Nov 15 Wed
Listening to God's Voice: Consciences have to be formed, not just followed. Acting in accord with one’s conscience is important, if that conscience is informed by the voice of God.
Some think that conscience is listening to their own voice, rather than listening to the voice of God as he has revealed himself in Scripture and in Tradition.
It is important for us to form our conscience, especially in our own time, when people are told, “Well, just follow your conscience,” Most people today do not even know what conscience is, much less that they are called to form their conscience.
“It is essential that we help people to understand that conscience is the voice of God living within the human heart (Gaudium et Spes,16).” They must quietly listen for that voice and open their hearts to it.
If one rejects God, then his conscience becomes deadened and hardened, because he denies that there is even a voice –His voice–to listen to.
We must make people realize, and understand, that one’s conscience can become hardened, can become deadened, and can be erroneous, when it is not faithful to God and to the truth.
We also have to examine our conscience daily. Our struggle to be worthy of the Lord's blessing must not be vague. We have to know ourselves thoroughly. We need a clear awareness of our personal weaknesses, our besetting sins, in order to tackle them effectively and so improve.
Although we try to keep close to Jesus Christ throughout the day, and want to seek our Lord in all our actions, we often fail. “We all need to be aware of our lack of objectivity whenever we judge our own conduct. You too." In our examination of conscience, we discover faults and omissions in fulfilling our commitment of love. We see that we are still not humble enough, that our heart is attached to created things, that our apostolic zeal is still imperfect. Why is this so? What is the reason for so much carelessness?
Through the examination of conscience, we get to know ourselves as we are, as sinners. Then we will be able to decide on the human and supernatural means we need to use in order to improve.
We cannot leave the acquisition of this self-knowledge for some unspecified time in the future. It is urgent, today and now. On it depends our making the best use of the time our Lord gives us. We cannot forget that we know neither the day nor the hour when we will have to render an account to God. If we wish to stand at Jesus Christ's right hand on that day, we need to fight now.
“God is always ready to give us his grace, especially at a time like this –grace for a new conversion– a step forward in our lives as Christians."
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