Sober
for Christ
S piritually O bedient B eatitude E ucharist R econciliation
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, (A Faithful Servant of Our
Blessed Lord), said in one of his sermons “An addict is someone who is
suffering from a moral heart attack”
Father Wade Menezes, a Father of Mercy Priest, said in
one of his sermons that our acts become either Good / Virtuous or Bad / Evil,
moreover that Saints become Saints by their HEROIC VIRTUE. We are all being
called to live like a Saint.
The definition of ADDICTION is:
The state of being physically dependent on something,
generally alcohol or drugs, but it can be any material object or experience.
Addiction means increased tolerance, but also greater difficulty in withdrawal.
In fact, the fear of withdrawal symptoms is the main obstacle even in persons
who are convinced on moral grounds that they should overcome an addiction. The study of addiction has
contributed to a major development in Catholic moral theology, through a better
understanding of subjective guilt and a more effective pastoral care of persons
with bad moral habits. (Etym. Latin addicere, to give one's consent to a
thing.) Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic
Dictionary
Let us now define HABIT:
A quality that is difficult to change and that disposes a
person either well or badly, either in oneself or in relations with others.
Natural habits are a partial realization of our potencies. They add to nature
by giving it ease of performance, where the ease intensify a habit and the
habit facilitates the acts. Habits of acting are acquired by constant
repetition, and lost by disuse or contrary acts. Good moral habits are virtues; evil ones are vices.
(Etym. Latin habitus, having, possession; condition, character, from habere, to
have.) Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic
Dictionary
SOBRIETY is a VIRTUE:
The virtue that regulates a person's desire for and use
of intoxicating drink. It is the virtue of temperance exercised in the practice
of moderation in the use of alchoholic beverages. (Etym. Latin sobrietas,
temperance in drinking, moderation.) Fr. John Hardon's Modern
Catholic Dictionary
In my continued studies of our Catholic Faith; one of the
greatest minds and Doctors of our Church, Saint Thomas Aquinas, has illustrated
in his philosophical writings the Summa Theologica why we wrestle with human
reason, will, acts, passions, and habits. It is so clear to me now why it took
a Therapist from Saint Thomas Aquinas College to assist me in tapping into
childhood suffering that was manifesting itself into the desire to use drugs and alcohol due to my inability to battle this
concupiscence which ultimately led me to sinning by way of actually using drugs to
escape my pain and anxieties of life. This is why Archbishop Sheen has had such
an impact in my life because he was a Thomist; moreover, Archbishop Sheen understood
his philosophy. My mentor, good friend , and brother in Christ told me once that "Good Philosophy breeds Good Theology."
In my quest for Gospel truth relating to this subjective
guilt that leads to depression anxiety in life, and addiction; my question was
answered by a very Holy woman who studied under Father Fessio (founder of
Ignatius Press.) There is the one who betrayed Jesus, the disciple Judas (also
called Iscariot). Judas betrayed Jesus by turning Him over to the chief priests
and elders for 30 pieces of silver, moreover Judas was a thief. In Mathew
27:3-5 Judas realizes his act of greed, tempted by the devil (Luke 22:3),
caused him to feel deep regret; realizing he had sinned in betraying innocent
blood. Then after flinging the money into the temple, Judas committed another
sin by hanging himself.
Can you even imagine what Judas must have felt after
betraying the Son of God, our Blessed Lord? This guilt, shame, sorrow and deep
regret led to his suicide. I look back on my suicide attempts after sinning
against GOD by using drugs and abandoning my family. The remorse, shame and
guilt I felt led me to great depression that led my human reason to despair and
a want to die for the pain I had caused my family. Thanks be to God, our
Blessed Mother Mary and all the Angels and Saints, Satan did not prevail.
Satan is at work and is doing everything in his evil
power to cause us to despair. The devil uses drugs, sex, alcohol, pornography
and wealth; moreover lack thereof to lead us into mortal sin that will lead us
to suicide, including our own concupiscence against us. All we have to do today
is read the daily paper or watch the news. People around our country our
killing their families, themselves, or others.
