Free Will & Conscience

The two great misconceptions inhibiting our more effective participation in our democracy are misunderstandings regarding the duties of Catholics in public life (both within the body politic as well as in the public square more generally) and the role of individual “conscience”.

The first is more easily addressed since it comes from our baptism in Christ: we who have been made in the image and likeness of God have been given the task of subduing the earth and exercising dominion over all creatures (cf. Genesis 1:28).  In other words, we are called to exercise “right or wise rule” over all creation.  I could write a whole article just on that!  But I digress.  To put it more directly, we exercise dominion over creation when we seek more and more to order it according to God’s design and will.  Anything that subverts this moral order in creation is a misuse of our free-will and a subversion of God’s intention in creating us – individually and collectively.

The second issue has been quite regular in the news and opinion pages over the last few years – that of conscience.  Many, including many politicians and far too many clergy, seem to understand conscience as 1) whatever I am comfortable with; 2) whatever I “feel”; 3) whatever I have convinced myself is right (free, of course, of objective truth).  These are all, of course, incorrect understandings of conscience according to our Christian Tradition.

Conscience, properly understood, is that voice of God speaking to us, especially in times of stress or moral crisis.  It is formed in us through the cultivation of virtue and a constant deepening of our intimacy with God.  Seems easy enough, but it is a life-long process as well as an intentional process; but it is what we have been called to in baptism and the life of grace.

The tough part, often, is that we have a tendency to see our life in communion with God as merely a portion of our life.  It isn’t.  It’s the whole of our life; meaning every thought, word, and deed is subject to the right use of conscience, and therefore, the “wise rule” (dominion) of created things.