Moral Conscience
This shortest chapter in the book is the most vital. Moral conscience is our fundamental guide, not only to salvation, but to spiritual advancement.{70} The Catechism of the Catholic Church devotes a chapter to moral conscience, beginning with paragraph 1776.
“No person may escape judgment by God, and no person is without God’s guidance in all matters. Moral conscience may err, but it is the final voice of guidance to every person.”
Moral conscience, which is God’s living presence within us, demands that every person do what is right and avoid doing what is wrong. From CCC 1176,
“Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself, but which he must obey…to do what is good and avoid evil.”
CCC 1800; “A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience.”
Moral conscience is the very person of God, revealing himself to the individual, prompting us to conform our actions to God…God who we will attempt union with, at the end of our lives, or better yet during this life.{71}
Moral conscience tells us not only what is right and wrong, but what is good and better. An examination of moral conscience will inform us of our life mission, what our intended role is, and what we are to bring to the body of Christ at our reunion.{72} Shall I become a nun or a mother, what job should I take, how shall I respond to a comment, how shall I spend my afternoon? Perhaps most of the saints never read an outline of spiritual advancement; they simply followed the Holy Spirit in their soul.
Our moral conscience (like all things), is subject to distortion from original and personal sin. It is a faculty of our soul, and it shares the general health of the soul. Purging one’s soul of selfishness will reveal the higher standards within one’s moral conscience. For those seeking perfection one must purge the soul of even legitimate self interest.
Why make the necessary effort to purge one’s soul, only to be rewarded with a conscience which now demands a higher level of moral action?
The payoff is a deeper union with Christ, and there is nothing in this universe of greater value, than greater participation in the life and person of Christ, the third person of the Trinity.