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Thursday, April 11, 2019
If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts. Ps 95:8
Dorotheos of Gaza, a desert father, wrote an enlightening discourse on conscience that can help us in avoiding sin. He first explains that when God created man, “He breathed into him something divine. A hot bright spark added to reason, which lit up the mind and showed him the difference between right and wrong.” You might think of our conscience as that quiet voice of God that we can use to direct our thoughts and actions. Yet with free will, we can ignore that voice and harden our hearts. When we do this enough, our conscience lays buried under that ever-hardening heart and cannot be heard, or heard so dimly that we can barely make it out.
Dorotheos tells us that we must be “zealous to guard our conscience for as long as we are in this world and not to neglect its promptings in anything. And let us not,” he says, “tread it under foot even in the least thing, for you can see that from the smallest things, which of their nature are worth little, we come to despise the great things. There are no ‘little things’, for when it is a question of bad habits, it is a question of a malignant ulcer.”
On its face, this seems to be a little severe. What harm could there be in giving in to a small ‘sinful’ pleasure? I know from my own experience that Dorotheos is correct. I cannot buy a bag of Oreos, for instance, because I cannot discipline myself to only eat one. I will eventually get to the point of eating the whole bag and going to the store for another. Companies that underwrite insurance policies for industry have also learned this lesson. There are statistics that show that for every 300 near misses, there are 29 minor injuries and one major injury. To drive down injuries the underwriters require documentation of near misses and remedial action at that level. The same rule, then, applies to our spiritual life as well. Commit enough venial sin without an attempt at remediation, and one will soon be committing mortal ones. Our friend, Dorotheos, suggests that we need to satisfy (pay attention to) our conscience toward God, toward our neighbor, and toward material things. Some examples of small things against God might be neglect of prayer or entertainment of evil thoughts. With respect to our neighbors, it means anything that might trouble or harm our neighbor in deed, or work, or gesture, or look. As far as material things go, we must be diligent in using them correctly or over indulging in them (such as food). The goal is not to have our conscience reproach us for anything, but rather to listen to it before we neglect our prayer, lash out at our neighbor, or eat that Oreo. Contemplative prayer and practicing the presence of God can help us with this as by silencing our minds and being aware of the God’s presence we can better hear His voice and harden not our hearts.
Lenten Action
If you are a regular practitioner of contemplative prayer, during your dedicated prayer time practice the presence of God as you normally do adding the modifications, if any, you incorporated from the PIPPG suggestions.
If you are new to meditation and contemplative prayer, during your dedicated prayer time practice the presence of God as outlined in Section 1 of the PIPPG booklet.
Today is not a Fast day, but if you have a mind to abstain from a favorite food or drink, please do so as a means of strengthening your will power. Remember not to watch TV, or use your computer or your phone to access social media, computer games, or other unnecessary apps.