The Conscience and the Will
Steps to God
Last time we spoke about the conscience and its lack of infallibility, and the influences that affect it from knowledge, environment, guidance, leadership, and traditions. And today we speak about:
The Conscience and the Will¹
The conscience, like any organ of a human being, can weaken and strengthen: it can be enlightened by the Holy Spirit and by the sayings of the Fathers, preaching, teaching, and spiritual life… And it can also weaken and fall asleep, and be overpowered by self-interest and by the will.
How easy it is for the conscience to become disturbed, for its judgments to change, and for its scales to overturn, like a teacher whose conscience drives him to help a student cheat, or a doctor who, out of pity for a woman, performs an abortion for her, or performs an operation to cover up for a girl who has lost her virginity, or writes a medical certificate for someone not ill in order to help him. Or like a mother who covers up for her children to save them from the punishment of their father, thus covering their faults with lies…
The strange thing about all these is that their consciences do not trouble them nor rebuke them. On the contrary, they feel that they have done something good that gladdens their hearts…
The lack of rebuke by the conscience for wrongdoing indicates a defect in it. But for it to rejoice in wrongdoing—this indicates an overturning in all its scales.
The conscience can be shaped according to a person’s principles and ideals. It changes according to the change of these ideals. Therefore its judgment is not always sound, and therefore the consciences of people differ and vary. What one sees as right, another sees as evil, and vice versa.
And emotions may interfere in the judgments of consciences and in their formation.
He who loves a person may lie and exaggerate in praising him, while feeling at peace. He may also lie much to save him from trouble, and his sick conscience encourages him, considering that he is offering a service to a friend… And thus how easy it is for many to fall into the principle that “the end justifies the means.” Their consciences accept many wrong means on the pretext that the purpose is noble!!
The conscience may become sick in its judgments and in its emotions. It may not rebuke in cases that deserve rebuke, or may rebuke in a very calm manner in serious matters. Some have said, “The conscience is a just judge, but weak. And its weakness stands in the way of executing its judgments.” But the greater difficulty is that the conscience may be weak and at the same time unjust…!
Therefore do not rely on your conscience alone. Rather turn to the judgment of other sound and impartial consciences, far from the influence of self-interest, environment, and leadership…
For spiritual guidance is a single conscience that straightens the path of the conscience of the one who confesses. And as the Scripture says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
There is a broad conscience that swallows a camel, and a narrow conscience that strains out a gnat.
The broad conscience can find justification for many errors. But the narrow conscience is obsessive, assumes evil where there is no evil, exaggerates the value of mistakes, falls into a “guilt complex,” sees itself responsible for matters it has nothing to do with whatsoever, and is overtaken at times by depression and despair, thinking that there is no benefit in all its striving, and that it is doomed, and that it has fallen into blasphemy against the Holy Spirit!!
But the sound conscience is like the scale of a pharmacist: excess harms, and deficiency harms. And how beautiful is the saying of Scripture: “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both alike are an abomination to the Lord.” Do not consider it a virtue on your part to defend a guilty person by trying to prove that he is not guilty!! Truth is truth. But seeking mercy does not prevent the acknowledgment that there is a fault…
Otherwise we would have lost discernment between good and evil under the pretext of avoiding judgment, or merely out of compassion for those who err…!
And in its path the conscience may collide with many matters, the first of which is the will.
If the will inclines toward sin and wants to carry it out, and the conscience tries to prevent it, the will works to silence this conscience or escape from its voice. A struggle arises between the conscience and the will: either the conscience wins, or the will wins and carries out the wrong.
The conscience is merely a voice directing the will toward good and distancing it from evil. But it cannot compel it…
It is enough for it to be merely a voice, continually crying out in the human mind and heart: “This matter is wrong,” bearing witness to the truth…
John the Baptist did not compel Herod to do good, but was merely a voice crying in his face that it is not lawful for him to take his brother’s wife. And Herod did not listen to the Baptist, but that great prophet remained the conscience of the whole people, crying in the face of the corrupt king: “It is not lawful for you.”
The will may try to silence the conscience under the pretext of its inner peace…!
It does not want this conscience to be the cause of disturbing its inner calm, depriving it of peace and troubling its psyche. Therefore it silences it.
This sick will cares for the comfort of the soul, not the comfort of the spirit. For the spirit rests in obeying the Lord and in purity of heart, and welcomes rebuke in this, unlike the soul that finds rebuke tiring…
The will may flee from the conscience and not give it a chance…
It flees from self-examination and from the rebuke of the conscience through constant busyness. And if the voice of conscience comes to it from an external source—from a father or friend or teacher—it tries to change the course of the conversation to another subject, because the voice of conscience troubles it, so it flees from it.
The conscience may find there is no place for it, so it becomes quiet and silent… And time passes and it grows accustomed to silence and does not intervene in the acts of the will…
The will remains alone in the field, doing whatever it wants, giving itself over to its desires, and giving no opportunity to the conscience… Thus the conscience becomes absent, or hidden, or asleep, and its guiding work is suspended…
Helping the conscience to remain silent are the various means of entertainment, and means of amusement, and the dominance of the pleasure of sin, and constant busyness, and the lack of benefit from rebuke, and the despair of the conscience regarding the possibility of working, or the continual promise of postponing repentance. Thus it appears to the conscience that there is no use, and the will triumphs over the conscience, and remains in sin. For the conscience is merely a guide, unable to force the will to accept its counsel.
The conscience is like traffic signals on the road: they may light red so the driver will stop, but they do not force him to stop!
How easy it is for a driver to disobey a red traffic light and continue on his way, receiving a fine, yet not caring…
The conscience is merely a guide, but execution is in the hand of the will.
So if the will goes astray and silences the conscience, does the person perish?
Here the will of God intervenes, and He sends His grace to save the person from his own will…
As long as the person’s conscience is weak, and the corrupt will is dominant, then a power from outside must intervene to save him. Here the Holy Spirit enters, and here the fruits of the prayers of the angels and saints appear, and grace works to awaken the heedless person and soften his hardened heart…
An example is what happened to Mary the Copt, who was in the depth of sin, thinking nothing at all about repentance, but desiring new sins that caused many to fall… But grace drew her in the city of Jerusalem, and she quickly responded to the work of grace and repented, and even became a great saint, worthy to bless Father Zosima…
Grace may intervene alone—through the visitation of the Holy Spirit. Or it may intervene based on a prayer seeking the help of God.
The prayer may be from the sinner himself who cries out to God saying, “Turn me, O Lord, and I shall be turned.” Or it may be from his loved ones around him, praying for his salvation. Or it may be from the spirits of the saints and angels who have departed.
Thus the matter requires prayers from us so that divine help may intervene.
People are not saved by sermons alone. For sermons may move the conscience, but even so, the will may not move toward good…!
We need hearts poured out before God in prayer, that He may work in sinners and draw them to His path. For the Apostle says: “For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” (Romans 7:18–19)
There is a beautiful phrase in the book of the prophet Zechariah regarding Joshua, who was standing in filthy garments, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. Then one from the order of the heavenly hosts came and said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2). And the Lord saved Joshua…
And with the intervention of grace, the human being remains also free… He may respond to grace or not respond. He may open to the Lord who knocks at his door. He may accept the work of the Spirit, or grieve the Spirit, or quench the Spirit’s fire, or resist the Spirit…!
Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Ninth Year – Issue 37 – 15-9-1978
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