So what is the difference between me and Judas in
betraying Jesus by sinning?
The Sacrament of Penance.
Who is the first authority of the Church and perfect
example of this repentance?
Saint Peter
In Luke, Chapter 5 Jesus instructs Simon Peter “Put out
into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” After catching a great number
of fish; Simon Peter fell to the knees of Jesus and said “Depart from me Lord, I
am a sinful man.” Jesus then said “Do not be
afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” Jesus meant that he would become a
fisher of men.
Saint Peter, the first Vicar of Christ and our first
Pope, knew he was the Messiah. He confessed he was a sinner thus setting the
example of freedom from sin. In Mathew 16:18-28 Jesus founded the Catholic
Church upon the Apostle Peter and warns us not to think as humans do, but most
importantly to deny ourselves and follow Him:
“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail
against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall
be loosed in heaven." Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no
one that he was the Messiah. From that time on, Jesus began to show his
disciples that he must go to
Jesus warns us not to think as humans do. We were given
by our Creator, GOD, free will.
Saint Thomas Aquinas writes in Sum. Theo. q.9, a. 2 obj.
3 - It is written (James
This takes us once more as to why we are called to the
spiritual battle. It is the inclination to sin that tradition calls
concupiscence; “fomes peccati”. It entails three components; pleasure of the
senses, covetousness for earthly goods, and self assertion contrary to the
dictates of reason.
CONCUPISCENCE
Insubordination of man's desires to the dictates of
reason, and the propensity of human nature to sin as a result of original sin.
More commonly, it refers to the spontaneous movement of the sensitive appetites
toward whatever the imagination portrays as pleasant and away from whatever it
portrays as painful. However, concupiscence also includes the unruly desires of
the will, such as pride, ambition, and envy. (Etym. Latin con-, thoroughly +
cupere, to desire: concupiscentia, desire, greed, cupidity.) Fr.
John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary
CONCUPISCENCE OF THE EYES
Unwholesome curiosity and an inordinate love of this
world's goods. The first consists in an unreasonable desire to see, hear, and
know what is harmful to one's virtue, inconsistent with one's state of life, or
detrimental to higher duties. As an inordinate love of money, it is the desire
to acquire material possessions irrespective of the means employed, or merely
to satisfy one's ambitions, or to nurture one's pride. Fr.
John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary
CONCUPISCENCE OF THE FLESH
The inordinate love of sensual pleasure, to which fallen
man is naturally prone. It is inordinate when pleasure is sought as an end in
itself and apart from its divinely intended purpose: to facilitate the practice
of virtue and satisfy one's legitimate desires. Fr. John Hardon's Modern
Catholic Dictionary
Saint Peter allowed his own assertion regarding Jesus’
prediction of His Death and Resurrection to cloud his reason in the way he
responded. Jesus is warning us not to think as human do but to die to
ourselves, moreover die to the concupiscence within us. How do we do this?
First, let us look at Man’s Freedom, Human Acts, Sin, and
Moral Conscience in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
MAN'S FREEDOM
1730 God created man a rational being, conferring on him
the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. "God
willed that man should be 'left in the hand of his own counsel,' so that he
might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed
perfection by cleaving to him."26
Man is rational and therefore like God; he is created
with free will and is master over his acts.27
26
GS 17; ?
I. Freedom and Responsibility
1731 Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to
act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on
one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom
is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its
perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.
1732 As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively
to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between
good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning.
This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or
blame, merit or reproach.
1733 The more one does what is good, the freer one
becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and
just. the choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to
"the slavery of sin."28
1734 Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the
extent that they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and
ascesis enhance the mastery of the will over its acts.
1735 Imputability and responsibility for an action can be
diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit,
inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors.
