Thoughts on conscience, i

I lost sleep over this last night, after having a near argument on the topic with someone I respect deeply. For me, this discussion reflects both our culture's attitude (toward so many things, really) and my experiences of growing up Catholic immediately post-Vatican II.

I have reflected often with many Catholic and Christian friends about our society's attitudes toward our intelligence. In short, I believe we have made it one of our chief false gods. Rationalism and experientialism have become our chief heresies, and they are strong partners. We (each of us) insist that things must be as I (or as we collectively, mainly including people smarter than me) are able to understand and grasp them and have experienced them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that we should check our brain at the door, or that we embrace superstition. But the the Gospel is rooted in humility, which our society disdains. We know what is best, damn it, and nobody is going to tell us any different. Further, because of the technological wonders of our age, we've come to think of ourselves as more intelligent than our forebears of previous centuries (let alone millenia). Now, it is true that we've come to know many things that they didn't, but it is important to understand that this is not because we are fundamentally smarter than they were. Rather, we have been raised under the influence of accumulated knowledge which wasn't available to them. This affects us both for good and for ill.

Having been born and baptized Catholic in 1960, I was raised in a Church struggling to cast off the shackles of blind obedience which had marked it for previous millenia. This characteristic both caused the Protestant Reformation and was hardened by the Church's response to it. When Pope John XXIII threw open the doors and proclaimed that we needed a new Pentecost, that it was important to allow the wind of the Holy Spirit to renew the Church, he recognized that we had become stifled, and were stifling the Spirit. This prayerful man recognized that we needed to allow God to move in us in new ways, and that powerful growth would result if we did. For one thing, the Church came to remember that when the Spirit spoke at Pentecost, it was in the language of the people.

I don't believe, though, that it was ever his intention to cast off the accumulated wisdom which the Spirit has taught the Church throughout salvation history. Still, many people threw out the baby with the bath water. Rejecting what they perceived as the superstition of their parents' generation, and with an attitude that it was "about damn time" the Church came into the 20th century, they embraced much of the prevailing cultural perspective, especially under the influence of the twins of rationalism and experientialism. We began to put the accumulated knowledge on par with spiritual truth, often even embracing that which was merely theoretical or suggested as if it were fact.

As a result, when I was a child, even within the Church I was taught cultural attitudes concerning a lot of things, and the fundamental one underlying all the others was with regard to my conscience. It was up to me to decide what was okay, and I had a responsibility not to let anyone tell me otherwise.

This represents a subtle but vast distortion of a mature Catholic Christian's understanding of conscience's formation and role. Because of it, I see and hear many Catholics of my generation, including too many priests, giving (to each other and other Catholics) and heeding poorly-rooted (secular!) guidance and advice in the guise of spiritual wisdom.

more to come . . .