8 Saint John Chrysostom
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Perhaps, the greatest sermon ever written
of all times,
Chrysostom wrote 1400 sermons but there
is one that he will always be
remembered for, because in
every orthodox church anywhere in the world,
on easter Sunday,
after the anastasi,
after the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom,
the sermon of his
on the resurrection
will always be recited
and read by the people.
I personally would love to have been
at that sermon,
of the easter sermon.
Because it's such a powerful sermon
and it's of nothing all the other sermons
are not powerful but it's such an
eloquent powerful sermon.
And yet it speaks about everything that we
believe in.
If there are devout and God-loving people here,
let them enjoy this beautiful, radiant festival.
If there are prudent servants,
enter joyously into the Lord’s joy.
Whoever may be spent from fasting,
enjoy now your reward.
Whoever has toiled from the first hour,
receive today your just settlement.
If any have came after the third hour,
celebrate gratefully.
If any of you arrived after the sixth,
have no misgivings, you have lost nothing.
If some have been late as the ninth,
come forward, do not be at a loss.
If any of you have arrived only after the eleventh hour,
do not be dismayed for being late.
The Master is gracious;
He accepts the last even as the first,
He gives rest to those
of the eleventh as well as those
who have labored from the first,
He is lenient with the last
while looking after the first,
to the one he gives, to the other he gives freely,
He accepts the labors and welcomes the efforts.
Honors the deed,
but commends the intent.
So, all of you,
enter into the joy of our Lord,
first and second,
share the bounty.
Rich and poor alike, celebrate together.
Sober, heedless, honor the day.
Those who fasted, and those who did not,
rejoice today.
The table is full,
everyone fare sumptuously.
The calf is fatted
no one go away hungry.
Everyone, savor the banquet of faith,
relish the riches of His goodness.
No one need lament
poverty,
for the kingdom is seen as universal.
No one need grieve over sins,
forgiveness has dawned from the tomb.
No one need fear death,
the Savior's death has freed us from it.
While its captive
He stifled it.
He despoiled Hades and he descended into it,
It was vexed,
when it was tasted his flesh.
Foreseeing this,
Isaiah proclaimed: "Hades," he said,
was angered when he met you below.
It was vexed because it was abolished,
It was vexed because it was mocked,
It was vexed because it was slain.
It was vexed because it was shackled.
It received a body and encountered God.
It took earth and came face to face with heaven.
It took what it saw and fell by what it could not see.
Oh death, where is your sting?
Oh hell, where
is your victory?
Christ is risen and demons have fallen.
Christ is risen and angels rejoice.
Christ is risen,
and life rules.
Christ is risen and not one dead remains in the tomb.
For Christ, having risen from the dead,
has become the first fruit
of those that slept.
To him be the glory and dominion,
forever,
and ever.
Amen.
St.John Chrysostom was probably
was born in year 349
in metropolitan city of Antioch of Syria.
His mother was a devout christian,
a pure Greek descent.
Her name was Anthusa
and his father was a Roman general
of someone of high rank
in the Roman army and his name was Secundus.
He was young when his father passed away,
his mother never remarried,
and she had him educated
actually in the Greek language
in which reality, that was the only language
that he really learned after death
after his father's death.
Well! Anthusa never remarried after her husband died,
her focus was on educating John
and that's where her energies went.
My mother was a single mother
and from a little boy I always used to realise
how difficult it was for her to bring up
my sister and I
in a christian manner, in a loving household
with a father not there one hundred percent of the time.
I realize this is also so difficult for
Anthusa to bring up a young man
of the stature of St.John Chrysostom
in the same type of
household in loving manner.
At 18 years of age,
Chrysostom was baptized to Christian.
And also at that time he was completing
his rhetorical studies,
his.. his oratory skills,
under Libanius, the great Pagan philosopher.
When Libanius was dying,
his pupils around him asked him,
"who would be your successor?"
They wanted to know, who is going to take off from him.
And he said...
John
If the Christians haven't stolen him yet.
He was studying in in..
the best of non-christian educational centres
of the time.
St.John Chrysostom really was able to
perfect his way to articulate things.
Of course, he studied law
so he was a lawyer.
That helped in his thought processes,
in deducing a logic in reality.
In from his sermons you will see that
the experiences that he had received in the courtroom,
how he was impregnated with the human condition
and how he understood the hearts and the minds
of the people.