1736 Every act directly willed is imputable to its
author:
Thus the Lord asked Eve after the sin in the garden:
"What is this that you have done?"29 He
asked Cain the same question.30
The prophet Nathan questioned David in the same way after he committed adultery
with the wife of Uriah and had him murdered.31
An action can be indirectly voluntary when it results from negligence regarding
something one should have known or done: for example, an accident arising from
ignorance of traffic laws.
1737 An effect can be tolerated without being willed by
its agent; for instance, a mother's exhaustion from tending her sick child. A
bad effect is not imputable if it was not willed either as an end or as a means
of an action, e.g., a death a person incurs in aiding someone in danger. For a
bad effect to be imputable it must be foreseeable and the agent must have the
possibility of avoiding it, as in the case of manslaughter caused by a drunken
driver.
1738 Freedom is exercised in relationships between human
beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right
to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this
duty of respect. the right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious
matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This
right must be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of
the common good and public order.32
28
Cf. ?
Rom 6:17.29 ?
Gen 3:13.30
Cf. ?
Gen 4:10.31
Cf. ?
2 Sam 12:7-15.
32
Cf. DH 2 # 7.
II. Human Freedom in the Economy of Salvation
1739 Freedom and sin. Man's freedom is limited and
fallible. In fact, man failed. He freely sinned. By refusing God's plan of
love, he deceived himself and became a slave to sin. This first alienation
engendered a multitude of others. From its outset, human history attests the
wretchedness and oppression born of the human heart in consequence of the abuse
of freedom.
1740 Threats to freedom. the exercise of freedom does not
imply a right to say or do everything. It is false to maintain that man,
"the subject of this freedom," is "an individual who is fully
self-sufficient and whose finality is the satisfaction of his own interests in
the enjoyment of earthly goods."33
Moreover, the economic, social, political, and cultural conditions that are
needed for a just exercise of freedom are too often disregarded or violated.
Such situations of blindness and injustice injure the moral life and involve
the strong as well as the weak in the temptation to sin against charity. By
deviating from the moral law man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned
within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine
truth.
1741 Liberation and salvation. By his glorious Cross
Christ has won salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held
them in bondage. "For freedom Christ has set us free."34 In
him we have communion with the "truth that makes us free."35
The Holy Spirit has been given to us and, as the Apostle teaches, "Where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."36
Already we glory in the "liberty of the children of God."37
1742 Freedom and grace. the grace of Christ is not in the
slightest way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense
of the true and the good that God has put in the human heart. On the contrary,
as Christian experience attests especially in prayer, the more docile we are to
the promptings of grace, the more we grow in inner freedom and confidence
during trials, such as those we face in the pressures and constraints of the
outer world. By the working of grace the Holy Spirit educates us in spiritual
freedom in order to make us free collaborators in his work in the Church and in
the world:
Almighty and merciful God,
in your goodness take away from us all that is harmful,
so that, made ready both in mind and body,
we may freely accomplish your will.38
33
CDF, instruction, Libertatis conscientia 13.34 ?
Gal 5: 1.35
Cf. In
37 ?
Rom 8:21.38
Roman Missal, 32nd Sunday, Opening Prayer: Omnipotens et misericors Deus,
universa nobis adversantia propitiatus exclude, ut, mente et corpore
pariter expediti, quae tua sunt liberis mentibus exsequamur.
THE MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS
1749 Freedom makes man a moral subject. When he acts
deliberately, man is, so to speak, the father of his acts. Human acts, that is,
acts that are freely chosen in consequence of a judgment of conscience, can be
morally evaluated. They are either good or evil.
I. The Sources of Morality
1750 The morality of human acts depends on:
- the object chosen;
- the end in view or the intention;
- the circumstances of the action.
The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the
"sources," or constitutive elements, of the morality of human acts.
1751 The object chosen is a good toward which the will
deliberately directs itself. It is the matter of a human act. the object chosen
morally specifies the act of the will, insofar as reason recognizes and judges
it to be or not to be in conformity with the true good. Objective norms of
morality express the rational order of good and evil, attested to by
conscience.
