Day 239: The Formation of Conscience

In the formation of conscience, the Word of God is the light for our path, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church. CCC 1785

In today's reading, the Catechism discusses the formation of conscience. It can be a lifelong process of forming our conscience through education and making judgments formulated by reason (CCC 1783). Such "education of the conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of heart" (CCC 1784). In short, we can educate ourselves through Scripture and the teaching of the Church. All of us will face some moral conundrums at some point in our lives, making our "judgment less assured and decision difficult" (CCC 1787). In all such cases, these rules apply as summarized by the Catechism Compendium:

There are three general norms: 1) one may never do evil so that good may result from it; 2) the so-called Golden Rule, “Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them” (Matthew 7:12); 3) charity always proceeds by way of respect for one’s neighbor and his conscience, even though this does not mean accepting as good something that is objectively evil. (#375)

The Catechism Companion, Vol II has some good commentary on this:

We also are born with broken hearts and dimmed intellects, so the formation of conscience is very important because sin pulls us toward wanting to follow our own way. We are to learn what the good is, what God's law tells us about the right way to live, but then we have to actually choose it in our day-to-day life. It is not just an information transfer, but a transformation. (p. 242)