By Bob Sullivan
I’m going to get a little philosophical here, but be patient, because it sets up the answers to some puzzling questions.
Our grandparents’ culture was pro-life and pro-family. While today’s culture still is pro-life and pro-family, it is only by a slim margin. A reason for this rests right between your ears, or as St. Thomas Aquinas would say it, the reason rests in our soul, as in the “powers of our soul.”
The “powers of the soul,” will, intellect, and passions, make up the principle sources of all our human actions:
> Intellect – the faculty which enables us to know and possess truth.
> Will – the faculty by which we freely choose what is good in accord with the truth of the intellect.
> Passions – the faculty by which we pursue particular goods and avoid particular evils (passions include our emotions).
These three powers of our soul enable us to live and act in a fully human way. They are not, however, simply three equal powers with equal stakes in our actions. Our intellect is meant to inform our will. These are the leading actors. Our passions are meant to play a supporting role, prompting, reinforcing, and enriching the work of the intellect and will.
In order to keep these powers in proper proportion (again, they are not supposed to be equal) it is important to accept God’s supernatural grace through the Sacraments and prayer. God’s grace enhances and perfects our human nature. God also wants us to use the gifts He has given to us in our humanity: our intellect, our will, and our passions. Our natural powers, enhanced by grace, enable us to act in a way that is fully human and truly pleasing to God.
In the course of discussing the choices we make, we sometimes reference our conscience. We even point to our conscience as the authority by which we do things which are neither truly human nor pleasing to God. By this, it is evident that many people don’t have a true understanding of the role of conscience.
So what is the conscience? The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us: Conscience is man’s most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths (CCC, 1795). Further, Conscience is a judgment of reason by which the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act (CCC, 1796). Therefore, by this judgment of reason, one is to live in such a way as to pursue that which is authentically good according to the will of God. That sounds a lot like faith and reason, doesn’t it?
In light of this proper understanding of conscience, it is clear that not all consciences are equal. A well-formed conscience is formed in truth, supercharged with grace, and sustained by virtue. A poorly-formed conscience is lacking in some amount of truth, grace, and/or virtue.
If someone does not understand the proper role of the judgment of conscience, or if he or she does not listen to his or her conscience, and most especially, if one’s conscience is not well-formed, he or she will likely judge in favor of pursuing apparent goods instead of authentic goods. What is the most common influence for those who lack a well-formed conscience? The passions.
Drawing upon the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Church teaches us that our passions are meant to be subject to our will and our intellect. This does not mean that we must suppress our passions. Rather, our will and intellect, as our more noble powers of the soul, are meant to take the lead in our choices and actions.
When our will is informed by our intellect, supported by our passions, enlightened by our faith, and consistent with reality so as to make a well-formed judgment of conscience, we are going to act in our own best interest and the best interest of others. Our actions will lead to the development of virtue, especially the virtue of charity by which we love God and love our neighbor out of the love of God.
We should take note of the proper role of our passions (emotions) in all of this. Our passions cannot be allowed to take control over the other powers of our soul. Because of the effects of original sin which remain in us even after Baptism, the passions are capable of becoming the principle by which we determine what is good for us and how we are to act, and they will certainly do so if given full reign. If we let our passions take over, they will confuse our intellect, distort our will, and weaken our ability to make a proper judgment of conscience (Ephesians 4:17-19). Eventually, even a well-formed conscience can become deformed if the passions are given free reign.
If we are driven by our passions, our intellect and will are weakened and less capable of assisting us in making choices and acting so as to obtain what is authentically good for us, including eternal salvation. Thus weakened, our intellect and will then only serve to further promote the disordered desires of our passions. In such a case, we may often aggressively pursue goals which are not good – even obviously sinful – even though our faith and reasonable judgment both indicate that it is not a good idea. In such a case, we would pursue what is truly bad for us.
Over the next several columns, I will look at several issues in our culture today, and show how the imbalance of these powers of our soul is causing intelligent people to be committed to thinking things, promoting things, and engaging in things which are not good for them or others.
