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Chapter 4

Some Means For Purifying Ourselves From False Consciences

436. Our need for purification from inadvertent but willed, erroneous consciences is extreme. It will not seem irrelevant, therefore, to indicate the principal means for obtaining such purification. We must free ourselves from evil consciences which would cause us to lose our souls; at the same time, we have to endeavour to cleanse ourselves day by day from false consciences that defile us lightly. The few means that we suggest here will help both those who love virtue and apply the means on their own account, and confessors and spiritual directors whose duty it is to encourage holiness in those entrusted to them by Providence.

I

437. The first means is a sincere desire for good and truth. We must desire not to deceive ourselves, and go even further by uncovering all our self-deceit. We need to be fully persuaded that love of truth is the first, most universal kind of precept, and the source of all others. The spiritual director is therefore obliged to encourage the love of truth in those whom he directs. Whatever the cost, they must want to acknowledge truth practically, that is, to love and desire moral good.(304)

II

438. The second means is to encourage a reasonable, salutary fear of perhaps not possessing or of losing the treasure that is moral good. This fear is neither salutary nor holy unless preceded by love of moral good. Only when moral good is looked upon as a priceless treasure which we are afraid of losing can our fear be qualified as salutary and holy. For this reason, love of moral good as a condition for just, salutary fear is given priority amongst the means we are outlining.

439. A fear of losing one's own happiness, not moral good, would not be holy but only a disposition for holy fear. Fear of punishment can make us resolve to love virtue; love of virtue is succeeded by a holy fear of either not acquiring or of losing virtue. In this way, love of virtue stands between two fears: on the one hand lies fear which, although not yet holy, is often the first cause of virtue; on the other, holy fear, which is the effect of virtue.

440. In order to stimulate this holy fear in souls that love good as their true and only treasure, we can use the admirable advice of Cardinal Bellarmine, a great theologian of the Society of Jesus. He says: 'It is very easy for an erroneous conscience to be occasioned by the example of others so that, WITHOUT ANY WARNING FROM CONSCIENCE (that is, without advertence), we descend whither the worm does not die and the fire is not exstinguished.'(305) If we know that culpable, false consciences easily lie hidden in us, we will be encouraged to open our eyes and by scrutinising our hearts discover if any unknown enemy has entered.

441. Our salutary fear will be strengthened if we remember that according to uncontroverted theological teaching no one without a special revelation is absolutely certain of being in God's grace. We may also consider that scripture calls God's judgments unsearchable(306) and very different from human judgments.(307) If God's judgments are so different from ours about the morality of actions, it is clear that he will correct our false consciences.

III

442. The third means is careful search for the truth, and self-examination. This is a consequence of holy fear.
St. Augustine reproves three classes of ignorant people: those who 1. believe they know, but do not; 2. know they do not know, but take no effective steps towards dispelling their ignorance; 3. know they do not know, and have no desire to take any steps towards dispelling their ignorance.(308)

443. We need to be convinced of the precept obliging us to seek moral truth, that is, our moral duties, and to seek it in the right way. In the old law, sacrifices for sins of ignorance existed to expiate the fault of those failing to observe this precept.(309) And St. Paul's forceful words apply here: 'If anyone does not recognise this, he is not recognised.'(310) From these words St. Thomas argues that mortal sin can indeed exist under the cloak of ignorance itself. Otherwise St. Paul would not have spoken so strongly.

444. St. John Chrysostom comments at length on the care and vigilance needed in searching for moral truth. 'This life is a stadium, and we need to be able to look in all directions. We must not imagine ourselves excused through ignorance. The time will come when our ignorance will be punished without pardon. The Jews lacked knowledge, but their ignorance did not gain them remission; the Gentiles lacked knowledge, but this was not an excuse.'(311)

445. He goes on to object: 'But how could God reject the sincere, upright Gentile?', and answers: 'First, we cannot know if a person is sincere. Only God who forms each heart individually knows that. And we have to remember that we are often careless and negligent . . . But, you will say, how can that be the case if we are upright? . . . Take a good look at the person you call simple and sincere, and see how he acts in worldly matters. Notice how careful he is about them. Now, if he put the same kind of care into spiritual affairs, there would of course be no trace of neglect. What concerns the truth is brighter than the sun, and wherever we go we can easily take care of our salvation if we want to give it due attention and treat it seriously.'(312) He goes on to show that, however simple and uneducated we may be, we are careful enough in human affairs. This, he says, serves only to condemn us because it throws light on how little we value heavenly things compared with earthly.

