Comfort Food for the Soul

Reading the Homilies on the Gospel of John by St. John Chrysostem is so soothing, so comforting, so peaceful that I have begun turning to them at night when I cannot sleep.  If I awaken during the night, attacked and disturbed by a "war of words," I simply have to turn on my Kindle and begin reading St. John's commentaries on the Gospel of John.  Instantly, I know the "peace that passes all understanding," and I drift off to sleep.

C.S. Lewis, in his Reflections on the Psalms, says that finding the truth is like a man who has been slogging for miles through swampy ground suddenly putting his foot on a firm, unyielding surface.  It is a feeling of peace, of security, of comfort.  In a world where one man's opinion is as good as another's, in a world bombarded by "communication" media, where what is communicated is often the fad idea of the moment, returning to solid inner truth is like entering a shady forest grove, where the only sounds are the songs of birds and the rustle of trees, where a man can hear the Voice of God speaking in his heart.

In his introduction to the Gospel of John, Chrysostem remarks that we often go to theaters to hear great orators and actors speaking.  If that is so, he maintains, how much more should we listen to John the Evangelist, who "...made ready his soul, as some well-fashioned and jeweled lyre with strings of gold, and yielded it for the utterance of something great and sublime to the Spirit....Seeing then it is no longer the fisherman, the son of Zebedee, but He who knows the deep things of God, the Holy Spirit I mean, that strikes this lyre, let us listen accordingly....

"For if we long to know what is going on in the palace, what, for instance, the king has said, what he has done, what counsel he is taking concerning his subjects, though in truth these things are for the most part nothing to us; much more is it desirable to hear what God has said, especially when all concerns us.....

"He has speaking within him the Comforter, the Omnipresent, who knows the things of God as exactly as the soul of man knows what belongs to herself, the Spirit of holiness, the righteous Spirit, the guiding Spirit, which leads men by the hand to heaven, which gives them other eyes, fitting them to see things to come as though present, and giving them even in the flesh to look into things heavenly.....

"For the words of John are nothing to those who do not desire to be freed from this swinish life, ...but this man's voice troubles none of the faithful, yea, rather, releases them from trouble and confusion; it amazes the devils only, and those who are their slaves.  Therefore.....let us preserve deep silence, both external and mental, but especially the latter; for what advantage is it that the mouth be hushed, if the soul is disturbed and full of tossing?  I look for that calm which is of the mind, of the soul, since it is the hearing of the soul which I require....for it is not possible for the ear, except it be cleansed, to perceive as it ought the sublimity of things spoken.  [Note:  Jesus often said, "Let him who has ears to hear, hear what I say.]  If a man cannot learn well a melody on pipe or harp, unless he in every way strain his attention, how shall one who sits as a listener to sounds mystical, be able to hear with a careless soul?"

Can't you just imagine listening to St. John Chrysostem preach these words?  Do not his words make you want to pick up the Gospel of John with silent reverence, to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through the words of the Gospel?  In 390, when Chrysostem was preaching, none of his hearers -- or very, very few of them -- would have had access to the written word.  Even after the invention of the printing press in 1440, only the very, very wealthy or royalty would have had access to the Scriptures in written form.  We are so fortunate today to have a Bible near at hand, to pick up and read for ourselves.  The problem is that most people will try to read the Scriptures, not as they would be listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking in their hearts, but as they would read a newspaper -- searching for information to fill their heads instead of their hearts.

If we want to know the truth that makes us free, there is only one way  -- through the Scriptures, or else through the Holy Spirit writing His word in our hearts.  And these two are One; they do not disagree, for it is the same Spirit speaking the Word of God through the printed page and on the book of the heart.  Many are those who cannot read or who have never seen a Bible, and yet who know the God of the Scriptures, through the activity of the Holy Spirit writing His truth in them.