Conscience
The General Message of the Lecture
This lecture revolves around the concept of the conscience and whether it leads a person’s life or is led by personal desires and interests. His Holiness Pope Shenouda III explains that the conscience is not infallible; it can deviate, weaken, or be numbed, and it always needs correction through divine truth and enlightenment by the Holy Spirit.
First: The Difference of Conscience
The conscience differs from one person to another, and it may even differ within the same person according to interest or situation. Often, a person judges others by one standard and judges himself by another, justifying his own mistakes while condemning others.
Second: The Conscience’s Ability to Deviate
There are broad consciences that justify sins, dead or numbed consciences that feel no guilt, and scrupulous consciences that exaggerate blame. A person can silence his conscience or manipulate it through justifications or by interpreting commandments according to his own desires.
Third: The Danger of Justifying Error
Justifying error—whether in the name of compassion, benefit, good intention, or circumstances—leads to encouraging evil and turning wrongdoing into a principle. A corrupted conscience may justify killing, injustice, corruption, and even grave moral sins.
Fourth: The Need to Correct the Conscience
Because the conscience can err, God gave the divine commandments and holy revelation to correct and guide it. One must not take a single verse and ignore the rest of Scripture, but rather understand divine truth in its fullness.
Fifth: The Good Conscience
The good conscience is the one enlightened by the Holy Spirit, becoming transparent and refusing error no matter how small it may seem. This conscience leads a person to repentance, awakens him from negligence, and transforms his entire life.
Sixth: Influences on the Conscience
The conscience is influenced by the mind, emotions, and culture, but it is weakened by fanaticism, pride, self-glory, and personal interests. When the conscience changes, the will and behavior change accordingly.
Conclusion
We need to ask God to grant us a good conscience enlightened by the Holy Spirit, one that leads us to the truth, so that we do not subject the conscience to our desires, but rather subject our entire life to the will of God.
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