I have a great fan of the Elijah storage
which can be found in the first book of
kings I often tell people if your
interests in the Bible you want to get
into it for the first time begin with
those stories about Elijah they're very
interesting kind of adventurers and
Elijah is a figure whose name gives away
the game Elijah is an anglicisation of
eliyahu in hebrew el means god
Yahoo means Yahweh Yahweh is my god
that's who Elijah is he's someone who's
very clear on his ultimate value which
is Yahweh I've often said you can tell
an awful lot about a person by what they
worship worship just means worth-ship
that's where the word comes from what's
of highest worth to you what's a highest
value so if your family's highest value
you're your family man you're a family
woman
if your business is most important you
you're a company man you know if if sex
is most important you your playboy or
Playgirl pleasures the most important
thing you're a goodtime charlie I mean
you can name somebody from what they
worship Elijah is eminently clear about
whom he worships it's Yahweh and
therefore everything else in his life
flows from that everything he thinks
everything he does I think for example
we are introduced to Elijah when he
confronts King Ahab who had gone over to
the worship of false God so of course
the man of God is going to stand the
fort that move that's why Queen Jezebel
a Ahab's wife goes after Elijah and
chases him he runs away from her and he
comes the Bible tells us to Horeb the
mountain of God and now this famous
scene unfolds Elijah's there on Mount
Sinai the mountain of God and it says
the Lord will be passing by and then
there followed a great earthquake there
followed a mighty wind that shattered
the rocks there followed a great fire by
the way three things that were on Mount
Sinai when mo
was near so three classical signs of
God's presence but the Lord is not in
the earthquake or the wind or the fire
then Elijah here is a tiny whispering
voice and he covers his head with his
prophets mantle and he goes out to
listen because the Lord is in that
little voice beautiful scene very
lyrical what's it getting it I think
it's getting at conscience
what's the tiny whispering voice it's
that voice that we all recognize that
tells us right from wrong that rewards
us in his absolutely unique way when
we've done something that's generous and
kind and godly and that punishes us in
that absolutely unique way when we've
done something that runs a counter to
God's will Cardinal Newman one of my
great heroes refer to the conscience as
the Aboriginal Vicar of Christ in the
soul so Newman reverence the Pope is the
Vicar of Christ but he said there's a
more original Vicar of Christ in the
soul of representative Christ namely the
voice of the conscience now I know we're
all post-freudian
we tend to say well conscience you know
that's just the internalized voice of
your father
that's the inherited prejudice of your
society that's all your hangups etc etc
well see that all you want and those
things are real I get all that let's say
it all you want you cannot reduce the
conscience to those things there's
something that is just so powerful and
clear and integral about it that we know
it's not just a matter of hang-ups and
repressions or internalize the voices of
the Father there's something about the
conscience that presses upon us with
enormous power you know let me get at it
too and I'm using Newman here as an
inspiration by way of contrast so I
write an article every week that's part
of my job and I kind of have a sense
having written things for many many
years that's a good one you know that
article was good I've got an inner sense
it tells me yeah that article was it's
good it's clear it's interesting
I've also got a pretty clear sense when
an article isn't so good say well that
one was yeah it's okay but it's not
really up to par or that's really a
that's really a second-rate article now
I know that feeling and I know the the
positive quality of that feeling I also
know the negative quality of that
feeling my point is it's not like the
conscience what I feel when I say yeah
I've written a good article it's good
it's a good feeling
it's not like the feeling that I get
from doing something morally right or
the feeling I get from writing a bad
article it's bad but it's not like the
feeling of conscience when I've done
something morally wrong we'd use the
word shame there you know I'm ashamed
when I do something that is cruel or
unjust or manipulative or disrespectful
I feel ashamed of it I don't feel
ashamed when I write a bad article I
feel bad about it I regret it you might
say but I don't feel ashamed as he hears
Cardinal Newman's point we call the
conscience of voice I don't call that
sensibility about the article of voice
the voice of my literary Sensibility
told me say that but I do say the voice
of my conscience told me that's the
right thing to do or that was a bad
thing to do and why why because the
conscience places us in the presence of
someone that we love that when you are
rewarded by your conscience is the
feeling you get when you've pleased
someone that you love when you are
punished by your conscience
it's the feeling you get when you have
hurt or disappointed someone that you
love you see that's why the conscience
is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ and
the soul it's the contact we have if you
want with the personal God who rewards
us and who chides us when we're less
than what we should be go back to Elijah
no Eliyahu the man of God Elijah was
ordered to God
his whole life was about God everything
else fell in place around that the point
of that story from first Kings is Elijah
had the great grace to be able to hear
that little voice see the problem is the
conscience can be drowned out the
conscience can be ignored we can we can
look the other way because there are
thousand voices competing for our
attention thousand voices and they're
more like earthquakes and fire and wind
are more extraordinary and they call out
to us live this way do this don't do
that
think of a kid coming of age now in our
culture being told in a million ways
here's what you should do here's the
life you should lead follow this person
do do you have the capacity amidst all
those voices to hear that tiny
whispering voice because that's the one
you got to pay attention to the Lord
said it prophets a man nothing to gain
the whole world and lose his soul you
know there are voices that are calling
out to young people that might actually
promise them and even deliver to them
the whole world all the pleasure and
money and power and so on they want but
how tragic if you follow those voices
but in the process lose your soul which
means lose what your conscience is
telling you so I would urge especially
young people listening to this video is
think of it scene of the Prophet Elisha
on God's holy mountain as he hears that
one voice that's the one you need to
follow