Tossed by waves yet not submerged

Our incomparable Saint John Chrysostom spoke to us at Matins this morning. To listen to the Fathers is to begin to see things from the right perspective. It is not by reading the latest sensationalistic news reports on the Synod being in held in Rome, nor by following the embattled arguments of those deep in the fray, that one comes to see things rightly; it is, rather, by abiding still in the heart of the Church, by being faithful to the daily round of Psalmody — for all is already clear in the Psalms — and by listening to the voice of the Fathers. Saint Benedict says it well in the final chapter of the Holy Rule:

For him who would hasten to the perfection of religion, there are the teachings of the holy Fathers, the following whereof bringeth a man to the height of perfection. For what page or what word is there in the divinely inspired books of the Old and New Testaments, that is not a most unerring rule for human life? Or what book of the holy Catholic Fathers doth not loudly proclaim how we may by a straight course reach our Creator?

From a Homily by St John Chrysostom, Bishop & Doctor
(Homily 2 on Eutropius)

Abide with the Church, and the Church does not hand you over to the enemy: but if you fly from the Church, the Church is not the cause of your capture.  For if you are inside the fold the wolf does not enter: but if you go outside, you are liable to be the wild beast’s prey: yet this is not the fault of the fold, but of your own pusillanimity.  The Church has no feet. Talk not to me of walls and arms: for walls wax old with time, but the Church has no old age.  Walls are shattered by barbarians, but over the Church even demons do not prevail. And that my words are no mere vaunt there is the evidence of facts.  How many have assailed the Church, and yet the assailants have perished while the Church herself has soared beyond the sky? Such might has the Church: when she is assailed she conquers: when snares are laid for her she prevails: when she is insulted her prosperity increases: she is wounded yet sinks not under her wounds; tossed by waves yet not submerged; vexed by storms yet suffers no shipwreck; she wrestles and is not worsted, fights but is not vanquished.  Wherefore then did she suffer this war to be?  That she might make more manifest the splendour of her triumph.

I saw the swords and I meditated on Heaven; I expected death, and I bethought me of the resurrection; I beheld the sufferings of this lower world, and I took account of the heavenly prizes; I observed the devices of the enemy, and I meditated on the heavenly crown: for the occasion of the contest was sufficient for encouragement and consolation. True! I was being forcibly dragged away, but I suffered no insult from the act; for there is only one real insult, namely sin: and should the whole world insult you, yet if you do not insult yourself you are not insulted. The only real betrayal is the betrayal of the conscience: betray not your own conscience, and no one can betray you.