In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.
Today we celebrate the feast day of one of the
most prominent saints of the early church, particularly
dear to Eastern Christians, Eastern Orthodox
Christians, St. John Chrysostom. St. John was
born about the year 349 in Antioch. Antioch was
one of the major cities in the Roman world at
that time. Actually, you had Rome, Alexandria
in Egypt, and then Antioch. If you picture the
Mediterranean Sea, Antioch is on the coast of
the far northeast part. of the Mediterranean
Sea. Very prominent city. Cosmopolitan. Probably,
they guesstimate, half a million people lived
there, which was quite significant in ancient
times. People from all different nationalities.
Different religions, too. The most prevalent
one, of course, was paganism, but that was at
the time of John Chrysostom on... in the decline
because the Christian church was growing but
you also had in addition to pagans there is a
very large colony of Jews and then also the growing
Christian church and you had the Orthodox and
then you had a group of Christians that were
still hanging on to Arianism even though Arianism
had been defeated at the First and Second Ecumenical
Council. And then you had a few, the disputes
about who Jesus Christ is were just in their
first phases. So it was in the quiet between
two storms. The storm over the Trinity. How can
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons,
be one God? Then, of course, we have as a result
of that the Nicene Creed. Then there's sort of
a quiet and a lull, and the next thing that erupts
is, okay, who is Jesus Christ? Is he God or man
or somehow both? Those were the two theological
issues which confronted the early church, and
you know about them. because they're referred
to frequently by Orthodox preachers. But St.
John, his legacy for us, he grew up, he studied
rhetoric, which was the art of public speaking,
in addition to philosophy and the classical Greek
literature. So he had a very excellent... liberal
arts education, so to speak. In fact, his teacher,
one of the most prominent of the pagan teachers,
his name was Labanius, and Labanius on his deathbed
said, oh, that John, he would have taken my place
if the Christians hadn't stolen from us. And
so John... And he became Christian, of course,
and so he was very much indebted to this excellent
education he received. And then as a Christian,
he went on to study under one of the prominent
Christian theologians in Antioch at that time,
whose name was Diodor. He came from the city
of Tarsus, which is the same city that St. Paul
came from. And his fellow student was another
prominent preacher turned out to be Theodore,
Theodore Bishop of Mopsuestia. And both of them
are significant as commentators on the scriptures.
They gave us a wealth of information. Theodore
got into disfavor in later church history because
he was the teacher of Nestorius. the bad guy
who was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in
431. So he got a bad rap from church history.
But Theodore himself was not really heretical.
He might have said a few things which by later
standards were less accurate than they should
be. But John and Theodore studied under Theodore
two prominent exegetes. Exegetes meaning explainers
of the scriptures. They gave homilies on the
scriptures. To see how much of a legacy we have
from St. John Chrysostom, he and St. Augustine
are the ones, the most prolific writers, the
wealth of information we have on fathers' thinking
and teaching and commentaries on the scripture.
come from John Chrysostom in the East and Augustine,
who lived about a generation after John Chrysostom
in the West, in North Africa. And just to show
you how much we have, this is a collection of
writings in the early church. You have them in
your parish library. But seven of these are the
writings of St. John Chrysostom. Small print,
two columns, so it is magnificent collection
of commentaries on scripture, the Old Testament
and the New Testament. How did they come down
to us? That might be curious because you read
these and you wonder, wow, it would probably
take an hour to preach this sermon. Maybe they
were that long. But most of us think that John,
when he was preaching, it's typical of what happened.
John, and of course he was such a good preacher.
He knew the language. He explained it beautifully,
understandably, but remarkable in his use of
the Greek language. That's how he earned the
nickname John the Golden Mouth, Chrysostom. That's
what Chrysostom means, the golden mouth. What
would happen is that you had in the congregation
people that were called tachygraphers. Well,
tachygraphers is a Greek word for quickly. So
they were stenographers. They wrote down quickly.