IV

446. The fourth means for rendering the soul free and sincere in its search for moral truth is to avoid everything that can cause prejudice in us and as a result lessen our impartiality.

447. Prejudices are often inherent in moral bodies. They consist of judgments or opinions received blindly on the authority of the societies in which we live. Such prejudices often form part of opinions called in scripture 'human teaching and commandments.'

448. The golden rule for avoiding this pitfall on the road to full, unblemished virtue is found in St. Augustine's words, which can never be sufficiently insisted upon: 'Unity in what is necessary, freedom in what is doubtful, charity in all things.'
This rule does not prevent our holding our own views, nor defending them forcefully, nor demonstrating the blameworthy effects of opposite opinions. This can all be done, provided we do it logically, not rashly. In other words, it must not be done from self-love, nor from blind attachment to a group professing such an opinion when equally respectable groups profess the contrary. Holding firm opinions is wholly pertinent to individuals, but never to moral bodies unless they are made up of members who hold those opinions as individuals and not as members of a body.

449. It is clear, therefore, that I cannot be happy with the oaths taken to uphold doctrines not defined by the Church in certain religious bodies, or in centres of study before a doctorate is granted. I consider all these oaths as rash judgments doing violence to the truth. Those who make them either lack sufficient reason for unshakeable belief in the teachings they swear to, or have reasons against these teachings, or finally see reasons showing that these teachings, affirmed on oath, are completely true. In the first case, those taking the oath solemnly affirm that what they are told by fallible, incompetent authority is unshakeably true; in the second case, they swear to uphold as true what they do not recognise as true, that is, they take an oath against their own persuasion. Finally, although the teachings in question are known to be true, those taking the oath cannot be sure that they themselves will always retain their certainty, or whether after further reflection they may not arrive at conclusions opposite to those which now appear true to them.

In all these cases, such oaths are impossible. Swearing to uphold for the whole of one's life opinions not defined by the Church means swearing to something which clearly cannot be maintained with certainty. In other words, those who take the oath either presume too much on their own account or on account of the body to which they belong, as though their own certainty or that of their group-authority were capable of continually providing a firm, immovable foundation for undefined matters. The custom of swearing 'on the word of the teacher' often produces situations in which persons belonging to different moral bodies swear to uphold different teachings and opinions, some of which, because of their mutual opposition, are inevitably false.

We can only conclude that the Church is extremely wise in maintaining and defending freedom of opinion in all Catholic schools, and in disapproving those who want to censure the opinions of others. In acting like this, the Church is assisting both in the progress and conservation of truth.

I know I shall hear it said: 'The custom of affirming certain teachings on oath has held in check dangerous tendencies in clever people, and kept moral bodies within the limits of Catholicism.' But let us look a little farther afield at the Protestant universities, for example, where the use of such oaths has been of considerable help in maintaining error consistently; this is one effect of oaths made on human authority, commandments of men. Again, the very opposite of what is proposed in the objection can often be seen amongst us Catholics. Lively intellects look upon their arbitrary shackles as a genuine injustice, and violently break away from them at the cost of infinite damage and scandal.

Nevertheless, I am prepared to grant that some good comes from these arbitrary restrictions. But even so, as St. Paul says: 'Evil is not to be done so that good may come.'

450. It is therefore extremely important to keep the spirit free from every preconceived notion and unstained by prejudice so that the love of good and truth alone should rule in us. We shall thus be able to consent immediately to every ray of truth that shines before us. All its colours and tints will have an attraction for us; nothing it offers will be repugnant.

