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Conscience
Society offers a tranquilized existence (false happiness)
Christianity offers a pilgrim existence (true happiness) (spiritual level)
Conscience – power to make decisions and judgments:
The ability to discern GOOD from EVIL
Key question conscience asks us:
What is the right thing for ME to do in this particular circumstance?
Conscience involves a process of 3 steps:
1) Knowledge – facts, Church teaching, Scripture, law, pictures, etc
2) Evaluation – circumstances I am in setting priorities
3) Application – applying general facts to my particular circumstance
Rule of conscience:
I am obliged to form my conscience correctly.
Once conscience formed, I am obliged to follow my conscience.
I am RESPONSIBLE for the decision and the choices I make
Once conscience is correctly formed it is my infallible guide!
How can I form my conscience correctly? STOP method
S – Seek the facts
T – Think your decision through to the end
What will be the consequences of my actions?
O – Open to the advice of trusted friends; ACTIVELY seek advice
P – pray for guidance, prudence, courage
Key Conscience Vocab
1) Objective concerns the facts without bias and personal opinions.
2) Subjective concerns my opinions, my point of view (which can be wrong!)
3) Syndersis (natural law) do good/avoid evil
4) Natural moral law: first source of all human actions/based on human dignity and human rights
5) Antecedent Conscience – judgment before the action
Consequent Conscience – judgment after the action
6) Morality: a set of principles that are based on the natural law and God’s revelation
Moral Science: science of listing specific do’s and don’t’s that are based on the Natural Law (do good/avoid evil)
Some Touchy Problems
1. Invincible error – error that I am incapable of overcoming or correcting. This error lessons responsibility.
Vincible error – error that I can correct but fail to do so. This error increases responsibility.
2. Doubt – when in serious doubt seek advice before acting!
3. Misconceptions
1) Identifying morality with sincerity
2) Identifying morality with law
3) Identifying morality with customs
4) Making your conscience totally independent; I am responsible to no one!
(and the actual Second Trimester begins…) (bold+underline = folded down page)
Conscience and Conversion
Types of Conscience
1) Antecedent
2) Conesequent } definitions above
3) Strict: exact, no exceptions
4) Lax: false and distorts my minimalizing
5) Scrupulous: false, a lasting irrational doubt
6) Guilty: feels guilty when not guilty
7) Rationalizing: finds excuses to allow oneself to do as one pleases
8) Correctly formed: judging evil as evil
Respecting Life
I. Abortion
1) Human life in all its forms is to be respected.
2) Religious point of view: human life is sacred, a gift from God
3) Secular point of view:
A. Society needs to protect the unborn less killing them results in self-destruction (social suicide)
B. Society must provide the right to live and the means to do this in dignity. (Guaranteed by the
Declaration of Independence)
4) How do we reverse the legalization of abortion laws?
What are the alternatives to having an abortion?
II. Capital Punishment
Seeming contradiction:
A) Christ’s teaching = Love your enemy
B) Church teaching = permissible to execute convicted criminals?
Solution to the above
A) Does society have the right to execute?
B) Should we exercise this right?
ANSWER: Human life is sacred
St. Thomas Aquinas taught:
A) If a person is dangerous to society, we have the right to execute to secure the common good of society
(self defense rights)
B) But should society exercise this right? Can society defend itself by other means?
Considerations:
a. Are people deterred?
b. Poor and minorities suffer
c. Miscarriage
PUNISHMENT: YES
REVENGE: NEVER
III. The Just War Theory
AIM: to prevent warfare
Only when war cannot be prevented then warfare is to be restricted and consequences reduced
Conditions for engaging in warfare:
1) Just cause: to protect life and preserve conditions for human rights
2) Declared by competent authority for the right intentions
3) The values at stake are critical to allow for war (comparative justice)
4) It is the last resort
5) There is the probability for success
6) That the damage to be inflicted and the cost be proportionate to the good expected.
7) That every effort be made to avoid conflicting innocent people. (right intention)
IV. Economic Ethics
1) We have a responsibility to correct a corrupt system
2) Basic working principle: to ensure the dignity of all people
3) All people are interconnected – we have a responsibility for our neighbor!
