping the Catholic Church to become a Unitarian
Moonie/whatever morel issue we happened to be disagreeing on that day.")
"But my conscience doesn't bother me, so I think it's okay." Sometimes
that would make sense to me for a while. But then I'd see an ax
murderer/serial killer on TV, and I'd hear him telling Geraldo Rivera that
he had a clear conscience. So I knew something wasn't quite right.
Pope John Paul II calls conscience, "...the voice of God, calling us to
free ourselves from the grip of evil desires and sin." Wow. We've got God
talking directly to us, telling us how to live. It doesn't get any clearer
than that.
So what about our friend the clear-conscienced serial killer? Is God
telling him that it's really okay to be a serial killer, just as long as
he feels good about himself? Somehow, looking at what we know about God,
I'd tend to doubt that. God tends to have some pretty clear ideas about
right and wrong.
The trick, according to the pope, is that our conscience has to be
"properly formed." He says that, in modern society, "the danger arises of
wanting to manipulate conscience and it's demands." We hear over and over
that there is no objective reality, there is no right and wrong, we can
determine our own values system, good is whatever is good for you. And
each time we hear that, it bends our conscience a little more. It's like a
mirror that slowly warps, so that eventually it makes people look like
midgets with enormous heads and no chests, and you have to sell it to the
circus because no one else wants it. Modern society can distort our
consciences so that we no longer hear the voice of God, but just some kind
of ridiculous distortion.
Personally, I don't like that. I like the idea of having the voice of God
talking to me through my conscience. He certainly makes more sense to me
than most of the other voices I'm stuck with. So it's important to
maintain the purity of the conscience. Jesus said, "The eye is the body's
lamp. If your eyes are good, your body will be filled with light; if your
eyes are bad, your body will be in darkness. And if your light is
darkness, how deep will the darkness be." (Mt 6:22-23)
How do we keep the "light" in our consciences? Believe it or not, the pope
has the answer. (He makes my job really easy.) He says, "A rebirth of
conscience must come from two sources: first, the effort to know objective
truth with certainty, including the truth about God; and secondly, the
light of faith in Jesus Christ, who alone has the words of life."
In other words, first you have to understand things, including God, the
way they really are. You can say, "Well, my God is a god of greeness, and
he doesn't care what I do as long as I always wear green, have a lot of
money and water my lawn." It may make you feel good, but it has nothing to
do with the real God out there. You don't have your own god. There's only
one. And the same with the world. Just because you don't acknowledge
something as a sin, doesn't mean that it isn't, or that it won't do the
damage that sin does. You need to learn about things as they are, and
accept that.
And second, illuminate it all with a love for Jesus Christ and His Church.
Remember, we can try to learn a whole lot, but we'll never know as much as
He does, and we'll never love as much as He does. And He works today, in
and through His Church. So when the Church teaches something for 2,000
years, it probably means He has something to do with it. Listen to His
Church, listen to Him, and talk to Him.
And when you do all of that, you can be pretty sure that He'll be talking
with you.
Bonacci is a frequent lecturer on chastity.
This article appeared in the November 11, 1994 issue of "The Arlington
Catholic Herald."
Courtesy of the "Arlington Catholic Herald" diocesan newspaper of the
Arlington (VA) diocese. For subscription information, call 1-800-377-0511
or write 200 North Glebe Road, Suite 607 Arlington, VA 22203.
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