Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 1:16-25; Luke 11:37-41)
Conscience has been called “the voice of God.” Even when it is not formed by moral teaching,
one’s conscience tells the person what is good and bad. Everyone knows that seducing another person’s
spouse is wrong and stopping to help a person in distress is good. It is not far-fetched to conclude that God forms
all people to make these determinations.
For this reason St. Paul indicates in today’s first reading that God
makes his will known to humans through what He has made.
Jesus’ criticism of Pharisees in the gospel follows from
what Paul writes. He recognizes that Pharisees
often pretend that they keep God’s law with pious practices that the Law does
not even specify. Meanwhile they judge others harshly for not following those
unnecessary practices. Or, worse, they may
extort others who think that they are good.
These sins are similar to hustlers on the street who approach tourists
with friendly greetings and offers of assistance, only to lead them astray. Both Pharisees in the gospel and hustlers on
the street know that what they are doing is wrong because their conscience
tells them so.
As the voice of God, conscience deserves our full
attention. Sometimes giving it is
difficult because our consciences are not well-formed. Let us pray, study, and meditate so that we
may accurately discern what God is saying to us through our consciences.
