A serious responsibility:
Before God, conscience, history

		Notes from the  Vicar General  Msgr. Paul J. Swain

As President Bush was deciding whether to order the war in Iraq, the Vatican issued a terse statement that caught my attention.

Whoever decides that all peaceful means that international law has put at our disposition have been exhausted assume a serious responsibility before God, his conscience and history. Those words apply not only to the momentous decision a president must make about war and peace. They apply to all significant decisions any of us make about the struggle for our souls.

Lent is a time for us reflect on how seriously we take our responsibility to make appropriate choices. Ultimately we are accountable to God for them. We are privileged to be able to evaluate our options in the context of a properly formed conscience.

We should not simply respond to what is the easiest or most popular in this age. The practical result of our decisions is the history we create, the ways in which we touch the lives of others.

In response to God's love for us we want to live good and moral lives. The challenge is that life is full of ambiguities and uncertainties. Influences for good and ill can confuse us or lead us astray. Temptations can skewer our vision.

Lent reminds us that we must admit that we are sinners, that we accept the need for repentance, and that this conversion will be a lifelong task.

In response to God's love

How then with our human frailty can we determine what is the right, the moral choice to make?

Let your conscience be your guide is a common response. Too often conscience is seen as distinct from, or an escape from, moral norms or what the Church teaches. Let your conscience be your guide is entirely consistent with Catholic teaching, as long as our conscience is properly formed. It is not simply a matter of coming to a convenient conclusion that conforms to our preferences.

Conscience as the Catechism notes, "is man's most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths." To reach that sanctuary where we can hear the voice of God, we need the quiet of personal prayer.

Let informed conscience be our guide

To assist us, there is what one writer calls the four "pillars of fire" that can guide our moral decision-making:

There is that moral sense of right and wrong within us, called the natural law. There are the divinely revealed commandments from the Old Testament that caution us as a way to protect us from ourselves: thou shall not. There are the example and preaching of Christ that teach us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and actively reflect that love by treating one another as we would like to be treated. And there is the Church, inspired by the Holy Spirit, which reads the signs of the times and offers perspective amidst the ambiguities and influences of the day.

The decision of any president to send men and women to war is not made easily or cavalierly. We pray for our leaders and the heavy burden of their offices. We pray also for a quick resolution of the violence, for the safety of those serving and those innocents caught in the middle, and that the result of their effort will be progress toward lasting peace and greater understanding among all peoples.

Our personal moral choices ought not to be made cavalierly either. May we accept the serious responsibility before conscience and history, taking the time to pray and find that sanctuary where the voice of God echoes in our depths and shapes our choices.