Homily: Sept 13 2016 - St. John Chrysostom - The golden-tongued preacher

St. John Chrysostom said, “the saint who has gone up to heaven has no need of acclamation from human beings in order to arrive at a greater and more blessed place. We, on the other hand, who are meanwhile engaged in matters on earth…need to hear the saint praised in order to be so moved to emulate him.” So we do well to consider the virtue and example of this great saint, that we may emulate his sanctity and arrive at the same eternal reward.

St. Paul teaches us to consider the Church as a Body with many parts. And if the Church is a body, the saint we honor today, St. John Chrysostom is the mouth, or perhaps, the tongue. The name “Chrysostom” means golden tongue.

While studying civil law, he felt the call to enter monastic life, but discerning it wasn’t quite his calling, he was ordained a deacon and then a priest for the Church of Antioch.

And it was soon discovered that the young priest was quite gifted in preaching. So his bishop asked John to dedicate himself to preaching.  And, for the next twelve years St. John preached and taught on virtually every book on the bible. One writer puts it, “The pulpit was his throne, and he adorned it as much as any preacher of ancient or modern times.” And He was as Blessed John Henry Newman said, “a bright, cheerful, gentle soul; a sensitive heart,” who helped the people apply the Scriptures to their daily lives. About 600 hundred of her sermons and commentaries on scripture have been preserved, as well as many treatises on the moral and spiritual life, and a very famous book on the priesthood.

His reputation as a preacher and teacher led, against his will, to his election as bishop of Constantinople, the seat of the empire, which was really, at the time, a moral cesspool.  So St. John began to preach once again, calling the people to reform their lives.  Much of this call for moral reform was directed at the imperial court, and this drew the scorn of the empress who was leading a very depraved life and setting a terrible example to the people.  Once, when he preached on the story of Jezebel, the empress took it as a personal insult. So, she began to conspire against John.  She found an ally in the patriarch of Alexandria who was also threatened by John, and had John deposed on trumped up charges and forced into exile.

The people, however, loved John and so he was brought back to Constantinople.  And he didn’t back off.  He continued to preach the truth, to condemn moral depravity and the vanities of the aristocracy and the imperial court.  The powers-that-be were not pleased and sent the bishop again into exile, into such harsh conditions that he would not return. The old exiled bishop died on September 14, 407.
As a seminarian St. John Chrysostom always fascinated and inspired me.  He was called the Golden Tongue because he preached Christ.  And he was able to preach Christ because he knew Him,
because Christ dwelt in his heart.  And that knowledge of Christ came through prayer and the study of the Scriptures. John Chrysostom knew the scriptures and therefore came to a piercing knowledge of our blessed Lord, and was able to communicate Christ’s love and truth to his holy Church.

May we communicate Jesus to all those we meet today, may Christ be on our lips and in our hearts, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.