Zenit News
Difficulties in witnessing to the Gospel:
- 11-06-2008
- Categorized in: News Releases
Each generation encounters its difficulties in witnessing to the gospel. We should not be surprised if at times we appear to have little success. We can ponder the experience of our Lord: never had the world heard such a master teacher, never before had signs and wonders abounded in witness of his authority. In raising Lazarus from the dead Jesus did not find the resistance of his enemies melting away, instead they hardened themselves and plotted the death of Lazarus and finally succeeded in killing our Lord himself.
Our battle is one not just of worldly arguments, as St Paul warns us in Ephesians our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)
Does that mean that the force of argument and reason is to be abandoned? Far from it. Where the Church's teaching accords with reason it is accessible to all peoples and we have every right to demand that our message plays a part in public discourse. But there is another dimension that cannot be neglected, the one of prayer and spiritual formation.
Lack of reproach from conscience:
It has struck me that for all the Church's calls for recognition of the inviolability of conscience the sad reality is that the vast majority of politicians have given support to various attacks on human life with apparent lack of reproach from conscience.
What does one say then, in the face of those who without guilt condemn the innocent in the womb, show disregard for family life and play God with the building blocks of life?
In this regard Pope Benedict XVI is enlightening. He notes: "A man of conscience is one who never acquires tolerance, well- being, success, public standing, and approval on the part of prevailing opinion, at the expense of truth." (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 10th Workshop for Bishops, February 1991, Dallas, Texas)
Disquiet within oneself after doing wrong is a sign of a functioning conscience. This is in fact the second sense of conscience, which Cardinal Newman famously described as the aboriginal Vicar of Christ an inner voice that discerns the rightness or otherwise of our actions and choices. It is in responding correctly to this prompting of conscience that we make ourselves more human, more virtuous. St Paul teaches us in his letter to the
Romans: "When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness ..." (Rom 2:14).
Our battle is one not just of worldly arguments, as St Paul warns us in Ephesians our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)
Does that mean that the force of argument and reason is to be abandoned? Far from it. Where the Church's teaching accords with reason it is accessible to all peoples and we have every right to demand that our message plays a part in public discourse. But there is another dimension that cannot be neglected, the one of prayer and spiritual formation.
Lack of reproach from conscience:
It has struck me that for all the Church's calls for recognition of the inviolability of conscience the sad reality is that the vast majority of politicians have given support to various attacks on human life with apparent lack of reproach from conscience.
What does one say then, in the face of those who without guilt condemn the innocent in the womb, show disregard for family life and play God with the building blocks of life?
In this regard Pope Benedict XVI is enlightening. He notes: "A man of conscience is one who never acquires tolerance, well- being, success, public standing, and approval on the part of prevailing opinion, at the expense of truth." (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 10th Workshop for Bishops, February 1991, Dallas, Texas)
Disquiet within oneself after doing wrong is a sign of a functioning conscience. This is in fact the second sense of conscience, which Cardinal Newman famously described as the aboriginal Vicar of Christ an inner voice that discerns the rightness or otherwise of our actions and choices. It is in responding correctly to this prompting of conscience that we make ourselves more human, more virtuous. St Paul teaches us in his letter to the
Romans: "When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness ..." (Rom 2:14).