[Music] I'm a great fan of the Elijah stories which can be found in the first book of Kings I often tell people if you're interested in the Bible you want to get into it for the first time uh begin with those stories about Elijah they're very uh interesting kind of adventurous um and Elijah is a figure whose name gives away the game Elijah is an anglicization of eliyahu in Hebrew l means god yahu 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 uh worship that's where the word comes from um what's of highest worth to you what's of highest value so if you're familyes of highest value you're you're a family man you're a family woman if your business is most important to you you're a company man you know if uh if sex is most important to you you're a Playboy or a play girl um pleasure is the most important thing you're a Good Time 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 think everything he does think for example we 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 to thwart that move that's why Queen Jezebel 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 Si the Mountain of God and it says 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 Si when Moses was there so three classical signs of God's presence but the Lord is not in the earthquake or the wind or the fire then Elijah hears a tiny Whispering voice and he covers his head with his prophet's mantle and he goes
out to listen because the Lord is in that little voice right beautiful scene very lyrical what's it getting at 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 this 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 uh counter to God's will Cardinal Newman one of my great Heroes referred to the conscience as the Aboriginal Vicor of Christ in
the soul so Newman reverence the pope as the Vicor of Christ but he said there's a more original Vicor of Christ in the soul a representative of Christ namely the voice of the conscience now I know we're all post freudians we 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 Hang-Ups etc etc well say that all you want you know and those things are real I get all that but 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 internalized 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 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 that tells me yeah that article was it's good it's clear it's interesting Etc I've also got a a pretty clear sense when an article is isn't so good I'll say well that one was 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 uh 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 uh or disrespectful I feel ashamed of that 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 and see here's Cardinal Newman's point we call the conscience a voice I don't call that sensibility about the article a voice the voice of my literary sensibility told me I I don't 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 now why why because the conscience places Us in the presence of someone that we love that when you are rewarded by your conscience it's 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 Vicor of Christ in 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 now eliahu 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 a thousand voices competing for our attention thousand voices and they're more like earthquakes and fire and wind they're more extraordinary and they call out to us live this way do this don't do that think of a 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 voice CU that's the one you got to pay attention to the Lord said it profits 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 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 that scene of the Prophet Elijah on God's holy mountain as he hears that one voice that's the one you need to follow [Music]
