Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A full Doctrinal Homily Outline for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary time, the focus of which is conscience, can be found here.

We live in a time of liars. Even many in the clergy teach heresy.

Our Lord said

You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Yet these wolves in sheep’s clothing say slyly, anything goes. 

Here are a few quick points on the formation of conscience.

• Conscience is our rational intellect rendering a judgment our actions, approving or condemning them. Our intellect makes its judgment according to its understanding of the moral law (CCC 1796).
• A careful reading of Part III of the Catechism of the Catholic Church will tell most people most of what they need to know about the precepts of the moral law.
• The way God has made us, we are to use our reason to decide what to do and then do it as best we can. But many use their passions to decide what they want to do and then use their intellect to rationalize why they should.
• You can’t form your conscience unless you have an interior life. That is, you have to be “present to yourself.” One of the best ways of cultivating your inner life is to talk to God. This is the essence of mental prayer, a conversation with Christ. (CCC 2709)
• If we regularly talk with God it will be difficult for us to rationalize our bad behavior for very long.

While it is essential to our salvation not to do evil, we want to be like Our Lord who went about doing good (Acts 10:38).