V

451. The fifth means is: to protest frequently, and show through our acts, that we want to love and seek truth alone, not the deception of self-love.

452. If we recall our teaching about the various levels of reflection and the kinds of volition corresponding to them, we shall be able to grasp that an inadverted, sinful, erroneous conscience can exist in the depths of the human spirit as a judgment at third-level reflection. In the ordinary course of events, a less than upright conscience presupposes a level of reflection additional to that of upright conscience.(313) If the less than upright conscience is not adverted to, granted the blindness caused by passion, then direct, free action against it is not always possible - precisely because it is not adverted to. Nevertheless acts of will can be made by which we protest in general against all possible false consciences hidden deep in our heart, and against the illusions and deceits we have brought upon ourselves through lower-level, partial reflections. These acts of will, which show the effort we are making to purify our spirit from all interior malice and deception, are volitions belonging to a higher-level reflection than that of false consciences in general, and provide great assistance in rectifying false consciences or at least in rendering them no longer gravely imputable (cf. 329).

453. We should note that even one of these general acts, if done perfectly and with all our available energy, is sufficient to purify us. Carried out in this way, it would be a personal act of such efficacy that inferior acts would no longer be personal; they would of course spring from active, interior principles, but as inferior acts would not result from the supreme, active principle of freedom.(314) The perfect act of supreme reflection (especially if it has become a habit and as such remains constantly present in the human spirit) is enough to save the person, provided it is supernatural. This explains why the perfect love of God cures all mortal infirmity.

VI

454. The sixth means, in keeping with the fifth, consists in taking every care to purify ourselves more and more from adverted sins.

455. Careful attention to purifying ourselves from adverted sins is carried out by the personal principle which, with divine help, succeeds in removing the passions or habits of sin causing our blindness or the withdrawal of divine grace.(315)
Anyone desiring conversion re-acquires grace and with it an ever increasing light and force which grows in proportion to the light and to co-operation with grace. As we cleanse ourselves more thoroughly from adverted sins, therefore, we receive more light to perceive our inadverted sins and so to cleanse ourselves from them. St. Teresa compares the supernatural light entering the soul to a ray of sun showing up the dust drifting about in a room. Before the sun penetrated the room, nothing could be seen, but now the dust is obvious. The same is true of our defects when divine grace has come into our spirit.

VII

456. Finally the seventh and most effective means is unceasing prayer that God, who searches minds and hearts, will purify us in the depths of our soul.

457. This was what holy people asked: prophets' lips were purified by the action of lighted coals, a symbol of divine love. David said to the Lord: 'Lord, judge my judgment,'(316) that is, 'Reform my judgments which can be wrong without my knowing it.' Ecclesiasticus also asked that 'his ignorances might not increase nor his offences be multiplied.'(317) Errors increase through the formation of new erroneous consciences which, precisely because they are errors, weaken the truth within us: 'Truths have vanished from among the sons of men'.

458. Christ's promise is certain: 'Every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.'(318) The means to destroy less than upright consciences will never be lacking to the person who desires it with a pure heart. God offers grace to all. Moreover:

459. What has been said enables us to evaluate correctly the opinion of some moral theologians who teach: 'The highest care is not required in overcoming the error of an erroneous conscience; moderate care is sufficient.'(320) It is clear that such an opinion is an unqualified pronouncement offered without the necessary distinctions.

460. There cannot be a simple, universal answer to: 'What care is necessary in reforming a vincibly erroneous conscience?' It is absolutely necessary to make some distinctions because every absolute answer is true only in certain cases, and false in others.
We have already distinguished between upright, and less than upright erroneous consciences. In the class of less than upright consciences we have also distinguished those in which the sin consists of ignorance (although culpable), but not in any formal error (which is committed in the judgment of conscience despite the just dictate found in the depth of the heart). It is certain that only moderate care is required in avoiding erroneous but upright consciences, and equally certain that there is no precept entailing the highest care, which would humanly speaking be impossible.

