What Happens in the Crossroads of the Spirit
It is the task of the hands to find food for the body’s necessities, and the task of the mouth to give service to the word. This particular organ is ours so that we can emit sounds, and we have another organ to receive them. The two activities are not muddled up, every organ carries out its own specific function without disturbing the one next to it. Hence the ear does not have to speak, nor does the tongue have to listen.
Imagine a big city welcoming its visitors by many different gates. Not everyone goes to the same part. Some go to the market, some to their homes, some to the public halls, some to wide streets, some to narrow alley ways, and some to the theatre, each according to his preference.
Something similar takes place in the city of the spirit, the city within us.
The doors of the various senses are filled with many things. The spirit examines these, it distinguishes between them and sorts them out, sending each one to the place where it will be dealt with appropriately.
This is what happens in the crossroads of the spirit.
Gregory of Nyssa The Creation of Man, 10 (PG44, 152)
A Mirror with which to See inside Ourselves
Holy Scripture is presented to the mind’s eye like a mirror in which the appearance of our inner being can be seen.
In this mirror we can see both the ugliness and the beauty of our soul. We can tell what progress we are making or whether we are making any progress at all.
Holy Scripture recounts the good deeds of the saints and encourages the hearts of the weak to imitate them. In recording the prowess of the saints, Scripture also underlines our weakness in the face of the onslaught of the vices. But its words ensure that the more the soul sees of the triumphs of so many heroes of the faith, the less it is alarmed in the midst of its own battle.
Sometimes, however, Holy Scripture does not only record the victories of the saints but also mentions their defeats, so that we may see from their failures what we ought to be afraid of, besides learning from their triumphs what we ought to aim at. For example, Job is described in the Bible as being exalted by temptation, whereas David is represented as humiliated by it.
By this means, our hopes may be nourished by the valour of people in the past, while because of their weakness we may gird on the protection of humility. The victories of the saints give our spirits wings through the joy they cause; their failures give us pause through fear.
From Scripture the soul of the reader learns the confidence of hope and the humility of fear. Thanks to the weight of the fear, it does not have the temerity to be proud; but this fear does not cast it into utter despair, because the soul is fortified in the strength of hope by the examples of valour.
Gregory the Great Commentary on the Book of Job, 2, I (SC32, p.180)
~ Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain, A Patristic Breviary: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
