He observed how people quarrel and he said people every day, educated as well as uneducated, children as well as grown-ups will say things like: “That’s my seat, I was here first” or “Leave him alone, he isn’t doing you any harm,” or “How’d you like it if anyone did the same to you.”
He said as he observed these remarks it became evident to him that there is an appeal to some kind of standard of behavior which both people are expected to know about, or, as he puts it: “Both parties had in some mind some kind of Law or Rule of fair play or decent behavior or morality or whatever you like to call it, about which they really agreed.”
Upon further observation he concluded that this law that was being appealed to was called the “Law of Nature” because, as he puts it: “people thought that every one knew it by nature and did not need to be taught it.” While he says that there are probably a few people who may not have heard it, as a whole, it seems most people are familiar with this rule.
Our readings today, invite us to meditate upon this rule or law. For, while it seems to have begun as something that was placed upon our hearts as statutes and decrees, as we hear in our first reading, it became, as we see in the Pharisees, something altogether different.
For, the fulfillment of the law became an external action rather than a reflection of what was in their hearts. That is why Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, not because what they believed was bad, but because, as with many things, it became more lip service to God as opposed to an expression of love.
This Law that C.S. Lewis seemed to discover was more than just a feeling of right and wrong, but a road map, as it were, that leads us toward God and away from those things that might impede us from Him.
Typically, it is what we call our conscience, a word that might bring to our minds the angel and devil on either side of our shoulders, but is actually much more. In fact, Victor Van Gogh, the great painter called “Conscience…man's compass.” And, Victor Hugo, the great author would say: “Conscience is God present in man.”
Because our conscience is more than a characterization, it is that which helps us to make the important moral decisions we face throughout our lives and even throughout our day. It is that which allows us to do more than pay God lip service, as it says in our Gospel and, instead, gives us an opportunity to have a relationship with God that is sincere, truthful and lasting.
And, what’s more is that as Catholics, what the Church teaches and what we learn in Scripture only helps to further inform our conscience and make our choices more easily.
For, by knowing this Law of God, we not only seek to live the commandments, desiring virtue and avoiding sin, we will be able to be “doers of the word” as it says in our second reading, so that our desire is our practice and that what is within our hearts is a reflection of who we are on the outside as well.
This is also why, as the bishops have asked all homilists to remind this weekend, in November we will have a great opportunity to use our well-formed conscience in making an important decision, perhaps one of the most important decisions of our lives, with regard to the moral and fundamental values of life, of death, of liberty and of peace.
Because, as C.S. Lewis made quite clear, deep down, we know what is necessary, we know what is needed and we know our greatest desires in life. And, they all point to a life with God and for God, because, whether we realize it or not, we should all desire to become saints, and in order to do so, we need to always live what we believe and, literally, each day, let our conscience be our guide.
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