461. In dealing with non-upright, erroneous consciences, on the other hand, which have their initial origin in simple carelessness and haste or in some habitual disordered affection, as much care must be used in avoiding them as in avoiding sin. In other words, because sin has to be avoided absolutely, the care we need must be increased to the point where simple rashness in judging or disordered affections are removed and sin is avoided. If such an aim can be achieved only through maximum care, maximum care must certainly be employed.

462. The penalty of not using the required care in avoiding non-upright, erroneous consciences lies in incurring whatever degree of sin is present in the malice leading to rashness in judging(321) or in the disordered affection. While, therefore, we must not judge too soon nor too easily that any fault is a mortal sin, we must also be careful not to deny the presence of all fault if we have not employed all the care required to avoid willed, distorted consciences. We may add, however, that when the protests of our personal principle against the distortion produced by lower-level reflection are sincere and valid, they suffice to remove the gravity of such sins (cf. 452).

Schema of Moral Conscience

Notes

(304) St. Augustine offers a wonderful witness to teachers of Christian doctrine when he urges them to form right intention in their disciples by directing their aim towards charity in general, which is indeed moral good: 'In everything we have to keep in mind not only the end of the precept, that is, charity issuing from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith, to which we refer all that we say, but also the end of the person whom we instruct. What we say should move and direct him to the end' (De catechiz. rudibus, c. 3, 6).

(305) Ep. ad nepotem suum Episc. Them.

(306) Rom 11: [33].

(307) St. Gregory the Great takes as an example of the difference between our judgment and that of God the sentence God passes on Job and his friends - a sentence which could appear unjust: 'Lord, your decision shows how much our blindness is at odds with the light of your uprightness' (Moral. bk. 35, c. 7).

(308) Liber de util. cred, 11.

(309) Lev 5: 17, 18. 'If anyone sins though he does not know it . . . he shall bring a ram without blemish'; and 4: 27, 28, 'If any one of the common people sins unwittingly . . . he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish'; and Num 15: 27, 28, 'If one person sins unwittingly, he shall offer a female goat for a sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him.'

(310) An ancient writer comments on the precept of knowledge: 'Although doing the will of God is greater than knowing it, knowing it comes before doing it. This is clearly the order of precedence. As the prophet says: "And you, Israel, be not ignorant," and St. Paul: "If anyone does not recognise this, he is not recognised." And again elsewhere: "Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is"' (Ep. ad Demetriad.).

(311) Hom. 26, in Ep. ad Rom., n. 3.

(312) Hom. 26, in Ep. ad Rom., n. 3.

(313) For example, a person who judges that stealing is permissible for the sake of giving alms makes a judgment belonging to at least third-level reflection:

(314) cf. AMS, 851 ss.

(315) 'Blindness and obduracy imply two things. First, the movement of the human spirit as it adheres to evil and turns away from the divine light; in this sense God is not the cause of the blindness . . . Second, the removal of grace which leaves the mind without the divine light that enables it to see rightly, and leaves the heart without the ability to live rightly; in this sense, God is the cause of our blindess and obduracy' (S.T., I-II, q. 79, c. 3).

(316) Ps 118: 154 [Douai].

(317) Sir 23: 3.

(318) Lk 11: [10].

(319) Wis 6: 13-16.

(320) 'The Salmaticensians (Tract. 20, c. 14, n. 9), Castro Palao (Tract. 2, De Pecc., d. 1, p. 15, n. 6), Azorio, Suarez, Vasquez, Bonacina, etc., and Wignandt (De Consc., ex. 1, q. 3, n. 7) note that the care required for removing error need not be the greatest; normal, ordinary care is sufficient' (Liguori, Theol. Mor., De Consc. c. 1, 3).

(321) Rash judgment is present whenever we pronounce absolutely on the harmony or disharmony of the terms in our judgments before it truly forms part of our mental vision.