“Double-mindedness (James 1:8) speaks of one who has two loyalties, love of the world competing with love for God (see Mt 6:24). Such unstable life deadens our conscience and turns us aside from the truth.” (Orthodox Study Bible, James 1:6-8)
“Children, at their best, have an amazing ability to wonder. The world is fresh and new for them, with many things being seen and encountered for the very first time. They sometimes come to wrong conclusions, but even their wrong conclusions can be revealing to adults. Adults often fall into habit when it comes to experiencing the world. We drive to and from work by the same routes and routinize our lives repeatedly. These “ruts” make us blind to much that surrounds us and deadens our senses as well as our own capacity for wonder. At its worst, we become nearly immune to awe. We worry that we will be fooled.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“…electricity: through an electric bulb it illuminates the surrounding space; through a heater it heats up; through an air conditioner it cools; through a washing machine washes up clothes; through a vacuum cleaner it cleans; through a lift it rises high. Electricity activates so many other instruments in hospitals and people’s lives are saved…All these machines, devices and instruments operate normally, provided they are connected to an electric generator. If… the connection with the power source is cut off, everything becomes dormant. And you have probably seen what happens at times when whole countries are sunk into darkness and everything is dead. Something similar happens to the person who loses his/her faith and cuts off from the source of the loving power of our Lord and God Jesus Christ. He/she is deadened spiritually. That is why Apostle Paul sounds the alarm: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves” (2 Cor.13: 5).” (Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios)
“More painful than bodily death is that of the soul, that is, the absence of God from our life. The death of the body is an image of the death of the soul from the dead works of sin, ‘the passions of the flesh’. ‘Real death is hidden in the heart within us and we become deadened on the inside’. God allows us to have a sense, at least of bodily death, because the harsh experience of the pain it causes us can be a motivation for repentance and return to God. When we mourn the loss of physical life, it’s possible for us to ‘come to our senses’ and begin to seek the life ‘in God’, ‘which we have lost’, the ‘heavenly Mother’, the ‘Grace of the Holy Spirit’ and to return to it.” (St. Gregory of Nyssa)
“Our conscience is blunted above all by sin. The voice of our conscience grows faint. Sin covers the light of our conscience and slowly smothers it. When we disobey its voice, our conscience is deadened. Evil often begins with carelessness in little things. This regression, however, blurs the mind and weighs down the heart with inertia. Gradually, man becomes negligent in more serious things, and from small transgressions, he falls into grievous sins, until his mind is darkened and led to destruction. Our conscience is also blunted when we are immersed in daily cares, when our life is spent in the turmoil of earthly concerns…those who are consumed by the longing to draw nigh to God, reduce their needs and cares to a minimum, so that they may cultivate and illumine their inner spark and savior the light of their inner life. When we disdain our conscience and accept thoughts that come from the enemy, we come into contact with his devastating energy. By contrast, when we heed with close attention to the urging of our conscience and strive to snatch every wave of the Spirit, we keep in continual contact with the energy of God that cleanses, saves and sanctifies.” (Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou)