Those that I have recently applied to everyday life, are not about God in the biblical or doctrinal aspect. (Am I making any sense? Let me elaborate.)
We were discussing the revision of certain technicalities about the Ateneo COMELEC, specifically the vision, mission, thrust of the organization, etc. And we were confused about the phrase, “democratic norms, rights and values”. Norms and values were confusing; they meant the same to us at first glance. But then the lessons I managed to pick up from classes with Fr. D (and actually retain in my head) flashed and I remembered that norms are there to protect values, and that facilitated our understanding more clearly.
But really, the reason why I write tonight (although I have other apparently more important things to do such as SLEEP) is because I felt that there has been a lot of bashing when people talk about politics. Many relationships are changed because of their decisions about their vote, and many have been judged and spat at. But I think it is very important to share this knowledge that O’Connell wrote about: the presence of conscience/1, conscience/2 and conscience/3. For convenience, and following O’Connell, I shall refer to them as c/1, c/2 and c/3.
C/1 is the inner yearning of every human being for good. It is the moral phototropistic character of human beings. The presence of c/1 makes us uneasy whenever we lie, whenever we do something bad, etc. And because there is this inclination towards the good, we are drawn to search for it. This search, is c/2. It is the constant search for facts, etc. for us to make a good and sound judgment. It is the analysis of the good to be done. Finally, c/3 is the actual event. It is the decision of the person to do good or whatev because really, “we are not just contemplatives of the good but also doers of the good” (Notes). The very relevant knowledge about these three is that c/2 may not always be correct in its search for the truth, for the good, but one can never say that someone who made a wrong decision because of misinformation in his search is immoral. In fact, because of the fallibility of c/2 we are required to look for guides that can help us form a sound c/2 (i.e. the Church).
For example, we are in no position to judge someone if he chose Villar (although I really hope there aren’t many of them) as his choice for president as long as we know that that person has undergone a sincere and serious search for the truth–he has looked at all alternatives, and based on what he knows as good, chooses Villar. But I guess we can reprimand someone for making a decision without information, by basing his decision on a mere coin toss, for example. We shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions about people based on their decisions.
All we can do is encourage everyone to read up, collect as much information as needed, discern, reflect, pray.
