10.3a.

1
ALONE WITH GOD

This chapter presents the following key learning points:

• Conscience is at the core or heart of every person
• People experience the call to goodness in a number of ways
• Human heart questions begin in the conscience.

Conscience is at the core or heart of every person

The call to goodness is part of human nature.
People cannot repress it. It is expressed even in
small ways. The source of all human goodness
is human nature as created by God. God, who is
love and goodness, created people in the image
and likeness of their Creator. All people express
at least some degree of love and goodness
in their lives because no one can completely
repress their likeness to God. There have been
famous people throughout history who have
been responsible for great evils, yet they also
performed acts of kindness in their lives.

People are moved from within to love and to

do good. Human conscience is the gift that
recognises this stirring. Conscience is a person’s
most ‘secret core and sanctuary’ (Gaudium et
Spes 16). It is within conscience that a person can
recognise echoes of the voice of God, the voice of
the One who created them and in whose image
and likeness they were made. It calls constantly
to be respected. This is why conscience is
described as the sanctuary or ‘holy place’ within
a person. People who listen to their consciences
‘can hear God speaking’.

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 In Class Work
The Dignity of the Moral Conscience
In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which … holds him in obedience.
Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil … For man has in his heart a
law written by God. To obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be
judged.

Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man, There he is alone with
God, whose voice echoes in his depths. In a wonderful manner conscience reveals
that law which is fulfilled by the love of God and neighbour …

Taken from the Vatican II document on the Church in the Modern World –
Gaudium et Spes (The Joys and the Hopes) para. 16

Rewrite the Vatican II statement on the dignity of the moral conscience using first
person pronouns, e.g. ‘In the depths of my conscience, I detect a law which … holds
me in obedience.’

Journal Activity
How is the Vatican II statement on the dignity of the moral conscience relevant to your
life? Express your reactions to this question in your journal.

Goodness is a common human characteristic. People can forget this because the news
media and other influences tend to focus more upon negative aspects of human behaviour.
Frequently television and print media are more inclined to report bad, rather than good news.

For example, while the majority of marriages are successful, the media tends to focus more on
the divorce rate. While most parents love and provide for their children there are parents who
neglect and mistreat them. And most young people live good and law-abiding lives but there
are examples of violence and law breaking among youth.

2 YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME

 In Class Work
Do a media search of events occurring over the last week which focus on the
goodness of young people.

How difficult was it to find examples of the media reporting good news stories?

Why do you think the media are more likely to report bad rather than good news?

How does God speak?

God does not speak with a human voice. Rather,
God does not speak with
God stirs inner thoughts and feelings such as love, a human voice. Rather,
joy, peace, patience and kindness (Galatians 5:22). God stirs inner thoughts and
feelings such as love,
For those who listen, these thoughts and joy, peace, patience and
feelings gradually come together, like pieces of a kindness.
jigsaw puzzle. The picture of what God is saying (Galatians 5:22)
becomes clear.

People recognise these thoughts and feelings

as they ‘listen’ for God’s guidance. They become
sensitive to the voice of conscience by praying
daily, and by worshipping God, especially through
the Eucharist. The thoughts and feelings may not
arise during prayer and worship, but rather at the
moment they are needed – such as when making
decisions. Without daily prayer and worship,
the thoughts and feelings are less likely to be
recognised.

While some experiences of conscience are strong,

others are more gentle. For this reason, people
need to be in touch with their inner selves. Most
of all, they need to pray daily.

Journal Activity
Reflect on recent times when you have been moved to love, to rejoice, to be peaceful,
to be patient or to be kind.

Write about what happened to stir you to think and feel in these ways?

Spend some time in prayer asking God for the guidance needed to think, speak
and act in ways that reflect God.

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People experience the call to goodness in a number of ways
God calls people to become ‘holy’ by inspiring them through thoughts, words and actions that
are good. The call to goodness is really a call to reflect the goodness of God.

God revealed that each person needs to:

‘Be holy, for I, Yahweh your God, am holy’ (Leviticus 19:2).

People experience this call to goodness in a number of ways. Examples are the personal
experiences of:
• ideals
• being inspired by others
• feelings of guilt
• the desire for truth
• the call to love.

Ideals
An ideal is a standard or moral principle to which people aspire. Loyalty to friends, being
honest, and being courageous are three examples. These ideals reflect the faithfulness, justice
and spiritual power of God.

Personal ideals begin to develop during adolescence. They are part of the process of maturing
towards adulthood. Ideals are one of the ways people experience echoes of God’s voice.

YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME

Being inspired by others
Inspiration is the feeling that arises when a person’s conscience resonates to the love,
goodness, courage or admirable qualities seen in others.

The desire to behave like someone else because of the qualities that are highly regarded in
others is another experience of the call of conscience. People can become inspired by the
qualities of others in a range of situations.

They may have shown heroic behaviour in times of adversity or in situations of great challenge
or they may show consistent goodness in their lives.

