The Voice within You
Reflection by Fred Schaeffer, OFS

Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, and Lent will be soon over. Some people cannot be happy because their problem is on the inside. What have we learned about our inner health during Lent? The problem they have is not physical, but rather it is mental. More precisely it is a  problem with inner discipline. They cannot listen to that inner voice because their thoughts are all over the place and they just can't seem to listen. Their thinking goes from one subject to the next, rapidly, without coming to rest somewhere. What I want to get across is that you should cultivate inner calmness so that you can hear God's voice within you. But if your conscience functions poorly, you will have no time to listen for His voice.

Conscience is an action of reasoning. It is a judgment or discernment, at that moment, what we should do, accept or reject a line of thought that we are experiencing. If our conscience discerns an act of goodness or love and we act against our conscience we're basically telling God that he's wrong ... and you and I know that God can never be wrong because He is perfection itself. Our conscience is not a complicated thing, it is direct and explicit. It tells us the action we're planning is either good for us or bad for us, provided we have a healthy conscience with the adequate knowledge of right and wrong.

Many people make conscience decisions on the basis of feelings. If it feels good then do it ... that, my sisters and brothers is the road to perdition. In most places if people did what felt good to them they'd land in jail. Also, the action of conscience should never be based on fear. If you cannot feel at peace with yourself with an action, then do not use that action but solve your problem another way.

So we have knowledge in reaching a conscience decision and we need to maintain a personal code or commitment, but we also need the ability to think straight and the ability to reason with a normal degree of charity. We have to be able to take a moral principle and to apply it to a particular situation. For that we listen to that peaceful inner voice, we pray, meditate and most of all we listen to His advice.

There are people whose consciences are so laid back, that they cannot ever come to a decision. At the opposite pole are those who obey so rigidly and scrupulously that they experience great fear in making any decision. Hopefully, most of us are in the middle between the two poles!

If your conscience is laid back or lax, one could seek the help of a priest or other spiritual adviser, but those who have scruples - that's a more difficult problem. Scruples could be the result of ignorance or a deeper psychological or emotional problem that could be addressed by a qualified physician. Let me give you an example of someone dealing with scrupulosity. Catholics must keep a one hour fast prior to receiving the Holy Eucharist. While brushing your teeth, you ingest a small amount of toothpaste. None of us would think anything of that ... a scrupulous person, however, might regard that as breaking the fast.

Sin is an act committed deliberately. We do not sin unless, recognizing the sinfulness of a thought or proposed action we are willing to accept them into our mind and give consent to them. Basically, at that point, if I were to sin, I would have to consider the thought - "I know this is wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway."

If the person honestly does not know if an action is sinful or not, then we are not committing a sin. It's simply a question of motive. So always listen to the voice within ... and pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

F. Schaeffer, OFS

March 23, 2021

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