And then presumably what they would do would
bring these notes to John Chrysostom Monday or
Tuesday, who knows, and then give them, this
is what you said. And John would, of course,
take this and perhaps modify it, expand it. But
the question is, I don't know how much he really
needed to modify because people were amazed that
he could speak so long. Quote the New Testament
and the Old Testament by heart. They say he probably
had the whole Bible memorized because between
his baptism... He went off for about five or
six years and lived as a hermit in the desert.
Came back to Antioch, and he was ordained a deacon
and then soon a priest. And much of these sermons
that we have were preached by him when he was
in Antioch, commentaries on the scriptures. he
would, again, rework these and show us this legacy
that has come down to us. Again, most of them
were on commentaries on scripture, but also he
wrote on numerous different topics. One that
was very prominent, and before a priest is ordained,
he's supposed to either read or reread. John
Chrysostom's treatise on the priesthood, which
is a pastoral theology handbook, how to be a
good priest, how to be a good bishop. He also
had a very famous, his catechetical lectures,
because he was put in charge of the instruction
of catechumens in Antioch. And we have there
again a wealth of information about catechetical
lectures from John Chrysostom, earlier from Cyril
of Jerusalem, and Theodore Mopsuestia also wrote
catechetical lectures, and then St. Augustine.
So those are the four prominent ones on how pastors
trained Christians. adults who were becoming
Christians and preparing them for baptism. To
make a very long story short, he gained such
a reputation as this golden -mouthed preacher
that he was called to be the Bishop of Constantinople,
the new capital of the Roman Empire. And when
he went there, this was a new... growing city,
this capital. He brought with him not only his
legacy of preaching, but also the liturgy, which
was the form of the liturgy which was used in
the church in Antioch. Because you had different
families of liturgies and how the Christians
celebrated the liturgy and the services. And
so he brought those, and we have the liturgy.
that's called the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
Because what he did, he didn't sit down one Saturday
and compose the liturgy that we are celebrating
today. No, he revised and standardized this liturgy.
So it has come down to us as one of his legacies,
the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. We mention
his name. at the conclusion of every one of the
liturgies that we celebrate. His legacy. He reformed
many of the practices among the clergy and the
people when he got to Constantinople. And he
made a number of enemies among the clergy, as
well as among the nobility, because at that time
it was prominent the nobility, the high -ranking
clergy, and then the big shots in the government
would get together periodically in other people's
homes and have banquets. Nothing immoral, of
course. They would just get together for a nice
meal and a party. And, of course, the bishop
of Constantinople would be one of these that
would throw parties. John Chrysostom comes along
because of his monastic background, says, nope,
those days are over. So a lot of the clergy,
the people thought, boy, he's really a party
pooper. So that was one thing. Then he preached
against ostentatiousness on the part of clergy
and people. You know, use your money appropriately.
Instead of buying all kinds of clothes and rich
things, give your money to the poor to build
hospitals. So that was one of the things. And,
of course, that kind of reforming resulted in
him not being popular in some quarters. Most
of the people loved him, no question about it.
But the powers that be drove him into exile in
wintertime. and he's trudging his way to Armenia
in exile, middle of winter, frost, rain, cold.
He died on his way into exile. So what's the
legacy of all this? Number one, I, and probably
most of the priests that preach sermons to you,
will look up in a book, like this, what did John
Chrysostom have to say about today's gospel?
So indirectly, John Chrysostom talks to each
and every one of you nowadays. This wealth of
explanation of the scriptures, that's his legacy
to us. Plus the love and enthusiasm that he showed
for God in his treatise on how to be a good priest.
how to be a good bishop, and also his legacy,
the divine liturgy which we celebrate. So this
man is without a doubt, we can say he was one
of the greatest saints of the early church. So
we who are the heirs of his wisdom and eloquence
and love for God celebrate his feast today. and
we ask him to intercede for his children, his
descendants in the church, us, now and throughout
our life. Amen.