September 13 2022 - St. John Chyrsostom - Confessing the Truth of Christ

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, today’s saint detected God calling him to religious life. He initially entered a monastery, but soon found himself called to ordination as a deacon and then a priest for the Church of Antioch where he had been born—our Antioch, where St. Ignatius had been bishop about 200 years prior. 

It was soon very clear that the young priest was quite gifted in preaching. So St. John’s bishop asked him to dedicate himself to preaching throughout the diocese.  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.”

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.  The courageous bishop called for moral reform, starting with the imperial court, drawing scorn from the empress who he likened to the harlot Jezebel. 

Bishop Chrysostom knew that he must call souls to the gospel, like St. Paul, who said, “woe to me if I do not preach it.” The courageous bishop even directed his call to conversion to his fellow clergy: saying, “The road to Hell is paved with the bones of priests and monks, and the skulls of bishops are the lamp posts that light the path.” 

Priests and bishops are often put under great pressure to bend their teaching of morality, but to do so is to violate their duty and role in the Church. St. Paul warns the bishop Timothy about this when he says, “The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” John said, “we must not mind insulting men, if by ‘respecting’ them we offend God.”

Like today’s saint, we do well to be steeped in the Scriptures, to know them well, to be patient with those who reject them, that when we are called to explain our faith, we are able to do so competently and clearly, that Christ may be on our tongues, on our lips, and in our hearts, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the bishops and priests may be men of sound doctrine, and courageously preach the Gospel in its fullness. 

That government leaders around the world may carry out their duties with justice, honesty, and respect for freedom and the dignity of human life.  

For the grace to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbors and enemies and those who persecute us, and to share the truth of the Gospel with all.  

For all those who share in the sufferings of Christ—the sick, the sorrowful, and those who are afflicted or burdened in any way.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased clergy and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. 

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

February 1 2021 - St. Ignatius of Antioch (EF) - Crowned with Many Crowns of glory

About 300 years after the death of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the archbishop of Constantinople, the golden-tongued St. John Chrysostom gave a stirring homily about the martyred bishop, which can be accessed for free on the internet, if you have the means, I highly recommend reading it.

St. John begins his homily with a funny even surprising little analogy. He says, Entertainers—theater producers and hosts of athletic competitions and the like—put on frequent and constant entertainments to show off their wealth and to show good will to their acquaintances. In the martyrs, God has done something similar. In the martyrs, God shows the power of his love and grace, in transforming weak and ordinary people, into powerful witnesses of the Gospel. And unlike the theater and athletic competitions of his day, which were limited to just men, Chrysostom says, “both maidens and women, and men, both young and old, and slaves, and freemen, and every rank, and every age, and each sex” are called forth by God for the noble purpose---the contest, he calls it—of the Christian life.

Then, St. John goes on to say that Ignatius of Antioch was so successful in this contest, he won so many crowns he doesn’t know where to begin. He says, “just like when you go into a field and there are roses and violets and lilies and spring flowers, you don’t know where to look, “coming to this spiritual meadow of the mighty works of Ignatius” he doesn’t know where to begin. 

He begins, though, with Ignatius’ selection as bishop of Antioch. Ignatius was crowned by he was crowned by the Apostles, selected as bishop of Antioch by one of the original twelve apostles. The top stained glass window of the eastern transept, shows Ignatius and Polycarp kneeling before St. John the Apostle, as they are being made the bishops of Antioch and Ephesus respectively. 

To be chosen as a Bishop is a great honor, but Chrysostom notes that being chosen as Bishop by the Apostles was an honor greater still. The Apostles knew what the job demanded. Ignatius fulfilled some very specific Apostolic qualifications, like those set forth by St. Paul in his letter to Titus, when he writes “A bishop as God’s steward must be blameless, not arrogant, not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive, not greedy for sordid gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, temperate, just, holy, and self-controlled, holding fast to the true message as taught so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute opponents.”

And this leads to the second and third crowns. Ignatius won the crowns of being a competent bishop of a humungous diocese, boasting a population of about a million people. And not only a humungous diocese, but the see that was once presided over by the Prince of the Apostles, St. Peter himself.

Another crown, won by Ignatius is evidenced in his writings. In his letters, written to the various Churches visited on the way to his martyrdom in Rome, Ignatius exhorts Christians over and over to hold fast to the Apostolic faith taught by the faithful bishops.

And, finally,  while each of the other crowns and accomplishments of Ignatius were blessings to the Church, it is in the crown of martyrdom, that truly echoes through the ages. 

For anyone who might ever doubt that the Lord truly rose from the dead: the martyrdom of Christians like Peter, Paul, and Ignatius is proof that the Lord is truly risen. “For in reality, writes Chrysostom, “ [martyrdom] is the greatest proof of the resurrection that the slain Christ should show forth so great power after death, as to persuade living men to despise both country and home and friends, and acquaintance and life itself, for the sake of confessing him, and to choose in place of present pleasures, both stripes and dangers and death. For these are not the achievements of any dead man, nor of one remaining in the tomb but of one risen and living.

Martyrdom is therefore encouragement to every Christian, and proof for every non-believer, to forsake the world and to live for Christ who is truly risen. 

Not only today, therefore, but every day, writes John Chrysostom, let us go forth to blessed Ignatius, plucking spiritual fruits from him. His holy example is a perpetual treasure, a spring that fills us with blessings, with boldness, nobleness of spirit, and much courage, in witnessing to Christ in our own lives for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

September 13 2019 - St. John Chrysostom - Preach in and out of season

St. John Chrysostom was born in Antioch, about 250 years after our parish patron, the bishop St. Ignatius of Antioch went to his martyrdom. Perhaps the seed of our patron’s martyrdom yielded the fruit of St. John’s great faith.

The Gospel reading for his feast day is the parable of the sower of the seeds, for St. John sewed the seeds of the Gospel through his eloquent preaching and teaching. His name “Chrysostom” means golden tongued, about 600 hundred of his 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.

He explains that priests, as preachers must never simply preach what people want to hear, but preach the fullness of the Word of God. “A preacher must have a noble disposition to be able to check the inordinate and useless passion of the people, and to direct their attention to what is more profitable, and so to lead and direct them without being himself the slave of their fancies.”

Our Lord, we know from the Gospels, faced much hostility for the content of his preaching. He did not compromise the truth in order to appease the fancies of his audience.

In an age of moral relativism, when even many Christians turn away from authentic doctrine and sound moral teaching, each of us has the duty to remaining faithful to the truth of Christ despite pressures from the world and the worldly. Priests and bishops are under great pressure to compromise, to deviate from the truth, to preach to appease those "itching ears that turn away from sound doctrine" as Paul say, just as faithful Christians are labeled as “intolerant” by those who reject Church teaching, even by members of our family.

Rather, we seek to develop our skill in preaching, in sharing the truth of the Gospel clearly and eloquently, like St. John the Golden-Tongued, “to preach the word; in season and out of season; to reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction” as St. Paul writes to Timothy; for we were not made Christian to win the adulation of men, but for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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That the bishops and priests may be men of sound doctrine, and courageously preach the Gospel in its fullness. We pray to the Lord.
That government leaders around the world may carry out their duties with justice, honesty, and respect for freedom and the dignity of human life.  We pray to the Lord.
For the grace to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbors and enemies and those who persecute us, and to share the truth of the Gospel with all.  We pray to the Lord.
For all those who share in the sufferings of Christ—the sick, the sorrowful, and those who are afflicted or burdened in any way, especially those effected by hurricanes and storms.  We pray to the Lord.
For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased clergy and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray to the Lord.
O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.