Severity and Condescension in Pastoral Care

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the most important and most difficult deeds of
pastoral service — counseling, or spiritual care of the flock. The goal of this is incomparably lofty
and responsible — to raise the soul of the flock from the present state to the blessed one, «to give
wings to it, bring it out of the world and give it to God». The author is convinced that, considering
the problem of strictness (acrivia) and indulgence (economy) in the matter of nurturing souls, one
should be based not on an abstract doctrine, but on the living patristic experience of shepherding.
The experience of the strict and condescending attitude of the pastor to the flock, recorded
in the works of the Holy Fathers and in the monuments of canon law, is perfectly revealed by the
Fathers of the VI Ecumenical Council: «Those who have received the power to decide and knit from
God must consider the quality of sin and the readiness of the sinner to convert and thus use a decent
ailment to heal, so that, not observing the measures in both, you do not lose the salvation of the ailing one». The author concludes that, ultimately, the success of the pastor’s nourishment
of the souls of the flock is not in scholarship, not in mental subtlety, not in Jesuit ingenuity, but in
inner spiritual life, in filial fidelity and devotion of the pastor to the mother of the Church, in his
struggle with his own passions, in the manifestations of spirit and power.