Me Looking at Me

200 words: Are We Wrong?

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John the Baptist was expecting a Messiah of judgement, not exactly a crash and burn approach, but:

Someone who would cut down the rotten tree and burn the useless chaff (Henry Wansborough, OSB, Universalis).

He got it wrong. So might we.

We may sincerely think or believe something to be the case, but in fact it is not so.

Conscience is ‘me looking at me.’ A gift of God:

For we have in our hearts a law inscribed by God…. Our conscience is our most secret core and our sanctuary. There we are alone with God whose voice echoes in our depths (CCC 1776).

But of course, our conscience can be erroneous for a variety of reasons:

It can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed (CCC 1790).

How does my conscience get waylaid?

Indolence might be one reason. For instance:

When a man takes little trouble to find out what is true and good.

It might be the cumulative effect of sin:

When conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin (CCC 1791).

We might well be wrong.

AMEN.