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present, and our expectation of the future: man person recognizes the moral quality of a
In the soul there are these three aspects of time, concrete act” (CCC, n. 1796). At its best, cons-
and I do not see them anywhere else. The pre- cience is attuned to the voice of God within:
sent considering the past is memory, the pre- “Conscience is the most secret core and sanctua-
sent considering the present is immediate awa- ry of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose
reness, the present considering the future is ex- voice echoes in his depths” (Gaudium et spes, n.
pectation. (Confessions, XI.xx.26) 16). Conscience may formed well or poorly (cf.
Memory is the guardian of our identity, that Romans 2:15-16); in the extremes, human per-
which preserves our knowledge of self as self: sons may become lost in the labyrinth of scru-
It is I who remember, I who am mind. It is hard- pulosity or locked in the prison of psychopathy.
ly surprising if what I am not is distant from me. Well-formed conscience is a reliable guide: “A
But what is nearer to me than myself? Indeed well-formed conscience is upright and truthful.
the power of my memory is something I do It formulates its judgments according to reason,
not understand when without it I cannot speak in conformity with the true good willed by the
about myself. (Confessions, X.xvi.25) wisdom of the Creator. Everyone must avail
Memory is the custodian of our life story, the himself of the means to form his conscience”
keeper of the keys to the diary of life. As such, (CCC, n. 1798). Here human freedom meets
it may variously be a source of joyous nostalgia, divine law. Here the human person turns away
anxious rumination, or melancholy brooding. from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
On some occasions we may wish to savor the and toward the tree of life. Moral relativism is
scrapbook of life; at other times we might wish replaced by ethical realism. The Christian the-
that it were buried in the scrapheap of oblivion. rapist must facilitate and not obfuscate the de-
Ultimately, we may best be healed by purifica- velopment of a balanced and well-formed cons-
tion of memory in the light of God’s presence. cience, to promote empathy over anger within
John of the Cross (1585/1991b) described mo- the hard of heart, and to foster faith over fear
vement through the “dark night” of the soul, within the faint of heart.
including transformation of the affliction and
anguish of memory, into “eternal apprehensi- Goodness
ons of glory” (Dark Night, II.4.1-2). Suggesting
that “our aim is union with God in the memory Practice good. Much of psychology is rightly
through hope,” John of the Cross (1585/1991a) concerned with human action, with outward
commended a certain annihilation or abandon- behavior, with what we actually and practically
ment of memory to calm rest and restoration do in a specific situation. In its most rudimen-
in God: “Accordingly, in the measure that indi- tary form, this involves movement of muscles
viduals dispossess their memory of forms and of the body as we act upon and are acted upon
objects, which are not God, they will fix it on by the world around us. It involves stepping out
God and preserve it empty, so as to hope for with our feet, reaching out with our hands, and
the fullness of their memory from him” (Ascent grasping with our fingers. The question remains
of Mount Carmel, III.15.1). The Christian the- regarding the direction of our step and the ob-
rapist hopes to facilitate in the client a healthy ject of our reach (e.g., toward which fruit on
sense of personal identity, reconciliation with which tree?). Even the most ardent materialist
the events of one’s personal biography, and ho- observes that certain actions are adaptive and
peful abandonment of the painful memories of other actions are maladaptive. The school psy-
time into the eternal mind of God. chologist knows the difference between beha-
ving well and behaving badly, and the forensic
Form conscience. The pursuit of truth in the psychologist acknowledges a distinction bet-
human heart necessary involves development ween good actors versus bad actors. The psy-
of the moral sense, the formation of conscience. choanalyst recognizes the common interior
Conscience is illuminated by reason: “Consci- struggle between primitive instinct and civili-
ence is a judgment of reason by which the hu- zed restraint. St. Paul also recognized the hu-

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