How to Catholic: What is Our Conscience?

There is nothing like a good battle with your conscience, am I right? The anxiety, the stress, the judgment from yourself and from others. Half of the time it is really a battle between your passions and your intellect/will. The other half of the time seems like it is a battle between your conscience and the conscience of another being, whether it is your friend/mentor, society, or even Church teaching sometimes. Nonetheless, it helps to understand your conscience and how to form it.

Catholic teaching on the conscience has been discussed, philosophized, and developed since the beginning of Christianity. This voice in our head telling us right from wrong has been questioned over and over again. With all of the great thinkers that came before us, where do we stand now?

Well first to answer the question plainly: Yes, God should be our conscience, but is He? No, but He plays a major part.

This is what the Catechism says about conscience:
 

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 representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.”

CCC 1778

Quote from John Henry Cardinal Newman in “Letter to the Duke of Norfolk.
 

Two key things are said from this paragraph from the Catechism.

1. Conscience helps us choose right from wrong. As human beings, we have this innate understanding of generally what is a right action and what is a wrong action. We do not need someone to tell us that killing a person for no reason is bad. We do not need someone to tell us that stealing property from another person is wrong. It is our conscience that helps us make judgments on moral decisions and act on them. Conscience helps us explain why we have guilt, because we know by our judgment that this action was a wrong action, and next time we should listen to our conscience to make the right and just action.
2. God speaks to us through our conscience. We should always follow what our conscience is telling us. We should never go against it (CCC 1782). Through God’s grace, our consciences are formed, and we should strive for them to be formed. Without God, our consciences are not as strong as they would be with God. Grace forms our conscience and the gifts of the Holy Spirit assist that formation.

This is key to understand: If we are not careful, we could allow other things to form our conscience without us even realizing it. Culture is a part of our everyday life. We participate in it, we read it all over social media, and if it is the thing we surround ourselves with more than anything else, it can form our conscience. 

The solution: Truth. Root your day in prayer. Read scripture. Let the Lord permeate your routine. So “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have the strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19).

So, God is not our conscience, but we should ask for the Holy Spirit to form it. Conscience tells us right from wrong, and we should never go against what our conscience is telling us. 
 

John Boyle is a Youth Minister and Religion Teacher at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Brooklyn Park, MN. He found his calling to Youth Ministry while studying at the University of Minnesota and made his way to graduate from the University of St. Thomas. Not only does he love answering questions about faith, but also enjoys talking about sports (especially soccer), cooking, and worship music. You can also hear him talk about these and much more on the podcast Dudes That Babel. Currently, he calls the parish Our Lady of Grace his home.