How they take? How they worked?
And he knew how to apply the scriptures
which he called the best medicine
that could be applied to any wound.
John decided to train in his lawyer robes,
in his law books, for a
classic in a Bible and he entered the
theological school of Antioch.
After his education,
he was convinced of the truth of the christian faith
and he became a monk.
And he withdrew into a monastic celi.
Before St.John Chrysostom
embraced a monastic life, his mother
came to him saying, pleading to him
of piercing, "do not make me widow for the second time."
and St.John Chrysostom understood and
loved his mother and said that he
would not leave for the monastery or the monastic life,
before the death of his mother.
During the 3 year period before the passing
of his mother St.John Chrysostom took
this opportunity to
read the scriptures, study them thoroughly
and prepare himself for his future monastic life.
At this point, Anthusa passes away and
St.John Chrysostom sells all of his earthy belongings
to the poor and embraces the monastic tradition.
In mountains, he escaped in order to
able to study the way, he really wanted to study
without any distractions, without the world
telling him what directions to go in,
where and how to use his talents
he looked inward, and what he found
inward was a tremendous yearning and
thirst to learn about scriptures.
He lived a life, a very severe life
of monasticism,
and eventually he had to give it up because
in the mountains, he developed a very serious condition
with his kidneys and they were failing.
When St.John Chrysostom was in his monastic life,
he was visited by St.Charlie, the evangelist
and St.Peter and St.John brought to say Chrysostom
the squals said that your monastery is not just
the monastic life to your monastery is in the church.
And to preach to the people and to
offer them Christ.
Once again it shows, that god perhaps has
other plans for us, because by coming out of
the monastery what John Chrysostom offer to
early Christianity into the church today
is great.
And then he went back in to the city of
Antioch. He resumed his health.
And then at 31 years of age,
Meletius, the reigning bishop at the time
ordained him a deacon.
And then when he was 36 years old,
Flavian of Antioch,
ordained him a presbyter were priest.
It may seem like a he was a little older
than what we are used to in this day in age
and even the canons of the church at that time
were written to, specifically have a priest
ordained only after 30.
It even exists today, but with economy of the church
bending the rules, we allowing younger people
to be ordained because we are educated
at much younger age.
At this age because our resources are there
opportunities are there, they weren't at that time.
Finally, when he became a priest
he became famous for his sermons
He had a tremendous mind,
He had memorized vast amount of scriptures,
whether or not he preached from
prepared texts so extemporaneously
he hypnotized, captivated the people who listen.
Everything through his education even
from his non-christian teachers
and his christian teachers
is finely put together
and he is able to expand ensure the beauty
and the eloquence of who he is.
By his sermons, by his speaking,
by his teachings, by his love to his people.
When St.John Chrysostom preached
he never used notes and it was
important that the people who were listening to
his sermons were gathered,
wrote down his notes on paper and were
able to save it for us in the church
to use today.
John Chrysostom often preached long sermons
that were not for long time but instead
of boring people, he was energizing people.
He could have gone on for 2 hours,
his sermons were not the 10 minutes that
we are so impatient to have today.
But people were actually glued in the
absorbed, every word that is that he said.
They applauded, he had homilies against people,
applauding and acting so for the church
because of his homilies.
He also wrote a number of treatises,
and a number of his sermons have been preserved
in writing.
At one point in his life, St.John Chrysostom
wrote on the priesthood.
The six books on the priesthood,
and in there he wrote about his unworthiness,
of being a priest because of the immense..
immense authority and the immense
value and.. and.. divine power given to him,
to do what he had to do.
He wrote
many sermons and talks
on marriage and family life
with tremendous insight.
From man who have celibate
and in senate among
he gave tremendous advice
to husbands and wives
and fathers and mothers.
For example,
he tells the a husband
anytime you want to correct your wife
first tell her how much you love her.
And then correct her.
This is great wisdom.
One of the most important things St.John Chrysostom
did and is remembered for
is the editing of the Divine Liturgy
that now bears his name.
He did not write very much of this Divine Liturgy.
The Divine Liturgy of St.John Chrysostom
took on the name of Chrysostom
because he edited the existing liturgy
which was in Constantinople at the time.
Which was the liturgy of St.Basil the great.
And we know that, probably
Gregory, the theologian
in Cappadocia introduced that liturgy
into Constantinople
and therefore, Chrysostom had something to edit
and he edited, basically the mystical prayers
more penitential in nature
he edited them
and it became shorter because people
as it is the case today, they would not
want to go to church, it was services
were too long.
And they they they.. would not go.
At that time there was the Arian controversy,
which left the city with no bishops
hardly any catholic bishops
orthodox bishops,
few priests and hardly any
any pressures.
So.. so reform had to be made to attract the people back
to the church.
And it is that liturgy which probably has
evolved from that time until now
somewhat, but as a liturgy of Chrysostom
that is the liturgy that we are seeing now.
At the time when he was the prince of Antioch,
the emperor to be able to pay off some
debts or whatever raises the taxes in his
empire. And he really hits hard,
some of the major cities of Antioch is taxed
very heavily.
And with taxation, there is a major uproar
in the city where,
the people go after the statue of the emperor
start tearing it down.
Destroying anything that has it have a public identity to the emperor.
to show their disgust, to show their
hatefulness, to show their total rejection
of what the emperor did.
For hem there was act of treason
He came in with the soldiers
you seem, it was threatening to wipe them all out
to kill people to..
to.. to subdue the insurrection and
so forth and to enforce the tax.
And Chrysostom seeing this
and he knows he has to do something
so he himself steps in
becomes a mediator between the people
and the emperor and calms everything down.
This is one the power Chrysostom had
from the pulpit, the power that he had
with people, really
began to take root
he stood at the pulpit of many churches in Antioch
homing the masses and convincing the masses
that they have to coexist with the emperors
and with authorities at the time.
Paralleling the authority of God
in his tremendous orations
to the.. to the authority of the emperor
give Caesar what is Caesar's given to Caesar
what is Caesar given to God what is God's.
At that time Chrysostom wrote the 21 homilies on
the statues. The significance of this 21 homilies
on the statue was to try to show people
how to live and what the relationship is
to the church, the relationship is to the government.
This period of his ministry ended rather
unexpectedly when the Archbishop
of Constantinople died.
This point in his life, 49 years old
St.John Chrysostom was
elevated to the position of Archbishop of Constantinople.
There was a bishop in Alexandria, very powerful bishop
a known bishop,
popular,
Theo-Philus who covered that role,
covered that position that St.John Chrysostom
was now going to assume.
He was asked even to come in
throne, the person he was very jealous of Chrysostom.
Theo-Philus was very jealous and thought
St.John Chrysostom was not worthy
of becoming the archbishop of Constantinople.
Theo-Philus did everything he could
to bring down
the reign of St.John Chrysostom.
What Chrysostom inherited
was an absolute mess
this is what he was given to clean up
basically,when he became the patriarch.
He saw how his predecessors let things slide
and things were relaxed.
Specially, amongst the.. amongst the
bishops and the priests.
Bishops were openly living with other women.
The priest that the priesthood was for
gaining and holding money
They abused their power.
They the faithful.
The laity, they were living a lifestyle
of moral decadence.
The way that he counteracted,
the.. the.. the looseness of the city and
so forth was to.. to care for the sake
of suffering.
And he built hospitals and he encouraged the
priest to preach well prepared sermons
because they were not prepared.
Priests became priests simply for the money
they saw the glory and the power.
And they not become priests for, while they should be
to be pastures for the people.
And because of these things Chrysostom
was looked down upon and he challenged
a lot of people.
All of sudden we see
another force come in and that is the empress
Eudoxia
and she has distaste for Chrysostom.
In the end of the day, Arcadius was the emperor
and Eudoxia his wife was running the show.
She had the control
and he was weak
so he did whatever the empress said.
The Empress Eudoxia was threatened by St.John Chrysostom
and felt that he was
being blessed and offering incorrect teachings
to the people in the church.
Therefore, together with Theo-Philus
of Alexandria, he called a senate there
to condemn Chrysostom on several charges.
On 29 charges.
And actually when you look at somebody charges today
they are very laughable.
But at that time they were very serious
some of the charges against him were the
misappropriation of funds, the selling of church relics,
church properties,blasphemy bishops and priests
and he also be the man after the man who
received the whole community from him.
They also said that he performed his.. his
priestly ministry, his liturgical functions outside jurisdictions
like ordaining priests that he had,
that he wasn't supposed to and so forth.
