Conscience

[marccatholic]

Reply by CatherineM:


"Gaudium et Spes (GS) stands for "the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World". GS was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 7, 1965.

Referring to conscience, GS #16 says:

It is a law within a person laid down by God

A voice in the heart echoed in the depths

Urges one to do good and avoid evil

Calls upon one to love God and love one's neighbor

Discover the law and obey

Listen to the voice and respond

The Dignity of a person depends on following the voice and obeying the law

Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man.

From the Catechism:

1783 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.

1784 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.

1785 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."





Sorry if I have to repost this in another page because I always got error when I replied to the last post. Still, I need the explanation aside of articles because my question still was not addressed and asnwered to CatherineM's reply to me.



Is conscience God's voice?



And, sooner, I will post here the verses that are needed to be explained which the Pauline priest uses when he discussed the topic. Sorry I still cannot locate the magazine I bought long time ago.


I need a direct answer but very comprehensive and accurate. Thanks again.



@Sorry, I did not see that I mispelled conscience for the title. Anyway, still glad to hear you reply. God bless!

Edited March 15, 2009 by marccatholic

[CatherineM]

Sorry I didn’t answer you question exactly. Is the conscience the voice of God?
Let’s start with some scripture this time.

Romans 2:15; Ezekiel 11:19; James 1:8; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Matthew 5:8;and Matthew 12:34; all have something to say about the conscience.

The bible often refers to the conscience and ours hearts together. It is very difficult to peg God’s voice to our conscience, because unless we have properly formed our conscience, our conscience can be erroneous, and therefore can’t be from God. #1776 of the Catechism says that “Man has in his heart a law inscribed by God…His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.” In #1777 it says, “When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.”

What this means to me is that God resides in our heart. He has given us the ability to know good from evil. If you have properly formed your conscience within the church’s teachings, or as the Catechism says in #1794, “A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith,” then when you follow your conscience, you are listening to the voice of God. If you have allowed yourself to fall into ignorance of the truth, or have been taught improperly, you may hear something from your conscience that isn’t from God. If you want a visual, think about cartoons where someone has an angel on one shoulder, and a devil on the other, each trying to talk the person into something. We are constantly bombarded by noise from society that is trying to muffle the true voice of God.