He was kidnapped, exiled, and betrayed by those whom he called friends. For most of his life, he suffered from serious and often debilitating gastro-intestinal sickness. False and scandalous accusations were leveled against him. The very organization for which he worked sold him out in jealousy and envy. The rich became his enemies. He was tormented, he says, by fearful passions and psychological pain with which he struggled all his life. In the face of all of this, history records him as perhaps the greatest preacher of the Christian era. He was John of Antioch, known by the Church as “Chrysostom,” and today we commemorate that day when, alone and in exile, he uttered his last words: Glory to God for all things! There is little doubt but that St. John Chrysostom was one of the most consequential figures in Patristic history. Author and preacher of nearly 1,500 sermons, hundreds of theological works, scripture commentaries, and pastoral and moral teachings, Chrysostom’s impact on belief in the Byzantine east grew to stretch far beyond those borders to every heart and church in the world. From the mystical Divine Liturgy he penned (which bears his name), to his great Paschal Sermon celebrating the life-giving Resurrection of the Lord (read in every Orthodox Church in the world on Pascha), Chrysostom’s preaching communicated two principal emotions: spiritual fervor and soul-grabbing faith.
The spiritual fervor can be palpably felt in St. John’s words. Its power arises from his own personal suffering, from his struggling, from his ascetic discipline as a monk and from his pastoral responsibility as Priest and Bishop. Life was never easy for Chrysostom. He once wrote: “The Lord disposed that those who serve the altar shall also be subject to afflictions and struggles: so that from what they too suffer they may learn to have a deep feeling for others.” Chrysostom knew the crucible of pain and struggle but never gave up, never yielded to it, never lost touch with those, like him, who felt the heavy hand of God on them. Some of his most passionate sermons were written in the wake of personal struggle and have endured even to today for the same reason. Yet it was Chrysostom’s “soul-grabbing” faith that serves to continue to draw in new disciples. In his Paschal Sermon he lays bare the strength of his belief: “Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness. let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven.” What power Chrysostom’s personal faith showed – that despite the fact he had just reason to be discouraged. Death, hell, the demons, despair, and personal sinfulness were all banished in the rising of Jesus from the dead. That is why the preaching of Chrysostom a millennium and a half ago still echoes true in our hearts. Let us venerate the Golden Mouth with fitting prayer today, thanking God that He gave us this great preacher to stir our souls.
