The supermarket culture celebrates generosity by giving away freebies and discounts. It creates the illusion of feel-good and freedom of choice at the expense of wastefulness and multiplication of wants. Our feelings are manipulated and our human nature is exploited for the interests of a consumerist culture. But to be truly generous means to be neither stingy nor wasteful. As a response to God's generosity, a person with a good conscience spontaneously and cheerfully gives to those who are in need. A good conscience can discern between needs and wants.

A good conscience takes decisions and does not merely respond to collective rules, nor follow individual feelings. It listens to God's voice like a servant and like St. Lawrence is even open to sacrifice one's life in this world in order to serve the one who gives eternal life. The formation of a good conscience entails dying to the self. A well formed conscience responds to the gifts of God with a magnanimous heart. Our redeemed human nature, our communitarian life in Christ, the moral teachings of the Church and the Scriptures are all gifts. We show our generosity by accepting these as normative for our rationality, personal conscience and relationships.