4) The Christian Moral outlook is based on three questions:
A) What does the economy do for the people?
B) What does it do to the people?
C) How do the people participate?
Law
-Has to have 4 basic parts:
1) Law is a binding rule of conduct or action
2) That is promulgated (made public)
3) By rightful authority
4) For the common good
-The purpose of law:
to create order
to help people overcome weaknesses
to protect the rights of others and of ourselves
-Two extremes in law to be avoided:
legalism – letter of the law only
anti-nomianism – spirit of the law
Relativism – holds that moral norms change from culture to culture.
Catholic view: some actions are always wrong despite culture
1. Eternal Law (Divine Law/New Law/Gospel Law)
-does not change and the source of all law
The Purposes of Divine Law:
A) Help us stay on the right path
B) Help us discern good/eveil
C) Help us have good motives
D) Indicates what is harmful/sinful
-In the nature of things: these do not change
Physical laws – blind and necessary (gravity)
Natural Moral Law – known by reason (do good and avoid evil)
Summarized in the Beatitudes – Love one another and Golden Rule
Divine positive law – Ten commandments
Human positive laws – these change
Civil/State (go on green/stop on red)
Church laws
-Magisterium: official teaching authority of the Church, pope, and bishops
-Precepts of the Church: minimal obligations for members in good standing
2) The Laws of the Church
1.) Attend Mass on Sundays and the Holy Days of Obligation:
Mary, Mother of God – Jan 1
Ascension Thursday
Assumption of Mary – Aug 15
All Saints Day – Nov 1
Immaculate Conception – Dec 8
Christmas – Dec 25
2.) Fast and abstain on days appointed.
Fast days: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
The abstinence days: Ash Wednesday and Fridays of Lent
3.) Confess once a year if in mortal sin
4.) Receive the Eucharist during Easter time
5.) Contribute to support the Church
6.) Follow the Church Laws on marriage
Conscience – can conscience be my guide?
1) Conscience has both a PASSIVE role (helps us to avoid evil) and an ACTIVE role (helps us to do good; to live by
choice not by chance)
2) Conscience involves both JUDGMENTS and DECISIONS
3) All people use their conscience; but not all consciences are properly formed
As Christians we seek to be loyal to Jesus
As Christians we have a duty to go out of our way to correct corruption
As Christians we seek to surrender our ego to others and to God (D. Bonhoeffer)
As Christians we know that even good men find being good difficult (T. Merton)
4) All people are called to be more aware of others, especially the poor and needy
5) We are called to give the benefit of the doubt to the more experienced – the Church
6) We are called to accept internally (in our heart) what is said externally by the Church
7) Choosing the good makes us free! We are at peace when we follow our properly formed conscience!
8) Freedom of Conscience
A) Nobody else may impose on my conscience.
I alone am responsible for my judgments.
B) No civil authority has the right to tell me what I am to believe
Freedom of Conscience = freedom of religion
Flannery O’ Connor
Born: March 25, 1925 – Savannah, Georgia
Died: August 3, 1964
Home town: Milledgeville, Georgia
Education: Georgia State
Quotes: “The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his
problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural.”
“To the hard of hearing you shout and to the almost blind you draw large and startling figures.”
-Her stories are all about the action of Grace, and the person not willing to accept it
-American, Southern, Catholic Short Story Author
-Stories located in Southern Protestant Bible Belt
-Suffered from Lupus
-Use of irony
-Use of grotesque (weird) characters
-Award winning author
-Flannery uses 4 basic themes:
A) We are all sinners
B) We all shall die
C) We are all equal in God’s eyes
D) God comes to us in ways we don’t expect
-The stories:
1) Protagonist is self-righteous and spiritually blind. He thinks he is god. (violates 1 st commandment)
2) He is in need of a spiritual awakening; a spiritual conversion
3) A prophetic intervention serves as catalyst
4) This intrusion = A Moment of Grace
(it is always offered, not always accepted)
5) If the Protagonist accepts the Prophetic Intervention he has a moment of self-revelation (allows him to see the
truth)
6) The Prophetic intervention puts him off balance; it shocks him into reality and if accepted – results in a
spiritual conversion!
