To participate or not in this Season of Creation is an important ethical issue. I define ethics as a disciplined systematic process of reflection that integrates one’s “being” and “doing”.
Ethics basically asks two questions, each with two parts:
- “Who am I?” and What should I do (moral decision-making) in light of who I am?; and
- “Who are we?” and “What should we do in light of who we are?”
In the past, ethics was often focused on a personal act-centered or individualized morality. Like ethics, conscience was defined in terms of an individual or personal conscience.
Conscience is the final practical judgment determining which actions are morally right or wrong; that is, which actions will fulfill a person and meet human needs in a balanced manner. Our American Bishops would add “Conscience helps us hear the voice of God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 1776).
Forming a Conscience for Faithful Action
No matter where we are on our journey with Christ, it is important for us to have a moral consciousness and an ongoing process of conscience formation.
As Saint John Paul II noted, in his call for global ecological conversion in Centesimus Annus, little effort had been made to “safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic human ecology.” In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis reminds us that “authentic human development has a moral character.”
The importance of a process which will assist us in making the correct moral decision and aid us in determining the right thing to do for the right reason is clear.
I would suggest that there are six important sources for formation of conscience that help us answer who we are as we strive to discern the truth.
Sacred Scripture: Genesis 1:27
“So God created humankind in the divine image, in the image of God they were created; male and female they were created.” We are created unique and precious.
I like what GK Chesterton wrote in his 1908 philosophical autobiography, Orthodoxy (in the chapter “The Ethics of Elfland”): “Men spoke much in my boyhood about restricted or ruined men of genius: and it was common to say that many a man was a Great Might-Have-Been. To me it’s a more solid and startling fact that any man in the street is a Great Might-Not-Have-Been”.
In this season of creation how might I celebrate who I am? The beginning point for forming conscience is this preciousness of each of us, our belovedness in the eyes of God.
Church Tradition and Teachings
We may need to consult Church teaching on the issue before us. For example, in my own work as Vice President for Theology and Ethics for a large health care system, I encountered many people faced with making end-of-life decisions in a way that honored their Catholic faith.
If you are near the end of life and must decide when it is morally appropriate to forgo artificially administered nutrition and hydration, you should consult the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, 6th edition, from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, or speak with someone knowledgeable about them.
Science
Science serves as a placeholder for issues that require additional research. Using the same end-of-life example, a patient would need to consult with primary providers and specialists—such as neurologists, cardiologists, and pulmonologists—to understand the diagnosis and prognosis for future care. In other words, we may need to do our homework.
Relationship with God and Prayer
Christians have long brought major decisions to God in prayer. The Passionist Way encourages members of the Passionist Family to spend 20 minutes each day in prayer and solitude. We are living out our charism when we pray for and serve the crucified of today.
“Praying and caring, contemplating and healing, writing and welcoming: everything was an expression of the same love for Christ” (Dilexi Te, Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Leo XIV, Paragraph 54).
Sincerity
Sincerity is not being able to sing, “I did it my way.”
Sincerity is the quality of being honest, genuine, and free from deceit or hypocrisy. It means that our words and actions reflect our true inner feelings and thoughts, without hidden or false motives (Webster’s Dictionary).
Community and the Common Good
Community includes all of our relationships within society—and I would add within all of Creation.
Saint Pope John Paul II described the common good as “the sum total of social conditions which allow people to reach their fulfillment.” [Source]
In practical terms, this means people need access to food, clothing, shelter, education, work, and health care.
These six sources help us answer the question: “Am I doing what is right?”
Too often, we rely on one source as the sole standard for morality while excluding the others.
For example, we may say, “Prove it to me from the Bible,” or “What does the Pope say?” In the search for truth and moral decisions, we need all six sources to discern the morally right thing to do.
What forms your conscience during this Season of Creation?
Read more from Carl’s series Forming Conscience in Extraordinary Times.