Feelings of guilt
If a person does wrong, instead of behaving as God wants them to behave, they can be left
feeling guilty. They may ‘feel bad’ or afraid that someone else might discover what they have
done.

Usually guilt is the result of saying or doing something that represses a person’s deep human
need to reflect the love and goodness of God. For example, people can feel guilty if they:
• neglect someone in need instead of showing love
• steal the property of another instead of being honest
• turn their back on a friend because of fear of ridicule instead of showing loyalty
• lie instead of being truthful
• kill or harm someone instead of showing respect for human life
• behave in sexually immoral ways instead of being chaste.

People who feel guilty can discover their likeness to God by asking themselves: ‘Why did I say
or do that?’

In most people, these feelings are examples of the voice of God calling a person to behave as
God created them to behave. For some people, however, guilty feelings can have psychological
causes and not be stirred by conscience.

Fear of inner conflict

Sometimes people are
tempted to do wrong. This
means behaving in a way
that goes against human
nature as created by God.

Conscience can suddenly

arouse fear, to warn the
person that they have
fallen short of their best
self if they give in to the
temptation. This can If a person does wrong,
surface suddenly and
strongly and cause the
instead of behaving as
person to stop in their God wants them to behave,
tracks.
they can be left feeling guilty.

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Human heart questions begin in the conscience
As they mature towards adulthood, young people ask many important questions. Some are
easily answered, but others are not. Some are of passing interest; others will keep coming back
at different stages in their lives.

Questions that keep coming back are sometimes referred to as ‘questions of the human heart’.
Common examples are:
• ‘What is the purpose of my life?’
• ‘Who am I?’
• ‘Why do people suffer?’
• ‘What happens after people die?’
• ‘How do we really know right and wrong?’

Human heart questions begin in the conscience. God is calling everyone to seek the truth. People
can never fully answer a genuine human heart question. People may find an answer that
temporarily satisfies them, but then find that this answer is inadequate when the situation
next arises.

For your information...

‘Conscience’ comes from the Latin conscientia, literally meaning, ‘with knowledge’.

A teenager’s answer to the first question about the purpose of life, for example, is unlikely
to satisfy an older person who may face this question again at later crucial times in life. True
answers to questions of the human heart will satisfy people in all stages and life situations.
These unfold gradually for those who seek God.

Questions of the human heart, therefore, can only be answered completely by the Creator
of the human heart. God created the human conscience to stir these questions so as to lead
people to God.

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The call to search for God
Many religious questions can arise in people’s minds during the teenage years:
• ‘Why do people believe this?’
• ‘How can there be evil in a world created by a loving and good God?’
• ‘Why should I go to church?’
• ‘Why did my best friend die?’
• ‘Why should I worry about God’s commandments?’
• ‘What is the relevance of religion today?’

These questions are stirred by someone’s conscience when that person genuinely wants to
find answers. They are calls by God through conscience to search for answers that will lead
the searcher to God.

The call to join other searchers

Questions of the human heart are common to all people. As their conscience stirs these
questions in teenagers, they are beginning to experience their humanity in deeper ways
than when they were younger.

They are being called to join with others who are searching for God. This is one way that
conscience calls those who are open to the call to become part of a formal religious
community. In such communities those who choose to be guided by correct conscience
can support each other in the search for answers to human heart questions.

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The call to love
Other common adolescent questions of conscience relate to social development, that is, the
development of the potential to relate with others in increasingly more loving ways. With the
growing awareness of relationships and relationship responsibilities, questions arise such as:
• ‘How do I recognise a true friend?’
• ‘Why do I find it hard to relate?’
• ‘Why do I tend to fight with my parents?’
• ‘Why should I put myself out for others?’
• ‘Why shouldn’t I do whatever I feel like?’

It is within conscience that people recognise the echoes of God’s voice, calling them to love.
Through conscience God stirs in young people the desire for genuine friendship which can
grow into the desire for deeper relationships such as marriage.

It is important to remember that the complete answers to questions about relating personally
with others are ultimately known by the Creator of the human heart.

The most basic human yearning

As people recognise that their conscience is the source of their human heart questions, they
want to grow more in touch with it. For people of good will, this desire becomes particularly
important as they realise that answers to genuine conscience questions lead them to God.
They are led to question: ‘How do I recognise God’s call through my conscience?’

Journal Activity
Write a list of the questions that arise for you about, God, religion and the need for
deeper human relationships.

Remind yourself that all people have questions like these that can draw them closer
to God.

Decide how you are going to take time to reflect on your questions of the human heart.

In Class Work
Use the information from Chapter 1 to answer these three questions:
1. Conscience is at the core or heart of every person. ’What does this mean?
2. Cartoonists often represent conscience as an angel on one shoulder and a devil
on the other. Why is this representation inaccurate?
3. What are human heart questions?

8 YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME