1/5/2024 0 Comments Unity church of cannabisWithout this spiritual attentiveness, each person is spiritually and psychologically vulnerable. Unlike drunkenness (which is not an inevitable consequence of the use of alcohol), fantasy is part and parcel of cannabis use, and diametrically opposed to the sober-mindedness called for by the Church Fathers, who warn us of the need to guard the senses at all times. Many of the Church Fathers speak of fantasy as the opponent of the spiritual life. The popularity of cannabis in popular culture-especially as a “natural” pain relief-has overshadowed these alternatives, adding to the masses of cannabis addicts. If the cannabis has been used to address some physical problem, such as pain, the cannabis user is also caught short, since there are countless more effective methods of medical pain management which are not addictive, and which are more effective, and with no side effects. Like other addictions, cannabis can become a substitute for dealing with the pain of sin and repentance in the Christian life, leaving a stubborn user perpetually spiritually immature, isolated from God, and usually angry with everyone. The “need” they describe is by definition an addiction, the same as alcohol or opioids, but this also has a spiritual component. Often, a spiritual child will tell their priest of their “need” to use cannabis for various medical or emotional maladies. While not all cannabis users become users of “hard” drugs such as cocaine or heroin, every user of cocaine or heroin found their way to harder drugs through the more “mild” effects and addictive habits formed by the use of cannabis. If one is serious about making progress in life, especially progress in prayer and progress in holiness, how would one hope to accomplish any of this while using cannabis? Further, cannabis is the only gateway for drug abuse and addiction: ask any drug addict. This never-ending pharmaceutical roller-coaster calls for the intervention of both a physician and a spiritual father, but more than this, the individual must resolve to heed strict and mature advice to resolve their addiction, on the path to recovery. Absurd indeed is the individual who both uses cannabis and takes antidepressant medications-one drug to go up, and another to go down. It is tragic to see the number of those suffering from depression who also use cannabis, since cannabis is an active chemical depressant. If one is serious about making progress in life, especially progress in prayer and progress in holiness, how would one hope to accomplish any of this while using cannabis? For the Christian, this also means undermining the capacity to pray-a habit which is tenuous in most modern people already. The use of cannabis is different: cannabis has a permanent effect on the brain, making the user dumber (both academically and socially), and undermining the attention span. The Church itself blesses the use of wine, and even when the over-use of wine results in drunkenness, this effect goes away. Often a comparison is made between the use of cannabis and the drinking of wine. Isaac the Recluse tells us that the crown of the passions is the justification of one’s sins (Prologue from Ochrid, July 3rd), and so it is often seen in the case of those who justify this addiction. Users are defensive of their habit, since cannabis use is obsessive, and by definition, addictive. Perhaps nowhere is this reaction more commonly seen in spiritual life today than in the case of those who are called on by their confessor to set aside the use of cannabis. The Elder said that such a person is waging a war in his mind against his spiritual father, and that the Lord allows great spiritual temptations to befall such a person. The twentieth-century Serbian Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica once offered advice to one who had thoughts of confusion-upset thoughts-after having confessed his sins and having heard the advice of his spiritual father.
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