Truth and Love: The Real Christian Conscience

For a long time, I admit, my ideas of conscience had something to do with a “little voice” in my head, or that nagging gut feeling of guilt. While I didn’t necessarily resent the nudges of my “little voice,” what I realize now is that I generally associated it with negative things; that is, I saw my conscience more as something that told me what to do or not to do in order to keep from doing wrong. Halfway through high school, though, things began to change.

During my blur of a junior year, I had the grace to realize that the main reason I was feeling so overwhelmed by everything was because I was leaving God on the side of my “big picture.” Nothing ever seemed to fit or make sense or work out, and the reality is, it never would until I made the conscious decision to see and make God as the center and the ends of every aspect of my life. This revelation did not come easily, nor is it easy to act upon, but it was a hugely important process in my faith journey as I prepared to make the transition into college and adulthood.

God is love! God is the definition of happiness! All the yearning and restlessness of our hearts can only ever truly be satisfied in him, and through union with him, we can begin to understand that conscience is so much more than just “knowing right from wrong.” If we make God, who is love, the center of our lives, doesn’t it makes sense that everything we do in turn will be centered in love? True love is free, total, fruitful, and faithful – a decision of self-giving, in other words, with its ultimate purpose being the greater good of the other. By making all of our decisions through love, and seeing God’s love for us in this way, conscience says not so much, “Is this something wrong that will lead another or me to sin?” (although this is an important question, too), but rather, “Is this something loving that will lead another or me closer to God?”

Especially during college, chances are that many people don’t see the Christian conscience for what it really is. Our mission as student ministers, and disciples of Christ, is to be the agents of change on campus, afire with the Spirit as we help others understand the true meaning of God’s love for them. Depending on the general campus attitude toward morality and moral issues, this can seem like a daunting task, because a person’s decision to listen to and accept God’s message of love cannot be forced, and must come from within.

For our part, though, we must cast aside our fears of being rejected or dismissed and help guide people along the way to this decision by meeting them where they are. By remembering and respecting students’ inherent dignity as we minister to them, no matter what their circumstances, we can show them the face of Jesus, who came not to boast or to make people feel bad or ashamed about themselves, but to show them the Father’s boundless love for them, so that they might go out and do likewise for others. Only then can we help shape the collective Christian conscientia, the “shared knowledge”, the consciousness of God’s love that will ultimately unite us as brothers and sisters through, with, and in Christ.

Valeria Garza, CMLI 2015 Student Leader, St. Mary's University