II. Good Acts and Evil Acts
1755 A morally good act requires the goodness of the
object, of the end, and of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the
action, even if the object is good in itself (such as praying and fasting
"in order to be seen by men").The object of the choice can by itself
vitiate an act in its entirety. There are some concrete acts - such as
fornication - that it is always wrong to choose, because choosing them entails
a disorder of the will, that is, a moral evil.
1756 It is therefore an error to judge the morality of
human acts by considering only the intention that inspires them or the
circumstances (environment, social pressure, duress or emergency, etc.) which
supply their context. There are acts which, in and of themselves, independently
of circumstances and intentions, are always gravely illicit by reason of their
object; such as blasphemy and perjury, murder and adultery. One may not do evil
so that good may result from it.
II. The Definition of Sin
1849 Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right
conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a
perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures
human solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a
desire contrary to the eternal law."121
1850 Sin is an offense against God: "Against you,
you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight."122
Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it.
Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will
to become "like gods,"123
knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love of oneself even
to contempt of God."124 In
this proud self-exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of
Jesus, which achieves our salvation.125
1851 It is precisely in the Passion, when the mercy of
Christ is about to vanquish it, that sin most clearly manifests its violence
and its many forms: unbelief, murderous hatred, shunning and mockery by the
leaders and the people, Pilate's cowardice and the cruelty of the soldiers,
Judas' betrayal - so bitter to Jesus, Peter's denial and the disciples' flight.
However, at the very hour of darkness, the hour of the prince of this world,126
The sacrifice of Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness
of our sins will pour forth inexhaustibly.
121
I-II, 71, 6.122 ?
Ps 51:4.123 ?
Gen 3:5.124
MORAL CONSCIENCE
1776 "Deep within his conscience man discovers a law
which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever
calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart
at the right moment.... For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God.... His
conscience is man's most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with
God whose voice echoes in his depths."47
47
GS 16.
I. The Judgment of Conscience
1777 Moral conscience,48
present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do
good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that
are good and denouncing those that are evil.49 It
bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to
which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he
listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.
1778 Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human
person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to
perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he
says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and
right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and
recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law: Conscience is a law of the
mind; yet [Christians] would not grant that it is nothing more; I mean that it
was not a dictate, nor conveyed the notion of responsibility, of duty, of a
threat and a promise.... [Conscience] is a messenger of him, who, both in
nature and in grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by
his representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.50
1779 It is important for every person to be sufficiently
present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience.
This requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as life often
distracts us from any reflection, self-examination or introspection:
Return to your conscience, question it.... Turn inward,
brethren, and in everything you do, see God as your witness.51
1780 The dignity of the human person implies and requires
uprightness of moral conscience. Conscience includes the perception of the
principles of morality (synderesis); their application in the given circumstances
by practical discernment of reasons and goods; and finally judgment about
concrete acts yet to be performed or already performed. the truth about the
moral good, stated in the law of reason, is recognized practically and
concretely by the prudent judgment of conscience. We call that man prudent who
chooses in conformity with this judgment.
1781 Conscience enables one to assume responsibility for
the acts performed. If man commits evil, the just judgment of conscience can
remain within him as the witness to the universal truth of the good, at the
same time as the evil of his particular choice. the verdict of the judgment of
conscience remains a pledge of hope and mercy. In attesting to the fault
committed, it calls to mind the forgiveness that must be asked, the good that
must still be practiced, and the virtue that must be constantly cultivated with
the grace of God:
We shall . . . reassure our hearts before him whenever
our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows
everything.52
1782 Man has the right to act in conscience and in
freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. "He must not be forced
to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting
according to his conscience, especially in religious matters."53
48
Cf. ?
Rom 2:14-16.49
Cf. ?
Rom 1:32.50
John Henry Cardinal Newman, "Letter to the Duke of
52 1 ?
