Well-Formed

When faced with moral decisions, it is not uncommon, even in Catholic circles, to be given the advice, “just follow your conscience.” While the idea of following your conscience is based in a fundamental truth of the faith and is in fact integral to making good moral choices, this piece of advice is problematic because the phrase “follow your conscience” has lost its original meaning. It is now commonly used to mean “do what seems right to you” or something along the lines of “follow your heart.”

Unfortunately for many of us, doing what seems right or following our heart often ends up meaning doing whatever is easiest, most convenient, most immediately gratifying, or feels best in the moment. We live in a pleasure obsessed culture in which happiness, narrowly defined, is the key indicator of whether a choice is right or wrong. Even the idea of right or wrong is narrowly defined as “right or wrong for me in this moment,” without any reference to an objective good or evil.

When following one’s conscience is understood in this way it no longer serves its intended purpose of guiding us safely along the path of virtue. What is necessary to remedy this issue is a well-formed conscience. The Catechism declares that “a well-formed conscience is upright and truthful.” In order for it be so it must be educated, informed through study of Sacred Scripture, instruction and practice of virtue, and the constant renewal of our minds through a life in Christ.  This education of the conscience is “indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgement and to reject authoritative teachings.” (CCC 1783)

The point of forming our conscience is not to burden our lives with rules and restrictions, rather it is to ensure that we can be confident that our decisions will be those that lead us to the fullness of joy. The negative influences are loud, both from without and from within and the temptation to prefer my own judgment can be quite compelling. But I am wise enough to know that my preferences can be disordered, clouded by concupiscence, the result of my fallen nature. I can not be sure of peace if I simply follow my heart.

My deepest desire is to remain faithful to the Lord, to live in a way that is pleasing to Him and is befitting to me as His beloved. A well-formed conscience helps me to follow that deepest desire in the face of temptation, opposition, and persecution. It is in those moments when moral choices are unusually difficult that I am most grateful for a well-formed conscience that, “guarantees freedom and engenders peace of mind.” (CCC 1785)

In order to attend to my conscience in those difficult moments, I must continue to form and inform it throughout my life. Every moral decision is an opportunity to strengthen my conviction of what is right, what is good. Every confession is a chance for me to acknowledge evil, training my conscience to recognize and reject it in the future. Every occasion of daily prayer, each intentional conversation with a friend striving for virtue, all solid spiritual reading and teaching, help me to hear the voice of God and conform my mind to His truth, thereby strengthening my conscience and making it the reliable guide that was meant to be. Once it is that reliable guide I can, with confidence and peace, “just follow my conscience.”