Today we begin a new series of Hecker Reflections. The selections for this second series are primarily drawn from Father Hecker’s sermon collection. The following reflection is taken from a sermon titled, “Fidelity to Conscience,” that Father Hecker preached at the Paulist mother church in New York City, the Church of Saint Paul the Apostle, in 1863. This sermon was published in a Paulist sermon collection in 1864.

Conscience

No two people are precisely alike; no two people have the same intellectual gifts, moral dispositions or instincts. People differ no less in their character than in their physical proportions. Why is this? The reason is that each of us has our part to act in life. God has given to everyone his allotted work to perform and takes delight in seeing this variety and difference among us.

The difficulty for those who complain that life is dull and that time hangs heavy for them is that they have not discovered the end for which they were made and therefore they live without purpose. So how are they to discover this? People need to use their intelligence. Purify your conscience, and God will speak to your soul. And by the suggestions made there can be no mistaking God’s voice. Be faithful to what your conscience tells you, come what may, wherever you may be and the path of duty you should take will become as plain as the high road in the light of the noon-day sun. 

Do this for a season and you will so hear God’s voice, that its meaning cannot be mistaken. You may say that this may be true of those who are religious but not those who live in the world. But this is not so. Every condition in life is ordained by God. The obligations that come to each state in life have a divine origin and a sanction. Being faithful to the obligations that your state in life imposes brings heaven down to earth and makes hearts sing for joy. The kingdom of heaven is gained not by changing one’s state of life but by changing oneself.

A Response from Father Paul Robichaud, CSP

If I only had a better job! If I only had someone who really understood me! If I only won the lottery! How often do we hear people describe their lives as missing something fundamental? If they only had “this,” their lives would change dramatically and for the better. It is the human condition to want more than we presently have. In fact, it’s the story of Adam and Eve, who cannot leave the one tree alone that God has told them not to touch. But the message that Father Hecker gives us today is that from God’s perspective, we already have everything we need. Hecker writes, “the kingdom of heaven is gained not by changing one’s state in life but by changing oneself.”

True happiness comes from discovering God’s plan for our lives. By using our intelligence and most importantly, by using our conscience as our guide, Father Hecker says that we can uncover our role in God’s great plan for the world. Yes all of us have a role to play and all of us are necessary, as God transforms the world in Jesus Christ. We are invited not just to be present, but to be a part (as brothers and sisters of Jesus) when the Son presents to the Father a redeemed world at the end of time. To find our place in all of this is the story of our discipleship. As we grow into being disciples, we are transformed and fulfilled. By using our conscience we can hear God directing our hearts and in listening to Christ, we have all that we need.

Publishing and disseminating the writing of Servant of God Isaac Hecker is the work of the Office for Father Hecker’s Cause for Canonization. Paulist Father Paul Robichaud, CSP, is historian of the Paulist Fathers and postulator of the Cause of Father Hecker. His office is located at the Hecker Center in Washington, D.C.

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