It is a matter of foolishness to think to oneself that one needs no protection. It is a matter of fact, of reality, that one needs protection throughout one’s life. We sometimes need protection from the choices of words and actions taken by others, and from all kinds of natural sources. This is true in terms of physical threats that can come our way, but also in the sense of the harm that can be done to one’s reputation or personal integrity, by way of rumors or calumnies of all kinds. But it may even be more true that we need protection from damages we can do to our soul through the blindness of our ignorance, or from our ever-present capacity for false pride.
The prophet, Isaiah, alludes to this latter kind of threat and our need for the protection that only God can give us. He writes: The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher, while from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: ‘This is the way; walk in it,’ when you would turn to the right or the left” (Is. 30: 20-21). Two things are being alluded to here in these words from Isaiah: Grace and Conscience. These are the “protections” that God offers us in times when we are in most need, in those times when we are experiencing the threats that come to us personally in the manifold forms of temptation to sin.
Conscience is a gift from God. It is in a very real way an instinct that recognizes, at a very deep level of our consciousness, a law that is not of our own making. At the same time, it recognizes that our obedience to this law is directly related to our inner health and well being, our happiness. We experience it as an inner ‘voice’ that calls us to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil. When we listen to that ‘voice’ within, we are hearing the voice of God speaking to us directly. But we must learn to be truly present to ourselves to hear that voice.
To be present to ourselves in this way, we need to learn certain habits that will make us more able to be present to ourselves. We need to recognize the value of silence, solitude, prayer, and of reading and reflecting on God’s law in the scriptures. This is especially hard today, living as we do in a world that is so dominated by noise and every imaginable kind of sensual distraction. Indeed, noise and distraction have made themselves ‘appear’ to be attractive, even necessary, and they have been so successful at dividing us from ourselves and God that we flee from the very silence and solitude we need to be able to hear the voice of God whispering softly within our conscience.
Fear not! Our Teacher speaks to us through our conscience. It is he who gave us this innate instinct for what is good, true, and beautiful. It is also true that he leaves us free to ‘listen’ to it, or not. He has not hidden himself or his truth from us. He remains faithful to us even when we go astray, when we slip off of the narrow path. He is always whispering to us: “This is the way; walk in it.” He is gentle, never oppressive, never overbearing. But it is also true that, though he is infinitely loving, he is also infinitely just.
We have the instinct to recognize this in our conscience, too. We recognize it in the pains of guilt and the bitter weight of sorrow that we experience when we sin. But we also know, in faith, that guilt and sorrow are not the end for us. Rather, they can be the beginning, or the source of the renewal of our relationship with God, when we listen to them and return to his voice. “I sought the Lord and he answered me; from all my terrors he set me free” (Ps. 34: 5). The inarguable proof of God’s love for us is the Cross. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rm. 5:8).
Lord, we ask that you strengthen us in faith and in our capacity to listen to your voice in our conscience. Give us the grace we need to develop the habits of finding time in our busy days to take ourselves apart, to find space for solitude and silence externally as well as within our hearts. In those moments when we are caught up in the world’s chaos of noise, when the siren calls of the world’s countless temptations urge us “to turn to the right or to the left”, help us to hear your voice within our conscience saying softly and clearly: “This is the way; walk in it.” This we pray in the power of your most holy name, Jesus. Amen.
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