On Distinguishing Good from Evil

This section of the Staretz' doctrinal teaching (in the book about St.Silouan) smooths the frigid day with warm comfort. Comfort allows peace to bring clarity of understanding and thought. A Catholic hermit must learn clarity in understanding and thought. This comes under, perhaps, the S of stillness.

Now to quote what Sophrony the Archimandrite shares of St. Silouan's teaching:

"The Staretz...held that the certain sign by which to recognize good from evil is not so much the end, which may appear to be holy and sublime, as the means selected to achieve the end.

"God alone is absolute. Evil, which has no original essence but is merely the resistance of the free creature to God, cannot be absolute. Therefore the evil does not and cannot exist of itself but must live like a parasite on the body of good. Evil must find a justification, must appear disguised as good, and often the highest good. Evil always and inevitably contains an element appearing to have a positive value, and it is this which seduces man. Evil strives to present its positive facet as a jewel so precious, or at all events so desirable, that all means are justified to attain it.

"Absolute good cannot be achieved in man's earthly existence: there is an element of imperfection in all human undertakings. This presence of imperfection in human good on the one hand, and the inevitable presence of some pretence of good in evil on the other, often make it extremely difficult to distinguish good from evil.

"The Staretz believed that evil always proceeds by means of deceit,camouflaging itself as good, whereas good in order to realize itself does not need the co-operation of evil. Therefore as soon as wrong means--malice, lying, violence and their like--make their appearance, one is entering a domain alien to the spirit of Christ. Good is not attained by evil means, and the end does not justify the means. Good not obtained by good means is not good. This is the testament we have received from the Apostles and holy Fathers. Although good frequently triumphs and by its appearance rectifies evil, this does not mean that evil has led to good, that good has come out of evil. That is impossible. But the power of God is such that where it appears, it heals all things so wholly that no scar remains--the damage caused by evil is effaced--for God is the fullness of life and creates life from nothing."

These aspects of distinguishing good from evil will take some consideration, over the course of this day, while editing the complaints of those who have been evily deceived and cheated in the consumer world, while putting more tangible objects in loving order in the hermitage, while writing the question about writing to be placed before the eyes of the Bishop (for the Lord sees through the eyes of my Bishop), while praying for good to occur in several prayer intentions others have requested, while reading the Gospel of St. John and more from the Staretz, aand while looking out onto the smooth-iced Lake Immaculata, along with Pope Benedict XVI, whose framed photo is enthroned by the window and smiles kindly at the Catholic hermit and says with his eyes: be good, be holy.