372. What is the moral conscience?
(Comp 372) Moral conscience, present in the heart of the person, is a judgment of
reason which at the appropriate moment enjoins him to do good and to avoid
evil. Thanks to moral conscience, the human person perceives the moral quality
of an act to be done or which has already been done, permitting him to assume
responsibility for the act. When attentive to moral conscience, the prudent
person can hear the voice of God who speaks to him or her.
“In brief”
(CCC 1795)
"Conscience is man's most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is
alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths" (GS 16). (CCC 1796) Conscience is a judgment of reason by which the human
person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act. (CCC 1797) For the man who has committed evil, the verdict of
his conscience remains a pledge of conversion and of hope.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 1776)
"Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon
himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do
what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment.... For
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" (GS 16). (CCC 1777) Moral
conscience (Cf. Rom 2:14-16), present at the heart of the person, enjoins him
at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges
particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are
evil (Cf. Rom 1:32). It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to
the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the
commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God
speaking.
Reflection
(CCC 1778) 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 (John Henry Cardinal Newman, "Letter to the Duke of
Norfolk," V, in Certain Difficulties
felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching II (London: Longmans Green, 1885),
248). (CCC 1779) It is important for every
person to be sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the
voice of his conscience. This requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as life often distracts us
from any reflection, self-examination or introspection: Return to your
conscience, question it.... Turn inward, brethren, and in everything you do,
see God as your witness (St. Augustine, In
ep Jo. 8, 9: PL 35, 2041).
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