Jn
II. The Formation of Conscience
1783 Conscience must be informed and moral judgment
enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates
its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by
the wisdom of the Creator. the education of conscience is indispensable for
human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to
prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.
1784 The education of the conscience is a lifelong task.
From the earliest years, it awakens the child to the knowledge and practice of
the interior law recognized by conscience. Prudent education teaches virtue; it
prevents or cures fear, selfishness and pride, resentment arising from guilt,
and feelings of complacency, born of human weakness and faults. the education
of the conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of heart.
1785 In the formation of conscience the Word of God is
the light for our path,54 we
must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also
examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of
the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the
authoritative teaching of the Church.55
54
Cf. ?
Ps 119:105.55
Cf. DH 14.
III. To Choose in Accord With Conscience
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.
1788 To this purpose, man strives to interpret the data
of experience and the signs of the times assisted by the virtue of prudence, by
the advice of competent people, and by the help of the Holy Spirit and his gifts.
1789 Some rules apply in every case:
- One may never do evil so that good may result from it;
- the Golden Rule: "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to
them."56
- charity always proceeds by way of respect for one's neighbor and his
conscience: "Thus sinning against your brethren and wounding their
conscience . . . you sin against Christ."57
Therefore "it is right not to . . . do anything that makes your brother
stumble."58
56
?
Mt 7:12; cf. ?
Lk 6:31; ?
Tob 4:15.57 ?
1 Cor
IV. Erroneous Judgment
1790 A human being must always obey the certain judgment
of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn
himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes
erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.
1791 This ignorance can often be imputed to personal
responsibility. This is the case when a man "takes little trouble to find
out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded
through the habit of committing sin."59 In
such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.
1792 Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example
given by others, enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion
of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church's authority and her
teaching, lack of conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of
errors of judgment in moral conduct.
1793 If - on the contrary - the ignorance is invincible,
or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil
committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a
privation, a disorder. One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral
conscience.
1794 A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true
faith, for charity proceeds at the same time "from a pure heart and a good
conscience and sincere faith."60
The more a correct conscience prevails, the more do
persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by
objective standards of moral conduct.61
59
GS 16.60 ?
1 Tim 5; cf. 8:9; ?
2 Tim 3; ?
1 Pet 3:21; ?
Acts 24:16.61 GS
16.
We find in the Catechism that a well
formed conscience is key in living a life in Christ.
Jesus was the Chief Cornerstone that was
rejected, but HE is the “I AM” and Chief Cornerstone of our conscience.
God loves us so much HE gave us free will. Loving God and
neighbor is our freedom from self and the Way of the Cross. Archbishop Sheen
gives two solutions to the Anxieties of Life:
1. Go out and help your neighbor _ those who suffer from
an anxiety of life do so because they live only for themselves. The easy way
out of this is to love people whom we see. If we cannot love those whom we see;
how can we love God whom we do not see? Visit the sick, be kind to the poor,
help the healing of leapers, and find your neighbor who is in need, ONCE YOU DO
THIS YOU BEGIN TO BREAK OUT OF THE SHELL.
2. Leave yourself open to experiences and encounters with
the divine which come to you from without. Your eyes do not have any light,
your ear has no sound or harmony, the food in your stomach comes from without,
your mind has been taught, & your radio pulls in unseen waves from the
outside. Allow the hole in your head and heart to receive certain impulses that
come from without that will perfect you.
Do not reason yourself into the meaning and purpose of
life. Act your self into the meaning and purpose of life, by breaking the shell
of egotism and selfishness, by cleaning the windows of the moral life and
allowing the sunshine to come in. You would not be seeking god if you had not
already found Him. You are a king in exile and you have a kingdom.
In the second lesson of Archbishop Fulton J Sheen’s “Life
is Worth Living Series”; he teaches the following:
Life is Worth Living by Archbishop Fulton
J. Sheen
Lesson 2: The Unbearable Repartee
Repartee by definition is a quick, witty
reply.
