Voice Of God

I’ve always wondered about the word “conscience.”    What is its derivation?    At first, I thought it meant “con-science” or “with science.”  Perhaps it does, and if so, then what is the link to science?  

Being a scientist, I find it curious that science would be linked to that which is so important to our Catholic faith and behavior – conscience.   According to Darlene Weaver in her C21 Resources article (Understanding Conscience): “Thus on the one hand, conscience refers to a moral law outside of us that we must obey, and on the other hand, it refers to the voice of God echoing in the deepest part of ourselves.”  Is the voice of God “science?”

This is an intriguing question.  Anyone familiar with science – physical, biological, and chemical – cannot help but answer “yes.”   Scientists hear the voice of God as they apply their knowledge and understanding of such things as our immense universe with all its stars, galaxies, gases, black holes, and emptiness.  

Of course, one doesn’t need to be a scientist to hear what God has to say through creation, the cosmos, and the beauty it reveals.  Of special note, we all listen and come to know and appreciate that our Earth is but a very small part of God’s creation – but oh’ is it so important and phenomenal!   Hence, the need to protect it by reliance on science and research warning us of immense danger, i.e., climate change, planet warming, and rising seas.   To do otherwise would be to ignore our conscience – the voice of God.

The word “conscience” means “being privy to” or “with knowledge.”  When applied to all of us, it means knowing ourselves, and that takes work and prayer.  For many of us it’s a life-long pursuit.   For some of us we may never really know.  

Still, there is help, and it comes from our faith, and, perhaps, even from the author Jonathan Swift who said: “Although men [and women] are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength.  It is in men [and women] as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.”  

“Gold” [Go[l]d] is conscience that we must always mine to strengthen our moral muscles and resist temptations.  We are not gold-plated, but we all have hearts of gold to which we must listen.  When we listen to the chirping (crickets), we come to know ourselves and discover our strengths.

Deacon David Pierce