Conscience: What is it?

What is a conscience?
Do I have a conscience?
 How do Listen to what my conscience is telling me?
Tell me you haven't wrestled with those questions!  Today we will answer them.


What is a conscience?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say about the conscience:

1. "His conscience is man's most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths." ~ CCC 1776 
2. "Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act ..." ~ CCC 1778

So conscience is reason at the core of a human that judges what is right and what is wrong.  This description seems to follow common conceptions of what the conscience is...BUT WAIT!  That's only part of the story!  The catechism goes on:

"Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings."  ~ CCC 1783

WHAT?!?! The common conceptions of conscience never mentioned any of that!  What did we just learn?

1. "Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened."
• Your conscience is not given to you fully formed.  You can't just say you are following it without the proper training.
2. "[The conscience] formulates its judgments...in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator."
• Informed consciences will not lead to differing positions, beliefs or actions; a group of people with informed consciences would all act in conformity.  So, no, morals are not relative.
3. "The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are...tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings."
• Your conscience is not the same thing as your judgement or your feelings.  In fact, we are tempted to follow our own judgement because we sin.

How do I form my conscience?

The CCC goes on to say:

"The education of the conscience is a lifelong task. From the earliest years, it awakens the child to the knowledge and practice of the interior law recognized by conscience. Prudent education teaches virtue; it prevents or cures fear, selfishness and pride, resentment arising from guilt, and feelings of complacency, born of human weakness and faults. The education of the conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of heart." ~ CCC 1784

We have to work at educating our consciences our entire life?  How do we start such a task?  Where do we go to inform our consciences?

"In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church." ~ CCC 1785

We educate our consciences by learning the teachings of the Bible.  We use our faith and prayer to form our conscience.  We correct our conscience by examining ourselves before the Cross.  And we are aided in all of these undertakings by the authoritative teachings of the Catholic Church.

What does the Bible have to say about conscience?

I relied heavily on quotes from the CCC above because they spoke directly about what constitutes a conscience.  But do not assume the Bible is silent about the conscience.  (Where do you think the teachings in the CCC came from?!)

Here is a quote from the book of Romans discussing how the conscience of everyone, even those who did not know the commandments of God, calls them to be morally just and make the right decision:

"For it is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; rather, those who observe the law will be justified.  For when the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature observe the prescriptions of the law, they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law.  They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even defend them on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge people's hidden works through Christ Jesus." ~ Romans 2:13-16

Here is a quote from 1 Timothy that speaks to the need to instruct and inform consciences:

"I repeat the request I made of you when I was on my way to Macedonia, that you stay in Ephesus to instruct certain people not to teach false doctrines or to concern themselves with myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the plan of God that is to be received by faith. The aim of this instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith." ~ 1 Timothy 1:3-5

And here is another quote from 1 Timothy that speaks to the existence of malformed consciences:

"Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the last times some will turn away from the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and demonic instructions through the hypocrisy of liars with branded consciences. They forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth." ~ 1 Timothy 4:1-3

In Summary

The conscience is reason at the core of a human that judges what is right and what is wrong, but the conscience must be informed and instructed by the teachings of the Church.  Your conscience is not your feelings, is not your opinions, and is not your own judgement.

When properly formed, a conscience will urge one to act in unity with the will of God.  This means that saying "I am following my conscience" is not an excuse to act against the Church's teachings and the will of God.

Human beings, by our sinful nature, are naturally drawn off course and must work to inform and educate our consciences by reading the Bible, learning the Church's teaching, praying to God, and examining ourselves before the Cross.

And now you know!  So the next time the topic of "conscience" comes up you can eschew the flimsy, philosophical stuff and speak with hard facts and truth!


Additional Resources

In addition to the links to the CCC and the Bible included above, I found the following resources to be very helpful.

The very first quote in this post ("His conscience is man's most secret core...") is taken from the CCC, but the CCC is actually quoting Pope John VI in his introduction to Vatican II found here:
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes)

Finally, this article by Reverend George Welzbacher is that spark that caused me to write about this subject.  It is a great read.  I believe he represents the issue much better than I ever could and he speaks from a position of expertise and authority:
A Brief Catechism for Catholic Voters