The Main Compass of the Christian Life
A question from Irina Tsvetkova:
How does one learn the virtue of discernment?
Answered by Archpriest Vasily Kucher:
It is a good question, and the best way to begin answering it is with a story.
The Venerable John Cassian the Roman tells of how the elders gathered in the desert and began to discuss which virtue is the greatest. Some said fasting, others said vigil, others said non-possessiveness, mercy, or silence. Then Saint Anthony the Great listened to everyone and said: the greatest virtue is discernment. Because without it, every virtue veers either to the right or to the left, and a person ends up somewhere other than where he was heading.
To illustrate what can happen without discernment, Abba Cassian gives the following example. A certain Abba Heron labored in the desert for fifty years and fasted more strictly than anyone. But he refused to take counsel with anyone. It ended with a demon appearing to him in the form of an angel and commanding him to throw himself into a well — saying that nothing would happen to him, since he was a saint. And he threw himself in. They pulled him out barely alive, with broken arms and legs, and he died three days later. Indeed, it must be said that Abba Heron spent 50 years in the desert, but, as we can see, to no benefit to himself, because he lacked discernment.
So how does one learn this virtue? I will say at once what most of us think: that discernment is about the mind — read more, learn more, become very clever. But in reality the Fathers of the Church say something quite different.
For instance, Saint John Climacus says that discernment is born of humility. Not of wide reading or great knowledge, but of humility. Why so? Because a person who is certain he knows more than others becomes self-confident and sees only what he wants to see.
But the one who humbles himself does not trust himself and begins to ask others. Hence the second condition — counsel. Abba Dorotheus insists on this very point and repeats the words of Scripture: “In the multitude of counselors there is safety.” There is nothing worse, he says, than being one's own counselor.
There is also a third thing the Fathers speak of. When we are in the grip of a passion, we cannot see the world around us as it truly is. That is, as long as irritation, resentment, or envy is at work within a person, he simply cannot judge soberly. Not because he is a fool, but because he looks through the passion as through a clouded glass.
Therefore, the Fathers say, if you wish to have discernment — struggle with the passions. I will recall that in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Apostle Paul says that solid food belongs to the mature, “those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). Notice what he emphasizes — “by reason of use.”
That is, this is not a gift that simply falls from heaven, but a skill that is developed. Therefore, if we are speaking in entirely practical terms, it is better to begin learning discernment in small things: to speak or to stay silent, to respond now or tomorrow, to intervene or to stay out of it. And it is very helpful to adopt one rule — never make decisions when irritated or agitated. Also, ask questions. Not in order to shift responsibility onto another, but in order to hear yourself from the outside. And remember that discernment appears not in the cleverest person, but in the simplest — that is, in the one who is able to say that he does not understand something.