Corporal Works of Mercy
1) Feed the hungry
2) Give drink to the thirsty
3) Shelter the homeless
4) Clothe the naked
5) Visit the sick
6) Visit the imprisoned
7) Bury the dead
Spiritual Works of Mercy
1) Admonish the sinner
2) Instruct the ignorant
3) Counsel the doubtful
4) Comfort the sorrowful
5) Forgive all injuries
6) Bear wrongs patiently
7) Pray for the living and the dead
Flannery O’ Connor
1) In her lifetime, discerning critics perceived the importance of religious themes in her work.
2) She disliked sentimentality and piety and reacted strongly against the temptation of critics to drag her medical
history into consideration of her writing. And yet her illness imposed on her a discipline and sense of priorities that
she managed to turn to the advantage of her art.
3) I write the way I do because (not though) I am a Catholic.
4) The Catholic doctrines of creation, fall, and redemption were the lens through which she viewed the world
5) “I feel that if I were not a Catholic, I would have no reason to write, see, ever feel horrified, or even enjoy
anything.”
6) The Church, she believed, was the only thing likely to make the world endurable.
7) What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it
is the cross.
8) Unlike most other “Catholic writers,” she avoided Catholic settings in her stories.
9) Endings are often violent, even apocalyptic; her characters are pruned and emptied of their illusions and even their
“virtues” before they can face the truth
10) “All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it.”
11) She faced the horrors of history without losing sight of the resurrection. Thus, in her highly personal and modest
way she exemplified the virtue and responsibility of hope.
Explanations of Stories
Spiritual Conversion
“Our hearts are restless until they rest in the Lord.” – St. Augustine
The problem: Humans are creatures of habit
-“We resist change because change is painful.” – Flannery
-The Gospel challenges us to change from self-righteousness to accepting God as our higher power (1 st
commandment)
Definition: a radical (deep rooted) change (an on-going process) of heart for one’s good.
A spiritual conversion demands:
-a “u-turn” in attitude and behavior
-courage and risk
- a change from selfishness and self-righteousness to selflessness and generosity
Four parts of a spiritual conversion:
1) Initiated by God
2) Usually through a person or event (prophetic intervention)
3) Involves a deep-rooted change of heart (in lifestyle)
4) Resulting in a turning from evil and a turning toward good (a life process)
Some types of Spiritual Conversion
A) A conversion by REVOLUTION
-drastic, dramatic, sudden change
-initiated by God through a crisis
-involves risk and seizing the moment of grace
Ex: Saul’s conversion to Paul
B) A conversion by RESOLUTION
-change that results from inner will-power
-initiated by God through one’s thoughts and conscience
-one says “I will do it; I can do it; I must change!”
Ex: Levi’s conversion to Matthew
C) A conversion by EVOLUTION
-slow gradual change over a period of time
-gentle in nature
-initiated by God through many small things in life
Ex: Lydia’s conversion to follow Jesus
Signs of a Break Down in a Relationship:
1) Neglect of conversation
2) A substituting of gifts for talk
3) Starting to stay away from the other person
4) An attitude of me first
5) Actual break down of a relationship
Ex: Peter
1) Peter falls asleep, neglects prayer
2) Peter cuts off man’s ear
3) Peter drags behind, keeps safe distance
4) Peter first warms himself by the fire
5) Peter denies Jesus 3 times!
Morality (Evil, Sin, Virtue)
A spiritual conversion implies the turning away from personal evil or sinfulness
Religious Public
Morality Ethics
Evil Evil
Sin Wrongdoing
Virtue Virtue
Evil – (by Thomas Aquinas) – evil is the absence of a good that should be present but isn’t
A) Collective Evil
-Nazis
-Slavery
B) Individual Evil
-the evil I do
1) Physical Evil – the absence of a good that should be present in nature
-implies no personal control
Ex: lightning, flash floods, illnesses, death
2) Evil that is the result of human freedom
a. Unintentional Evil:
Conflicts and disagreements, ignorance, accidents, results of simultaneous choices
b. Intentional Evil: (moral evil)
sin: the subjective intentional rejection of the human thing to do in a particular situation (the
human thing is not always the human thing to do in a particular situation)
Types of Sin
A) Mortal; to be morally guilty of mortal sinfulness requires:
-Serious matter
-Full consent
-Full knowledge
-A radical change in lifestyle, orientation, and patterns of behavior resulting in turning away from
God and Goodness.
