Is my conscience enough?

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                                                                     Mr. Didanoto's classroom

I shuddered when, in response to a question about what could restrain his power, the president said:

"My own morality, my own mind."

God placed in our hearts a natural law, whose voice calls us to "love and to do what is good and to avoid evil." (CCC1776)

But, we must understand that Natural Law uses reason and a well-formed conscience:

"It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law." (CCC1778)

We have to be careful here, because our judgment should be deeply rooted in divine law. It is actually the mind of God that we must follow.

Following are some points of wisdom from the "Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)." I encourage you to take your time with them: 

1783 Conscience . . . formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator.

1784 The education of the conscience is a lifelong task. 

1786 Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the contrary, an erroneous judgment that departs from them.

1787 Man is sometimes confronted by situations that make moral judgments less assured and decision difficult. But he must always seriously seek what is right and good and discern the will of God expressed in divine law.

Let us not miss the reality that our decision-making is not as simple as proclaiming "my own morality, my own mind." We must use our reason and divine law when it comes to making moral decisions that should always lead us to "doing good and avoiding evil." (We can certainly go even deeper into this in identifying what is evil.)

The truth is, if we rely ONLY on morality of our own making, and the thoughts in our own mind, we can easily be led to poor decision-making.

I encourage you to check out the links below that are related to today's blog. Pray over these and study them a bit to educate yourself on these important topics.

Janet Cassidy
Email me at:  jmctm2@gmail.com
janetcassidy.com
https://www.facebook.com/reflectionsinfaith/
https://www.youtube.com/@janetcassidy  

 

Relevant video (Trump):

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysZJUjhnt3M

Relevant article on conscience: 

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/catechism/index.cfm?recnum=4994

Relevant article on Natural Law:

https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/natural-law

 



 

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