A dedicated reader of this blog hassled me because he has been living his life on the edge of the abyss of ethical chaos. It’s been weeks and all I’ve left him with is: Your conscience can be wrong. Moral statements that help form your conscience can be wrong. Good luck!
While I won’t pretend to resolve this problem here, lets at
least dig a little into the problem, and see if there aren’t any good ways to
form your conscience.
Experience is a great place to start in forming your
conscience. Remember I mentioned the
teenager who smacked the icecream cone out of the little boy’s hand. I learned a lot from watching that take
place. I would have learned even more
had I been the one being a jerk. Often
it’s our own personal reflection on our experience that helps make sense of our
future moral life.
Moral statements are another great place to look, even if
they are wrong, or can be misused! “Do
not murder” is almost always a good former of conscience. I would suggest being a little discerning
about the statements you allow to form you.
Miley Cyrus may not be a moral sage by saying (without words) “Enacting
violent sexual acts in front of millions of viewers is a good way to sell
albums.” Whereas Gandhi’s (alleged) “Be
the change you want to see in the world,” will almost always help you out. I of
course encourage you to look toward Scripture.
Please oh please, don’t try to form your own ethical framework from the
bible, and call it “Biblical Ethics.” By
“Biblical Ethics” do you mean having multiple wives, or sacrificing your son,
or calling a death sentence down upon someone for not tithing properly? What I’m trying to say tongue-in-cheek, is
that you absolutely need a community to help you form a moral system, even if
that system is based on the bible. No
moral system is simply based on a book, nor on ideas about how to act. All
moral systems are created and sustained by human society and culture. CS Lewis is quick to point out that human
moral systems tend to have a lot in common.
There is something universal within a person that generally points an
individual and society to lots of goods.
In most cultures one lacks honor by forcing oneself on another. But societal ethics also have a lot uncommon. They vary in the treatment of woman, care for
the poor, relationship to the earth, the fetus, etc. Here’s what I’m getting at. Whether you know it or not, you are being
formed by a group of people. So be
intentional about what group you are being formed by.
In the Catholic Church, we interpret scripture a certain way
and as a community of interpreters, we have a group of people who speak to
represent what we believe and how we act.
We call that the Magisterium. Sometimes
people get all down on us Catholics about the Magisterium for two reasons. 1.
Talking about a group of people representing or teaching on behalf of
the rest of us, sounds like a top heavy view of the Church. A bunch of old guys in cassocks telling us
how to live our lives. No thanks. 2. We
have this inconvenient infallibility thing. While individual bishops cannot claim
infallibility in any sense, the entire college of bishops are preserved from
error when, “in their authoritative teaching concerning matters of faith and
morals, they are in agreement that a particular teaching is to be held
definitively and absolutely.”[1] So to set the record straight, when Pope
Francis proclaims, “Cap’n Crunch is the best cereal in the world!” We are not bound to only eat Cap’n Crunch.
As for number one, keep the image of the old men in
cassocks. What can you do, they love
them cassocks. Ditch the idea that the
Magisterium acts above the Church proclaiming moral guidelines for us to simply
open our mouths to digest like Cap’n Crunch.
The ideal way of viewing the church is that the Magisterium acts
organically within the Church. I am the
Church, the Magisterium is the Church, we are all the Church. Some would say that more important than
teaching, the Magisterium must first listen to the faithful and the
theologians. Hopefully the teaching
office of the Church accurately reflects what the Church believes.
As for number two a lot could be said, but I’ll keep this
brief (yeah right). The entire college
of Bishops can theoretically speak infallibly about matters of Faith and
Morals. This has been done concerning
faith many times. Take the defining of Jesus
as fully God and fully human at the first Nicene Council as an example. When it comes to morals, some would say that
the Magisterium has never spoken infallibly about moral guidelines. Yes of course much has been written about the
dignity of the human person, and workers right, and just immigration
reform. All of these moral guidelines
have been helpful, but they have also been very localized. Do not be dismayed by the lack of universal
moral guidelines. Here’s why.
We’ve already determined that moral statements are
limited. A moral statement can rarely be
universalized, meaning: Human situation through history is so varied, so fluid,
and so specific, that one moral statement about contraception, for example,
could never capture the wide variety of situations. What the Magisterium is capable of doing is
twofold. 1. Understand and Teach Gospel VALUES. The underlying value of all of the writing
about contraception is basically this: husbands and wives love each other
completely the way Jesus loves the Church.
It’s a beautiful value that the Magisterium is very capable of
articulating again and again throughout history. 2.
Apply Gospel Values to specific situations. The Magisterium as a global, multi-cultural organization
is capable of applying gospel values not universally, but specifically to
different situations.[2] I believe we will never have a universal,
objective moral guideline that fits every situation, but the Magisterium (a
listening Magisterium, mind you) has the moral wisdom accrued from a couple
thousand years of contemplation on the human situation. Lastly, and most importantly, the Magisterium
as an important part of the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit in its teaching
office. Guidance by the Holy Spirit may
not always result in infallible teaching.
Still, the Holy Spirit living and active in the life of the Church is
able, more than simple human reflection, to apply Gospel values to specific
human situations in a way that is life bringing.
There you have it.
Form your conscience by careful reflection on your own experience, moral
statements, and sacred texts. All of
this reflection must never be done in isolation. Instead you need a community of people that
are hopefully inspired by good values (dare I say, virtues?) to help apply
those values to specific situations. I
suggest turning to the Magisterium for living and contextualized moral
guidance.
[1] Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church. “Lumen Gentium.” Vatican II, November, 21, 1964. 25.
[2] The
Church is only capable of a global perspective in so far as the Magisterium
listens to the faithful and theologians, AND listens to global
perspectives. There is a tendency to
think of the Magisterium as Euorpean/American.
For a long time Euro/American perspectives have dominated. To be truly Catholic, the Church needs to lose
its hold on Western thought and experience.