Note: change happens over time – not as a result of one isolated act!
Seven Deadly Sins
Gluttony – more interested in eating than in the taste of food! Wasteful.
Ex: Cardinal Wolsey or King Henry
Avarice (greed) – the love of possessing – NOT the love of the possession itself. Buying or having what is not
needed.
Ex: Mr. Fortune
Pride – an inordinate (excessive) opinion of oneself. Aloof, stuck up!
Ex: Cromwell
Sloth – indifference, sluggish. A lack of desire for anything beyond my own selfishness.
Ex. Thomas (comforts of home)
Anger (wrath) – excessive outburst and excessive desire for revenge!
Ex: King Henry
Lust – more interested in sex than in true love. Accepts any person as a sex object.
Envy – resentful of another’s talent or goods. Desire to have what another has to the point of destroying the other
person.
Ex: Richard Rich, Mr. Fortune
Virtues
-An inner strength that helps you to do good
Types:
1) Theological
a. Faith – we believe what God has revealed because of the authority of the one revealing
b. Hope (trust) – confidence based on God’s promise of eternal salvation
c. Charity (love) – enables us to love for God’s sake, for ourselves, and for our neighbors.
2) Cardinal (hinge on which all society rests)
d. Prudence – correct knowledge concerning things to be done
e. Justice – constant and permanent determination to give what is due
f. Courage (Fortitude) – the strength of will to do good even in the face of danger
g. Temperance – moderation of our instincts
Moral Notes
1. Morality asks: What kind of person do I want to become?
My character is:
-What I do with my temperament
-A combo of my strengths (virtues) and weaknesses (vices)
Virtue: an inner strength
-an inner readiness to do moral good
Vice: an inner weakness
-an inner readiness to do moral evil
2. Doubt in Acting
Types: A) Dubium Legis (legal doubt)
-a person not knowing what the law says
Ex: can I use cell phone in school?
B) Dubium Facti (factual doubt)
-a person not knowing a particular fact
Ex: who is the moderator of the Sacristans?
2. Types of Actions (yes I know the number is wrong, ms word sux, sorry)
A) Actus Hominis (an act of man)
Ex: walking, sneezing
B) Actus Humanus (a human act)
Ex: thinking, reasoning, thought process, decision making
3. Laws of God
Types: A.) Eternal Law: Law of Love/Law of God
B.) Divine Positive Law
-Man (intelligent creature) sharing in the Eternal Law
C.) Natural Moral Law
-Commandments
-Law of Moses
Guilt + Shame
-As pain is an indicator of bodily harm, guilt is an indicator of troubles with conscience
-Shame (psychological guilt) is a feeling of embarrassment from getting caught
-Guilt (accepting blame – culpability) is a feeling of embarrassment (not necessarily caught)
Guilt – a quality of character – the ability to acknowledge culpability
Guilty Shame
-Is healthy -Is unhealthy guilt
-Is due to rejection and the human -Is due to a sense of low self-worth
thing to do
-Is a fear that I have hurt others by my -Is a fear that others will dislike or think
Selfishness bad of me
-Results in being open to God’s grace -Results in a paralyzing immobility…a
and forgiveness secret life
The Church’s Role
Help us to feel guilty about the right things
Grace – God’s unconditional love for us. God’s life within us.
-freely given with no strings attached
-We are good because God loves us; God does not love us BECAUSE we are good
-God’s grace (Love) is costly since it cost the Life of His son. “God so loved us that He gave us His only begotten
Son.”
-Is our relationship with God and His relationship with us
The Art of Loving (The Levels of Relating)
Levels of Relating
1) Rivalry
2) Tolerance
3) Cooperation
4) Benevolence
5) Committed Love
I. Rivalry
A) Most basic, fundamental form of relating
B) Expressed in terms of aggression and demands
C) Views all relationships in terns of WIN or LOSE
D) My comforts become more important than truth or reality
RESULTS: lies; cheating; power plays (putting people down to get their position); domination;
manipulation; passive-aggressive behavior
SPIRITUAL OUTCOME: God is seen as a rival.
