On August 31, 2005, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin ordered the evacuation of the entire city, telling people it would be months before they would be able to return. Hurricane Katrina had struck. It was the deadliest Atlantic tropical cyclone ever, claiming over 1,800 lives and causing property damage estimated at €60 billion.

Thanks to Divine Mercy, we are spared such fierce forces of Mother Nature. But all over Europe, signs of a ‘spiritual’ hurricane and subtle attack on the intrinsic and undisputed value of one’s conscience are evident and are relentlessly spilling onto the shores of our beautiful island in the sun.

Is anger, fear or prejudice clouding our sound judgment, or are we simply ‘going with the flow’?

If conscience is lost, there is nothing left worth keeping. For each one of us is born with and endowed with a singular conscience which we are obliged to form, cultivate and follow in order to live an enriching and meaningful life.

Theologians describe conscience as ‘an experience of mind and heart, the innate thrust of our human nature to love the good and avoid evil, and the inner sense of what is right or wrong in the person’s intentions and activities’. In the words of George Washington: “Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience”.

But conscience is obscured by hovering clouds of unsubstantiated and illusive philosophies under the pretence of liberal thought. It is manipulated by influential leaders and others in position of authority by providing unwarranted justifications for non-virtuous and selfish acts.

Conscience is impaired by some media sources who seek to support the latest trends of a post-modern era under the banner of a naïve sense of freedom. It is deformed by those who seek to obtain control and popularity by using their powers arbitrarily without weighing the serious consequences of their actions.

Take the Spanish scenario. A law was passed in 2010 allowing any woman to have an abortion within the first 14 weeks of her pregnancy. Now, thousands of demonstrators are marching on the Spanish Parliament in protest at a draft law that would ban abortion except in cases of rape or when the mother’s health is at serious risk. The Parliament’s effort to curb the rampant trend of abortions may be too late in the day.

In the words of Prof. Ines Alberdi, a sociologist at Madrid University: “Little by little, people have come to accept social change in areas like gay marriage and a woman’s right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.” She adds: “Spain is, culturally speaking, ‘Catholic’, but people like the rituals and tradition, but at the same time they don’t bother to follow the doctrine.”

Are we Maltese, or at least those who are pronounced Catholics, following the same trait? Abortion is not on the political agenda of both major parties, but other sensitive issues that could easily lead to dysfunctional families and disoriented children are.

Shall we fail to nurture our conscience with the profound teachings of the Gospel and cowardly succumb to the high winds of unbridled change? As Mahatma Gandhi put it: “There is a higher court than the court of justice, and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.”

Conscience is that faculty in us which attaches itself to the highest that we know, and tells us what the highest we know demands that we do. It is the eye of the soul, which looks out either towards God or towards what it regards as the highest.

If we are in the habit of steadily facing God, our conscience will always introduce God’s perfect law and indicate what we should do. The point is, will we obey?

The voice of conscience is so gentle that it is easy to ignore it. Is our conscience elastic, suppressed, deformed or doubtful, or even worse, on the verge on death?

Is anger, fear or prejudice clouding our sound judgment, or are we simply ‘going with the flow’ and doing what the crowd is doing, for the sake of peace, or to avoid the crowd turning on us?

One thing is for sure. A diluted conscience no longer responds to the truth.

gordon@atomserve.net

Gordon Vassallo is an accredited spiritual guide at the Centre of Ignatian Spirituality.

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