"It were indeed meet for us not at all to require the aid of the written word, but to exhibit a life so pure, that the Grace of the Spirit should be instead of books to our souls, and that as these are inscribed with ink, even so should our hearts be with the spirit. But since we have utterly put away from us this Grace, come, let us at any rate embrace the second best course."
John Chrysostom, in this prelude to his homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, laid down these words around 390 years after the birth of Jesus Christ and the dispensation of the Holy Spirit permeating human being and human affairs.
His words document, to the "blame" of the christened, a moment in the history of the consciousness of the Christened wherein he could confidently state "we" (the Christened) "have utterly put away" the Grace of the Holy Spirit experienced as sufficient in itself to guide and inform without the need of the reflective nature through the agency of the written word.
With these words, Chrysostom marks and acknowledges both the reality of a consciousness and conscience guided solely by the immediate presence of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the turning away from that grace by the christened.
It is a surprise to me how readily he accepts this "blame" and gathers his reader's attention to the embracement of the reflective nature stating "But since we have utterly put away from us this Grace, come let us at any rate embrace the second best course." Whereupon he leads his readers into the process of reflection upon the Gospel of Matthew to aid their spiritual being as the "second best" alternative to the living experience of the immediate and continuous presence of the spirit of Jesus Christ as sufficient in itself to teach, aid, and guide them in matters of human relations.
This compelling and powerful mark, in the consciousness of the christened, documents a moment in time wherein a leading figurehead of the church purposefully led the Christened into engagement with the reflective nature to nurture their spirituality through the agency of the written word, even as he states:
"Reflect then, how great an evil it is, for us, who ought to live so purely, as not even to need written words, but to yield up our hearts, as books, to the spirit; now that we have lost that honour, and are come to have need of these, to fail again in duly employing even this second remedy. For if it be a blame to stand in need of written words, and not to have brought down on ourselves the grace of the spirit ..."
Even in the light of his recognition that the Grace of the Holy Spirit as sufficient in itself to rule and guide without the need of the written word is a "lost honour," he can see no other recourse than embracing the reflective nature which is the very cause of the "evil" and "blame" which draws the Christened away from the "honour" of the living Grace of the Holy Spirit itself as guide without the agency of the reflective nature and its agent the written word.
