Conscience

1. Conscience pp. 41- 59

2. A. The Importance of Others “Am, I my brother’s keeper?” – Genesis 4:9 Cain (to God) • Are you responsible for other people? • Why should you care about the other?

3. According to Levinas, the human person is relational. • It is important to consider “with whom” or “against whom” an action is undertaken. • Our actions are motivated by others, involve others and are done with (or against) others. • The “other” is central to your search for good.

4. In Western culture, we often see others as an obstacle to personal freedom, plans and initiatives. • Western culture focuses on the human person as an individual (emphasis on autonomy, independence and freedom) • We sometimes think we can be a full human being and free without other people.

5. The “other” makes it possible for us to become our true selves – individuals in freedom. • Recall: Allannah and Liam from the text. • Why was she still able to celebrate her brother’s success? What is life-giving about sacrifice for the good of others?

6. The Danger of Narcissism • Recall the Greek myth of Narcissus. • A healthy, mature personality must find a balance between self-love and a love for others by working on relationships with others. • A narcissus refuses to look beyond the self to achieve this balance. They are self absorbed to the point of excluding others.

7. B. The Importance of Having Direction in Life • Knowing who you are, means knowing where you stand on the great issues of life, and for whom you stand. • As humans, we have a moral orientation in our lives that forms part of our identity. • Our identity is defined by the values that give us our fundamental direction in life. It is complex and multi-tiered.

8. Our name or statement of social role usually tells us where we stand and defines our identity. • Recall the ideas of Charles Taylor. In his book Sources of the Self, he recognizes the need for a new spirituality. He says the current purely humanistic and secular understanding of self is not able to sustain important values, like carrying for others.

9. C. The Importance of Communication and Language • We are initiated into personhood by being initiated into language. • We first learn our languages of moral and spiritual discernment by those who brought us up. Later, we develop our own way of understanding which might sometimes be contrary to that of our family. • Language contains and shares common experiences and commitments with others.

10. Knowing the dictionary meaning of terms is not the same as understanding a term’s meaning within the Catholic tradition. • There are 2 distinct meanings of the word “person”. They both grew out of the Christian notion of Trinity – the God is a union of 3 distinct persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They live in love and are the perfect example of community.

11. The Trinity

12. 2 Meanings of Personhood • A person is an individual who bears rights and responsibilities. A person is one of a kind, autonomous, distinct and conscious of his or her actions. • A person is also an outpouring of love toward the other, just as the Trinity is bound together by love. We are made from love and to love (we are made in God’s image)

13. D. The importance of Character and One’s Body • Formation of character is part of the moral human self. Our actions are embodied in us and shape our character. • Character, refers to the way our actions tend to become fixed in our bodies over time. • This why we need to practice and develop character traits and virtues in ourselves.

14. The choices you make day after day are often a product of what you believe and value, as well as the habits you have formed over the years. • It is important that we pay attention to the formation of our own moral character as it determines how we interpret what we see and how we respond to what we see.

15. E. The Importance of Conscience • Conscience is where we hold our selves in our hands. It is an inner voice that calls us to love what is good and to avoid evil. • Conscience is also a law inscribed in human hearts by God. • Conscience is different than Freud’s superego because it is our action in loving response to the call to uphold the values of God.

16. 3 Senses of Conscience (see chart on pg. 55) 1) Capacity to recognize right and wrong. Conscience as a capacity defines the essential identity of the human. 2) Conscience as a process of moral reasoning. We must seek out what is right and wrong in each situation. It is a life-long process of learning. 3) Conscience as judgment. Our conscience also calls us to act after making a decision or judgment.

17. F. Development of One’s Conscience • Conscience develops as we mature. It becomes refined with time and develops when we follow the norms, values, virtues and commandments of our Church’s tradition. • It develops through participation in Eucharistic life, sacramental life and prayer. It helps us to grow in the virtue of humility and helps us to deal with sin and moral failures.

18. Conscience can also be malformed by immoral actions, faulty reasoning, faulty value structures and misinformation received from others in society. • We have a responsibility to properly inform our conscience. • See pg. 57 for Symptom of a Misinformed Conscience.

19. Please view these clips and sites: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYvbgOTGm7g Fr. Barron’s commentary on conscience and morality • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNuccWV8HtA Fr. Barron’s commentary, “What is conscience?” • http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a6.htm Catechism’s teaching on the conscience