Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!paul.rutgers.edu!christian From: sandrock@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Mark T. Sandrock) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: One of the best kept secrets in the Catholic Church Message-ID: Date: 19 Oct 90 07:56:03 GMT Sender: hedrick@paul.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Lines: 87 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu kw1r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kevin Whitley) writes: > ... > I put forward the example of the Inquisition, which today, by most of > us, is considered to have been an error. At the time many of the people > involved were 1) following the dictates of the church, 2) following > their consciences. I would argue (against Mr. Bralick) that the church > was in error and that we should be aware that such error could occur > again. I would argue (against Mr. Sandrock) that the people's > consciences were in error - they were not properly formed. First, if the church can be in error, then how can it be depended upon to "properly form" one's conscience? Second, if the church can be wrong, and one's conscience can be wrong, then what hope is there? The answer quite simply is this: that one's conscience can never be wrong! But we often choose to ignore it for any of a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that we do not exert ourselves enough to develop our ability to understand it in the first place! So, although our conscience cannot be wrong, we ourselves can be (and often are, no?). Why would one say -- in the case of the Inquisition -- that the peoples' consciences were in error? These people had no conscience. They had deadened and buried their consciences, and so could act in such direct contradiction and hostility to the actual Will of God! Think about it--these activities were cold, cruel, calculating and inhuman. How could anyone say they had anything to do with "conscience" or with spirituality or humanity of *any* kind? This notion is a travesty of the very concept of conscience! These were evil ones, acting under the cloak of earthly legality and respectability. *In no way* did or could these people represent God, although they may have represented a particular earthly church. As an analogy for the use of one's conscience, perhaps we can consider the experience of a young child who is first learning to understand the language in which his parents speak to him. The child's ears (our conscience) do not need to be formed, they are already (typically) quite prepared for the task. The parents' language (Creation) also needs no forming, for it already exists in a form suitable for expressing the parent's volition (the Will of God). What the child needs are his own efforts, and also at times explanations from his parents (teachings of prophets and called ones) in order to develop his ability to understand his parents volition (the Will of God). If one wants to call this a "forming" of the child's ability, then I agree, but my point is that the primary responsibility for the "forming" is with the child himself. And furthermore, that the child must learn to perform this task (the understanding) directly, rather than to reply upon anyone else to "interpret" his parents' language and volition to him. In the case of mankind, however, it so happened that we did not learn to know the Language of the Lord in Creation as we were meant to. We chose a wrong development, one which lead away from the Will of God. For this reason, it became imperative that the Son of God, Jesus, come to show mankind the way back to learning to know the Will of God in Creation. Because of the hostility and indifference which with mankind responded over- all to Jesus, He recognized that more help would be necessary for mankind at the time of the World (Final) Judgement. For this reason, Jesus foretold the future Son of Man, to whom He also referred as the Spirit of Truth, and the Comforter. This prophecy was not well understood at the time by those around Jesus, and this lack of understanding has continued until today. Jesus also admonished mankind with the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. The wise virgins are those who keep the ability to perceive intuitively, i.e., the ability to hear their inner voice or conscience, (the lamp in the parable), in good working order, so that they will be able to recognize the bridegroom (the Son of Man) *through His Word* at the right time for their own salvation. The Lord wants us to stand free and knowing in Creation. We are each meant to learn to understand the Divine Will in Creation (the Language of the Lord). This is the reason for our journeying through Creation for the sake of our spiritual development. For it is only those who have completed the course of their spiritual development (and learned to know this Language) who are then able to return, fully matured, to their origin, to Paradise, to the Spiritual Realm of Pure Joy! Regards, Mark Sandrock -- BITNET: sandrock@uiucscs Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Internet: sandrock@aries.scs.uiuc.edu Chemical Sciences Computing Services Voice: 217-244-0561 505 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801