Guilty conscience? It keeps you on the right track

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sept. 24, 2011
Fr. Joseph Eddy, O. de M.
Gospel: Matt. 21:28-32 Parable of the two sons

Full homily text: It seems that the Lord presents to us some of the best lessons in our day-to-day experiences.  Those who are prayerful and attentive can experience God’s wisdom all around them at every moment. Take for example a parent. In the growth of a baby to a child, we can learn much about our human nature. We all listen for a child’s first words. Will they say mommy or daddy? Oftentimes it is one of these two words which express their affection with for their parents. But, other times it is an expression of the child’s free will and personality coming out.

Fr. Joseph Eddy is the vocation director of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, founded to redeem Christians whose faith is in danger. The Order’s student house in the U.S. is in Philadelphia.

Is God calling you to become a Mercedarian friar? Visit Fr. Joseph’s Facebook page, or the website of the .

“No” and “Yes” are usually two of the more popular words for a child just learning how to speak. In this rather humorous truth about children, we can see how God has placed within each of us “free will.” Free will is our ability as a person to act or not act without force from within or without. The child isn’t conditioned by instincts or training, like a dog, to say “yes” or “no.” Free will means we act based on what our intellect tells us is good. We from our childhood have the capacity to make a free choice. This is a gift that separates us from the animals and all other created things. We are created in God’s image with an Intellect and Will. What a gift to be able to make our own choices! And we are given this gift from the first moments of our life!!

Parable of two sons

The Gospel today reveals our human nature quite well too! Jesus tells the parable about two men who are told by their father to go and work in the family vineyard. Kind of like a father telling his two sons to rake the leaves. One says “forget it dad!” but later feels bad about disrespecting his father and does the work. The other says ok, but never does any work for his father. The chief priests are asked, “Which of the two did his father’s will?” Of course, the answer is that the first son actually did the work even though his initial free choice was to not do it. This first son probably had what we would call a “guilty conscience.” Maybe it was “Irish Guilt” or better yet “Catholic Guilt”!!

Yes, we joke about our parent’s using guilt on us, but in reality our society could use a little more guilt. Good parents help their children to form a proper conscience. The conscience is the intellect deciding, from general principles of our faith, the goodness or badness of a way of acting. We may say that a person does not “have a conscience,” but what we really mean is that the person has not developed a proper conscience. Children are going to develop their conscience based on the values that they experience as good. If like the second son in the parable, they see the best thing to do is what is most comfortable for them. The good is always what is best for me and I will make my choices based on only what I perceive as good for me.  Children can, often do, develop a very selfish view of their world. The good is always what is best for me and I will make my choices based on only what I perceive as good for me.

Gift of freedom

Our Creator has made us in his Image with an Intellect and Will. We have the ability to choose things and make up our own mind. We can watch a child and marvel at this capacity, but also recognize that they must be formed to choose wisely and carefully from all the good things that they are offered. Pope Benedict has often spoken about the gift of freedom. With freedom comes responsibility to form our consciences in such a way that we choose what is good for us and the whole world. The Pope said during his visit to America that “… freedom is a delicate value. It can be misunderstood or misused so as to lead not to the happiness which we all expect it to yield, but to a dark arena of manipulation in which our understanding of self and the world becomes confused, or even distorted….”

Freedom that disregards the truth

The Pope questions “…what purpose has a “freedom” which, in disregarding truth, pursues what is false or wrong?” If we don’t develop a well-formed conscience, we will use our freedom to pursue things that are of lesser value or even that which is “false or wrong.”  Truth is not subjective or dependent upon our feelings. Instead, Jesus came to reveal the Truth to us. This truth helps us to live in a way that respects the dignity of ourselves and each individual person.

Parents instinctively desire what is best for their child. They begin to form their child to use their freedom to avoid what is harmful, such as a hot stove or busy street. In the same way, we must form ourselves and others in a proper conscience to learn to use our freedom with responsibility. The teachings of the Ten Commandments and the precepts of the Church are the ways in which our Father in heaven tells us how to use our freedom in a way that respects the dignity of each person.

A guilty conscience helps

Those who are perceptive can see in our modern culture the effects of abandoning Christian virtues. We could use a little “guilty conscience” today in order to safeguard the rights and dignity of each person. For when one person uses their freedom wrongly we all feel the effects. As Catholics, we must make it our responsibility to form in our young people a conscience which enables them to use the gift of freedom properly.

Like the two sons in the Gospel, we have choices in our life. One son had developed a good conscience and felt guilty about not doing his father’s will. The other had not developed a conscience and chose to do his own will. Let us build up society by seeking to promote authentic morality which respects the others and God. Then, we experience the fullness of the gift of freedom. We will unite our wills with God here on earth and one day experience the fulfillment of this union in heaven.