Conversations on Conscience Three

The Awakening Conscience by Holman Hunt

Thank God, however, the eternal principles of virtue, justice, and truth, the perception of the essential difference between good and evil, right and wrong, are too deeply engraved in the human heart to be altogether erased. Even from the depths of what seems a hopelessly hardened conscience, a divine voice is heard calling out in this wilderness of sin for repentance and reform. The inextinguishable voice of true conscience cries aloud, as in St. Augustine, sunk in the mire of sin, for healing, light and guidance.


http://catholicharboroffaithandmorals.com/Conscience.html

I want to highlight the lax conscience in this last of three posts on conscience. The lax conscience is one which is ignored. Unlike the reference above, a person who ignores the voice of God through natural law in one's conscience denies the Holy Spirit working in them.

Such a person is totally responsible for ignoring that "still, small voice" which is the voice of God.

Many times a lax conscience happens when one purposefully chooses to ignore the advice of holy people, or even peers who understand the law of the Church.

When I was a teenager, I went on a weekend retreat in college. Someone had brought an Ouija board and set it up during "relaxation" time. A small group started to play with it. This was in the late sixties, and no one seemed to be familiar with this board, and some were curious. Thankfully, we have many more warnings now about the demonic connection with the Ouija board. One girl went over and touched it and immediately drew back. She almost yelled, but said this, "Stand back, this is dangerous. I am having nothing to do with this."

Some of those around here, thankfully, left the group. This is an example of how others can warn us of spiritual dangers and sin.

A mother told me her girl was hanging around wiccas. She warned her adult daughter to drop those friends. Many horrible things happened to the girl, like repeated car accidents and losing job after job, until she began to listen to her mom. Her so-called friends wished evil onto her through malice.

We are responsible for the loss of keenness in our consciences.

A couple which is living in fornication repeatedly make excuses for their living in sin. A side-effect of self-delusion is the hardening of conscience.

But, God's grace is stronger than any person's hardness of heart.

Pray for those who have allowed their consciences to become lax.

They have dulled their sense of sin. From the CCC. 

1849 — Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is a failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. Its wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as “an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.”

1850 — Sin is an offense against God: “Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight” (Ps 51:4). Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin (of Adam and Eve), it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become “like gods” (Gen 3:5), knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus “love of oneself even to contempt of God.” In this proud self-exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation (cf. Phil 2:6-9).