Archbishop Theo-Philus and
the empress Eudoxia were working together
to essentially put St.John Chrysostom
out of the seas of Constantinople.
And it was only the empress who was doing this
but was also clergy to the priest
because they were jealous
of what was going on
with him being popular with the people
in a popular with them.
She politicized this.. these issues
trumped up charges and soon was able to
solidify the exile.
The first exile in 403
of the archbishop of Constantinople, St.John Chrysostom.
Chrysostom was exiled,
something profound happened,
an earthquake happened.
Eudoxia, being superstitious like
any of the royalty of the time
indeed began to fear
what was going to happen to her
and to her power.
And even with those realities
in the revolt of the people
because the people began to be in sense that
she had done also realized that she should
bring back. A year later, she brought back
St.John Chrysostom, put him back on throne.
She bring him back at 403 A.D in a year.
trans things forgotten.
Just do what you are supposed to do as a good shepherd.
and don't make attacks.
When St.John Chrysostom returned from exile,
Empress Eudoxia had erected a statue
of herself, right in front of the church.
Not off to the side, not in an area, not in mueseum
right in front of the church.
St.John Chrysostom compared Eudoxia to
Herodias, who was King Herod's wife.
In which she convinced Salome, her daughter
asking Herod to held St.John baptist
as we know in the story of The New Testament.
In June 404, he was permanently exiled
from Constantinople.
And the Emperor ordered person to be taken
in very remote place,
Where no one could see him.
When he was exiled from Constantinople
He traveled,
through churches,
inclement climate,
for 3 years that he was assigned a group of soldiers,
to.. to murder him, he traveled through
by travelling and he walked
on foot through snow,
sleet, ice, wind
tremendous hard weather which would
normally kill a normal human being
and that was the purpose.
The soldiers were told,
that was their job
to.. to
to kill him through slow and torturous method,
this very painful method.
Slow death through the elements of nature.
How could we do this to a human being?
How could we do this to such a loving man,
somebody who offered his entire life
to the ministry of Christ,
to the ministry of the world.
How can we treat a human being in this way?
The night before his death,
He stopped at the church of the Martyr Basiliscus,
someone who, he wrote a great paenger of homily on.
And at there, in the evening,
at night during his dream,
the Martyr Basiliscus came to him and said,
John my brother! Be of good cheer,
be courageous, for tomorrow we shall be together.
And in the morning, the soldiers woke up
and wanted to push him even more
and he was about to die
so they figured he couldn't go anymore
so they brought him back
to the church of Martyr Basiliscus,
They dressed him in the white garments of death
according to an ancient Roman custom.
And the priest of
the church there
gave him the body and blood of Christ
that which he preached and he lived in
breathed all his life.
And then he laid down before the holy altar,
and said the famous statement that he can
be remembered of,
'Glory to God, for all things. Amen.'
And he fell asleep
in the arms of the lord, 56 58 years old.
In the traditional orthodox church,
There is feast called - movable feast.
What movable feast are is that
just practically what it says
its a feast day at the church
that you can move, why would one move it
because September 14, is the exaltation of the cross.
So, St.John died on September 14th
we very well could have two great feast of the church
on the same day, so that is moved
to November 13th.
Its interesting to know that the orthodox
church celebrates the transition
of moving of the relics St.John Chrysostom
on January 27th.
We know that the children of the Empress Eudoxia
went and brought the relics
of St.John Chrysostom
to the case where her mother was buried
and the legend is
or the story the tradition is
that her bones were rattling,
they could not find peace and rest
until.. the.. the bones of John .. bishop John
the golden mouth were brought back into Constantinople.
By bringing the relics of St.John and placing
them next to her, casket her coffin
where she's suffering
Until the relics were brought
she was in a state of uneasiness,
but then as the relics were there, the rattling ceases.
And she is finally
out of torment.
There's an interesting story about St.John Chrysostom
on the last time that he was in exile,
he stayed
the night in the home of Arab bishop named Adealtius.
And had the opportunity to teach.
And after Chrysostom died
Adealtius in his prior life had an experience
with he will taken up into heaven.
And he looked around and he saw
the great teachers and pastors.
who have already preceded him going to heaven.
But he did not see St.John Chrysostom
And he asked the angel,
Where is my teacher?
and the angel answered him
No man still in the flesh can see him
because he stands along the throne of God
with the set of