Before conversion, conscience seemed to be a restraining,
coercive power; God was a hostile and exacting judge; the commandments were
prohibitions: and the Church was an inhibition. Responsibilities were
identified with obligation; duty was seen as opposed to desire; the morally
right was identified with the physically unpleasant; and love was opposed to
morality. But after conversion the conscience no longer accuses; it never seems
to command, or order, or inhibit, because there are no longer two wills in
opposition. The will of the convert is the will of God. There is no need for a
conscience to tell him what “ought to be done.” Conscience is swallowed up in
love, and there is no duty or “must” between lovers.
--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Peace of Soul, 1949
