Conscience and Obedience

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.

CONSCIENCE AND OBEDIENCE
[Source: "Counsels from the Holy Mountain," selected from the Letters and Homilies of Elder (Geronda) Ephraim, St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monasery, Florence, Arizona (1999) pp. 130-36)

When a person remains completely obedient to his conscience and implements whatever it tells him, he is not reproved by it anymore--not that its voice has weakened, but rather because of his good obedience, his conscience has nothing to reprove. The Apostle John says that when a man's conscience does not condemn him, he has confidence toward God. (cf. 1 John 3:21).

It is impossible for a person to proceed without ever stumbling somewhere, because from all sides the devil, the world, and the flesh are continuously inserting obstacles into his life, and he stumbles in proportion to his carelessness. Therefore, when he falls, he should arise at once and seek forgiveness. When one repents in proportions to the gravity of his fall, his conscience, which used to bother him, stops reproving him.

We must guard our conscience on three points--with respect to God, with respect to our neighbor, and with respect to things. One guards his conscience with respect to God when he avoids the various sins. He guards his conscience with respect to his neighbor when he does not grieve him, judge him, or push him towards evil deeds. He guards his conscience with respect to things when he does not cause destruction or damage to material things through carelessness, negligence, or unscrupulousness.

Saint Theodore the Studite tells us many things about this "unscrupulousness." When you see something burning or being damaged and you do not pick it up and protect it, this is unscrupulousness. When your clothes get torn and you neglect them, and then they get completely ruined, this is unscrupulousness. When you are able to work but instead of working you wander around here and there, this is also unscrupulousness. When you leave your food out and it goes bad and you throw it away, this is unscrupulousness because you should have taken care to eat it before it went bad. Therefore, unscrupulousness is when one errs in any way with respect to material things, and also when one offends God in any way.

The greatest wealth is obtained when one strives to preserve his conscience unburdened. But in the event that he senses that something has wounded him, he should correct it immediately, and thus he will return to his prior state.

How many times has our conscience reproved us! The more a person listens to his conscience, and the more he attends to it, the more precisely it guides him. And the more discreetly it guides and reproves him, the more he ascends in purity.

There is also the so-called "evil conscience," which often comes with the pretense and shape and form of the good conscience, yet in essence, is evil, perverted conscience, the conscience which is opposed to God. The evil conscience is that voice which reaches things Deceitful, perverted, and contrary. The good conscience has humility and obedience as it starting point, source, and foundation. The evil conscience has pride and disobedience as its source.

When one does not obey the Geronda (Elder), when one resists, when one is deceitful, when one does not listen, then one has what is called self-reliance; such self-reliance is the evil conscience.

Humble-mindedness gives birth to the good conscience. Since the two consciences are entangled, one often asks himself, "Is this the evil conscience or the good one? Should I believe this thought or that one? So to learn--or rather to be taught--what is the good conscience, one needs to have humility, but above all, he needs to place himself under the guidance of another, his superior, his leader, his spiritual father, and to obey whatever he says. Then little by little he will begin to perceive which thoughts are evil and which are good, what is the hue of the good conscience and what is the hue of the evil conscience. Thus, on the one hand, through the teaching and guidance of his spiritual father (his Father Confessor) he avoids falling, and on the other hand, in time he is taught wheat the hue and appearance of the two consciences are and becomes a perfect man.

It is those who are without obedience who have suffered harm. For man is pressed by both consciences; the one works to save him and the other to destroy him, and many times he does not know which one to listen to. He who is under obedience avoids this danger and little by little becomes experienced and skilled in discerning the evil conscience from the good conscience.

Abba (Father) Poimen had two thoughts, and he went to tell them to his spiritual father, who lived very far away--he set out in the morning and arrived in the evening. He forgot one thought, however, and told him only the other one. When he returned to his cell, as soon as he put the key in the door, he remembered the second thought. So without even opening the door, he went back again to tell him his other thought. When his spiritual father saw his labor and his exactitude, he exclaimed, "Poimen, Poimen, shepherd of Angels! Your virtue will make your name known in all the world." (The term "poimen" in Greek means shepherd).

For one to become experienced enough to distinguish the voice of the good conscience from the voice of the evil conscience, he must pass through obedience. If he does not pass through obedience, he is deficient. He may have gifts; he may be a good soul; he may do various good works--but you will see that he always hobbles in discernment and humility. The virtue that submission to an Elder (Geronda or Spiritual Father) is, first and foremost, discernment, which comes through humble-mindedness. That is to say, obedience forges a man's character and gives him, above all, discernment (diakrisi) and humility (tapeinosis). [Source: Orthodox Heritage]

(To be continued)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George