Really I do get your point. Having said that I’ll add a few things. God is not the fellow next door. I can’t imagine that He’ll be pointing out our “errors” and sins one by one. I think it’s it’s more likely that at the moment of death we’ll know in an instant where our disordered emotions and/or intellectual pride have led us astray. What we have chosen to be blind to seeing in this life will be illuminated in a flash when our deaths have come upon us.
I don’t see God as any grim reaper but I do think that with His many untold gifts to us, come His expectations that we will have a willingness to follow the teachings of His Church in all but the most rare and critical matters of Church-Conscience conflict. It’s obvious to me that we won’t necessarily understand all teachings and some personalitites have a dreadful time accepting that - far more than other personalities do. Still, we are to make to make knowing, loving and serving God in this world our singular priority.
I think we are more or less in agreement, but I think that if we do “know in an instant where our disordered emotions and/or intellectual pride have led us astray” that
will be God pointing out each of our errors to us individually. The mechanism is, of course, mysterical and I don’t intend my anthropomorphic imagination of a conversation with God to be taken too literally (but who knows?)
Back in my seminary days (I didn’t finish!), a priest delved at length into this topic. In addition to explaining “well-formed conscience”, he introduced us to the “compromised conscience”. Simply put, a CC is one that has deceived itself for so long a time period that it now has “tricked” the person into believing that his/her conscience is providing proper guidance. I remember this priest’s words after 40 years: “Gentlemen, those with a compromised conscience are to be truly pitied. They have lost their moral rudder. rather than being a help, their conscience has become a hindrance to their spiritual and moral dvelopment”.
His advice: “prayer, study and reflection…prayer, study and relection”. he added that God will ALWAYS answer, but be sure that you’re willing to accept and to follow His reply.
Yes, this is exactly my point. There is such a thing as primacy of conscience, but it is not to be taken lightly. It is not just “I don’t believe that”, and there is considerable chance that we will delude ourselves by compromising our conscience.
But nonetheless, it is important that we examine our conscience. Without conscience, faith becomes no more than an exercise in meticulously following the rules. Ours is not such a religion. Ours is a religion of Truth and Faith. If we say “I have no Faith, and I cannot discern the Truth, but I will follow these rules for fear of Hellfire,” then we have no true religion. In that situation Faith becomes merely a mercenary attempt to force ourselves into salvation by dint of technicality.
At the same time, whenever our conscience conflicts with the Church, we have to understand that we put ourselves in a grave situation. If our conscience is not true, but a self distortion, even an unconscious one, then we do not worship God at all, but instead our own reflection. I don’t believe that guarantees damnation, but it can’t be good. If our conscience is true, then we must follow it. To fail to do so is affirmatively dishonest. It is bending the Truth as we understand it under the pressure and influence of our times. That is not good either.
Some will point out that those that do not examine the doctrines of the Church too closely, but put simple faith in them like a child, will never face this crisis. That is true, and I envy those called to this simple faith. I have not been, and its seems as if most of those who post here have not either. I believe I am required to examine my conscience. In the vast majority of instances it lines up with the Church’s teachings. Where it does not I continue to pray, study, and reflect. But as long as it is given to me to believe that my conscience is truly and without self-distortion in conflict with the Church, I must remain in dissent.