It is of a conscience we would speak; for conscience carries
on with us a kind of unbearable repartee.
We feel a tension between what we are and what we ought
to be; between the ideal and the fact. We are somewhat like a mountain climber,
we see the peak way up at the top to which we are climbing in which we hope to
obtain and down below we see the abyss at which anytime we might fall.
Why is it that conscience does trouble us this particular
way?
Why is it we try to escape it?
Think of how many ways there are of avoiding it? Sleeping
tablets, alcoholism…What others can you think of?
One can be pessimistic believing everything will be a
catastrophe. Why? Because in their own heart and soul they know very well that
the way they are living and violating their conscience deserves some kind of
unfavorable judgment and so they bring back that judgment upon themselves and
are always awaiting the electric chair.
Another psychological manifestation of avoidance of
conscience is hyper criticism.
Examples are:
The trouble with my husband is this....
I cannot stand m y wife because....
My son is stubborn....
The poor neighbor can do anything good.
Why this hypercritical attitude? Abraham Lincoln gave the
right answer to it; “Young man what is troubling you on the inside”
And so with hypercriticism; we are so conscious of a real
sense of justice that if we don’t right ourselves, we have to be righting
everybody else.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth described the perfect case of
psychosis and the perfect case of neurosis. It was Macbeth who had the
psychosis and Lady Macbeth who had the neurosis.
Conscious bothers Macbeth so much that he developed a
psychosis and began to see the dagger that killed the king. This was the
projection of his inner guilt.
Whenever there is a revolution against conscience there
will very often come skepticism, doubt, and atheism or a complete negation of
the philosophy of life.
Skepticism, Agnosticism, and Atheism have not rational
foundations. Their foundations are in the moral order. First there was a revolt
against conscience.
Lady Macbeth - her guilt manifested itself in a neurosis.
The maid said she washed her hands every ¼ of an hour. There was a sense of
guilt that she completed negated. Instead of washing her soul, she projected it
to her hands. Her hands were smeared with blood it seemed.
Let’s look at the woman who had the abortion. Confession
– I do not want to hear anything on the Catholic Church! The bad conscience
came out - an attack upon confession. Very often we will find that an attack on
religion satisfies for the moment, this is an uneasy conscience.
What does this conscience mean?
It is something like the
We have all three inside of us:
We have a congress – There is a law inside saying Thou
Shalt / Thou Shalt not
What is a well formed conscience?
A Conscience is that which makes you feel good after
Wrong is that which makes you feel bad after
Where does this law come from? From myself? Does it come
from Society?
The Executive side witnesses and judges whether or not
you obeyed that law. It knows the motives that inspired the act.
Finally it Judges us.
Behind conscience is some person, the Divine Thou. It is
the standard of our life. Most of the mental problems from which people suffer
today is due to a mental revolt against this law which is written in their own
hearts.
How often just as soon as people return again to
conscience, peace comes back and happiness. Life is very, very different. That
is what we are after; peace of soul.
Therefore this unbearable repartee is only one side of
conscience. It is the conscience that tells us when we do wrong so that we feel
on the inside as if we have broken a bone. The bone pains because the bone is
not where it ought to be. Our conscience troubles us because the conscience is
not where it ought to be.
Self reflection; we can see ourselves in particularly at
night. As the poet put it - every atheist is afraid in the dark.
God respects our freedom He gave us. There is a painting
by William Holman Hunt of our Blessed Lord standing at an ivy covered door.
Jesus is at a door holding a lantern knocking. There is no latch on the outside
of the door. It was conscience; the door is opened from the inside.
If we look at the Gospel Parables of the Lost Sheep, The
Sower, and the Prodigal Son; we find a God who will search for His lost sheep,
make His soil fertile, and welcome home His lost children – the repentant sinners.
Addictions are nothing more than bad moral habits and in
no way are diseases. Please visit the following link for
further information: Alcoholism is NOT a Disease
