Resistance
- May 22
- 5 min read
“It is certainly necessary, in pastoral care, to consider the concrete political, economic, and social environments in which the faithful live. In so doing, the aim is, however, not to enable them to conform to the modern way of life, but to help them succeed, in their particular circumstances, in continuing to lead a Christian way of life, which is accomplished often not in conformity and accommodation, but in a form of spiritual resistance. This has been a clear principle for all the Fathers and for the Christian tradition since the origin of Christianity. The Church is in this world, but is not of this world, and the tension which exists between the Church and the world cannot and should not be abolished.” (Jean-Claude Larchet)
“…we often fail to see that our lives are always an act of communion. To live mindlessly in this culture is inevitably an act of “channeling” the culture, of living as an expression of the culture in human form. We shop because the culture shops. We “care about stuff” because the culture “cares.” We worry because the culture worries. We weep when it weeps and become angry as it rages. We unconsciously live as “epistles” of the culture (the Scriptures would name it as “Mammon”) even as the culture whispers to us that these are our own thoughts. We imagine ourselves to be willing individuals, centers of consciousness defined by our choices. In point of fact, we are often little more than mouthpieces of the culture-mind, our “consciousness” created elsewhere and marketed to us. If you feel no tension with the culture around you, then you have been swallowed alive and are being digested.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“We are all familiar with resistance training which is exercise that makes our muscles work against a force, such as weights, resistance bands, or our own body weight, so that over time, we build strength, muscle, bone density, and overall physical fitness. Asceticism is our spiritual resistance training in which we increase our overall spiritual fitness. Prayer, fasting, reading the scriptures, going to Church, giving, doing all of these things are the ways in which we change our hearts and grow in our love of Christ and others, and learn to live rightly in the world but not succumb to being of the world.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)
“If our asceticism causes us to feel distanced from other people, as if we are better than they are or more spiritual, then we are not doing it right. The purpose of self-denial is to help us focus on loving others not feeling distanced from them or to judge them.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“Our goal is not to become respectable socially or otherwise in the eyes of our neighbors, but to become perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect as “partakers of the divine nature,” which requires gaining the purity of heart necessary to see God. We must never assume that we have mastered His requirements, but instead must persist in the infinite journey of becoming more beautiful living icons of Christ. And that will require confronting the severe tension between our disordered attachments and the healing of our souls. When we experience that tension, we must not walk away in sorrow or change the subject, but instead must embrace all the more the difficult struggle to purify and reorient our deepest desires so that they lead us to our true fulfillment in God. We certainly cannot do that simply by our own willpower, but must become fully receptive to our Lord’s grace such that we can say with St. Paul, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me…” (Gal. 2:2) As the Savior said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” He was not speaking of the salvation of only the elites of this world, but of all of us who are far more enslaved to pride, the praise of others, and the love of material comforts than we know or would like to admit. Christ calls us all to turn away from whatever holds us back from taking up our crosses and following Him.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“ ‘and no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better’ (Luke 5:39). This saying occurs only in Luke's account, and illustrates…the difficulty with…the inner resistance a person faces in turning from a sinful way of life, and…the general stubbornness of the human heart…All of us have chosen to act against what is right and to resist the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Our personal failures begin in the heart.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Luke 5:39, Dynamis 3/17/2020)
“Man is a free moral agent. In spite of God's endowment of the gifts of rebirth and adoption, he can refuse and resist the divine calling and the indwelling Spirit he received in the sacraments.” (Father Eusebius Stephanou)
“Do we allow our own hearts to harden against the faith? If we read Romans 1:20-21 in conjunction with John 7:28, we understand that something inside us resists the Lord – even as we know that He is true and comes from above.” (Dynamis 5/13/2020)
“How we spend our money and our time are important. How we do the “little things” of the day. Living with awareness and gratitude – not as an afterthought, but as a way of life – are essential. Modernity teaches us to avoid suffering and to maximize pleasure. The Cross teaches us that there is no goodness that is not somehow marked by suffering. We rightly reject the path of least resistance and the lure of an easy life. Our path should be marked by love (laying down our life for others) as we seek to unite ourselves to Christ in all things.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“All of us have chosen to act against what is right and to resist the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Our personal failures begin in the heart. Still, even in this life, Wisdom’s feast is spread out for all who will listen. Christ invites us, the repentant sinners, to “take eat, this is My Body which is given for you.” (OCPM 3/14/2017)
“If a defining characteristic of the modern world is disorder, then the most fundamental act of resistance is to establish order. If we don’t have internal order, we will be controlled by our human passions and by the powerful outside forces who are in greater control of directing liquid modernity’s deep currents.” (Rod Dreher)
“I will tell you from experience that the sooner we accept what God has given us, the easier it will be to bear God’s good yoke, His easy yoke. It becomes heavy from our inner resistance.” (Fr. John Krestiankin)
“It is human nature to point to our inadequacies and let them direct us down the path of least resistance.” (Ginger Garrett)
“God demonstrates His consistent faithfulness even in the face of human resistance." (Life Application Study Bible, Jeremiah 7:27)
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