What is conscience in a person? How can one learn to hear it? In life, we often face choices, and we want to act according to our conscience. #

Conscience is directly connected to what humanity gained after the Fall: the knowledge of good and evil. Conscience is one of the qualities that distinguishes humans from animals. Some people think animals can experience pangs of conscience, but this is not true. Scientists explain certain animal behaviors—such as appearing guilty when their owner is angry—as an attempt to mimic guilt in order to avoid punishment. In reality, animals lack both a sense of guilt and a conscience because they lack the knowledge of good and evil. A cat might eat its own kitten, steal food, and live peacefully if the owner does not notice. Animals are governed by instincts, while humans are guided not only by instincts and reflexes but also by reason, the knowledge of good and evil (conscience), and a sense of the divine (an awareness of the transcendent).

However, conscience is developed differently in different people. What is moral and acceptable to one person might be utterly unacceptable to another. As a result, conscience functions differently for different individuals. This is why Scripture speaks of those who have a “seared conscience.” St. Paul uses this phrase in his First Epistle to Timothy:

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.”

In people accustomed to doing evil, conscience becomes silent and does not rebuke them, even when they commit grave crimes. They are unfamiliar with feelings of remorse. Meanwhile, there are those whose conscience prevents them from, for example, taking what is not theirs, gossiping, spreading slander, or, even more so, killing. St. Paul writes in the Epistle to Titus:

“Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”

Clearly, a defiled conscience cannot properly guide a person.

In contrast to a seared and defiled conscience, there is a good, pure, and blameless conscience. St. Paul writes:

“Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience” (1 Timothy).

He also writes in the Epistle to the Hebrews:

“Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.”

And in the Second Epistle to Timothy:

“I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.”

A corrupted, seared, or defiled conscience can be cleansed in two ways. First, through baptism (for those who have not yet been baptized). As we read in Hebrews:

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”

For those who have been baptized but have defiled their conscience through sins and vices, repentance (confession) remains the remedy. St. James writes in his General Epistle:

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

These means help a person return to a healthy state, where they do good not out of fear but according to conscience (as described in the 111th chapter of Romans).

—Priest Mikhail Rodin