Tradition, Truth and Conscience

Scripture Reflections

It’s been said that wisdom is the ability to live with contradictions, with the tensions of seemingly opposite truths of life. Life is never so simple: to understand how less can be more, to administer justice with mercy, to be free yet also responsible, to grasp someone with a passionate love that allows that person the freedom to walk away, to live with the certainty of faith but also with its doubts. To grow with wisdom, one must learn not to eliminate contradictions but to embrace them as part of the human experience.

This weekend, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul. It is the celebration of a Church that recognizes how a mature faith lives amid such tensions. Peter, the rock of true faith. Paul, the growing edge of faith. Peter, impulsive and emotionally intense. Paul, intellectual and methodical. Peter, charged with shepherding the flock. Paul, seeking new flocks among the Gentiles. Peter, championing continuity with the Jewish tradition. Paul, championing a broader, more inclusive faith apart from the Jewish tradition. Peter, focusing on Christ’s return and the restoration of Israel. Paul, transformation by faith and ultimately the unity of all in Christ. Two men with differing visions weaving one faith in the Lord Jesus.

Today we live in a Church struggling to live with the tension of what it means to be a Church, of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, of what it means to live with faith. It is not the first time we have lived with such tension. Indeed, such tension may very well be added as a fifth mark of a 2,000-year-old church.

On the one hand, we hold to the tradition of faith, to the long line of seeking to preserve the truth and hold on to the truth. Yet we find that the truth of the tradition has also grown mingled with the rituals of the tradition and the prayers of the tradition and the practices of the tradition — so much so that sometimes they all seem to be of one cloth. Nevertheless, the purpose of the tradition is to pass on the fire and not to preserve the ashes.

On the other hand, the truths of the tradition have unfolded and evolved. Our understanding of sacrament has changed from hundreds to now seven. Usury once thought of as sinful, now is commonly accepted and practiced. We have come to accept that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the sun around the Earth. Heresy is less likely sought out with passion today, nor is anyone fearful of being burned at the stake. The truth of tradition continues to unfold.

On the one hand, we are taught to believe what the Church teaches, and rightly so. There is wisdom in 2,000 years of seeking what it means to live the teachings of Jesus. Those 2,000 years of wisdom should not be easily dismissed or set aside. All too often when we have not lived it, it has proved to be disastrous. It is St. Peter who has become the symbol of preserving the wisdom and truth of our tradition.

On the other hand, as people of mature faith, we are counselled as well in the importance of following our consciences. The need to give flesh to that tradition amid the complexities of daily living can at times find one caught between a rock and a hard place, between being faithful to what we hold as true and right while also living life that is not always kind or resolvable. Amid such tensions the Church counsels us to follow our consciences — always having explored the wisdom of the Church and then seeking to do what seems we must faithfully do. St. Paul has become the symbol of living an ever-unfolding faith.

So, what is one to do when we find ourselves torn between the wisdom of St. Peter and that of St. Paul amid the tensions of living the faith life and daily life?

St. Thomas Aquinas once wrote, “Conscience is more to be obeyed than authority imposed from the outside. By following a right conscience, you not only do not incur sin but are also immune from sin, whatever superiors may say to the contrary. To act against one’s conscience and to disobey a superior can both be sinful. Of the two the first is the worse since the dictate of conscience is more binding than the decree of external authority.”

Centuries later Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) wrote, “Over the pope as expression of the binding claims of ecclesiastical authority, there stands one’s own conscience which must be obeyed before all else, even if necessary against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority.”

Such is the tension with which we live as disciples of Jesus: to live by the truths of the faith we profess, yet also to live by the dictates of our consciences.