-We blame God for all problems
-Jesus is seen as a loser (since He died)
-to admit guilt is seen as being weak
-Move from Rivalry to Tolerance due to:
-a desire to belong -concern of a friend
-sense of emptiness -some personal crisis
-survival
II. Tolerance
-the capacity to:
Accept others who are better than me without being threatened
Accept those who are less talented
Accept individual differences
Live with imperfections
-some enemies of tolerance:
Persecution
Negativism
Self-hate
Closed mindedness
-we can even tolerate God:
Pray only when things go well
Keep God for Sunday only
-Move from Tolerance to Cooperation is due to:
Realization that I can’t do it alone!
Need for closer friendships
Practical necessity for the common good
-Examples from Bible of Tolerance:
o Simon of Cyrene
o (to Apostles) Eat what they give you, don’t complain
III. Cooperation
-cooperation = co opus: work together
-giving oneself to a definite task
-The capacity to:
Work with others at a common task
Overcome personality differences for the common task
Realize that my actions affect others
-act responsively
Forget myself to help others
-we can cooperate with God:
I work with God’s grace and desire to do good
-Some enemies of cooperation:
Overly self-protective
Individualism
Fear of giving in to another
-Move from Cooperation to Benevolence is due to:
A stronger desire to be intimate
-Examples from Bible of Cooperation:
o Peter gets help fishing
o Helping to lower the ill man through the roof to meet Jesus
IV. Benevolence
-bene velle = to wish and to do the good for another
-caring that moves to action
-service not just sentiment
-the capacity to:
Care not only about the common task but also about the people
Identify with others in good and bad times
Feel tenderness and affection
Exchange personal feelings
Risk alienation for the other’s good
-some enemies of Benevolence:
Too much passivity in the relationship
Too reactive to the other
-God is seen as benevolent:
My friend
Desire to thank Him
Generous
-Examples from Bible of Benevolence:
o Jesus feeds 5000
o The Good Samaritan
-Move to Committed Love:
The desire to extend benevolence for a long duration
Making a commitment to the other for life
The Art of Loving (The Book Itself)
V. Committed Love
-Love is NOT just a feeling
-Love is an act of my will
-Love takes over when feelings fail.
When the beloved is no longer even likable.
Chapter 1: pg 1-6
1) Live is an art. Love requires knowledge and effort.
2) Problem: many do not believe that love needs to be learned.
3) Why not?
a. Most people think BEING LOVED is more important than LOVING.
-having sexual appeal -being popular
b. Most people think finding the right OBJECT (person) is more important than the faculty (loving)
-Victorian Age stressed faculty
-Attractive Package Deal stresses externals
c. Most people confuse FALLING in love with STAYING in love
RESULTS:
Many hopeful attempts to love fail. (pg 4- bottom)
SOLUTION:
Learn love as an art: master THEORY and PRACTICE
Make being a loving person your ULTIMATE CONCERN
I. Orgiastic II. Herd Conformity III. Creative Activity
-sex, drugs, alcohol
-People want to conform to a higher -The unity achieved in productive
Characteristics: degree work is not personal
A) violent (intense) -Most do not know they need to -Only partial answers to the
B) occurs in mind and body conform problem of emptiness
C) Transitory and periodic -Equality today means sameness, -Full answer lies in the achievement
note oneness of impersonal union of fusion with
Examples: -Men + women are now the same, another person in love
-use of drugs when depressed not one -The desire for interpersonal fusion
-alcohol to numb feelings -Not intense or violent; is calm so it is the most powerful striving in man
-Sex to feel better and be usually fails -Without love, humanity couldn’t
wanted by others -It is permanent and NOT exist for 1 day
-addictive spasmodic
-Relieves the anxiety of Examples:
separateness -clubs + sports
-Pseudo-unity – false, joining a
herd = no identity
Examples:
-drinking at a party because
everyone else is doing it
-yelling as a group at someone
