October 9, 2022 - "Saint John Chrysostom"

I continue this series on the Doctors of the Church.  Today I am writing about Saint John Chrysostom (344/54-407), who was born in Antioch in Syria.  Chrysostom was not his last name.  The name really means “the man with a golden mouth”—a reference to his gifts as a preacher and a public speaker. John’s father died when he was a baby.  His mother, Anthusa, raised him.  John studied under Libanius, a famous rhetorician in fourth century Antioch.  As a young man for five years, he attended the Asceterius, a sort of seminary for young men, some of whom later became bishops, under the guidance of Diodore of Tarsus, who introduced John and his other students into the Antiochene school of biblical interpretation with its emphasis on the literal meaning and grammatical analysis of the text.  Apparently, John also received baptism during these years.  Then John spent four years with hermits on the nearby Mount Silpius.  He left the monastic hermits when he fell ill and had to return to the Christian community in Antioch.
 
John was ordained a deacon in 381 and then a priest five years later.  From 386 to 397 John preached at the cathedral at Antioch.  These eleven years were perhaps the happiest and most fulfilling years of his life.  While in Antioch John delivered courses of sermons on books of the Bible.  In 397 John found himself the reluctant victim of an imperial trick that resulted in his becoming the Archbishop of Constantinople, then the greatest city in the Roman Empire.
 
Congregations today would find John’s preaching a great challenge.  Often, he could preach up to two hours during which we could make various asides.  But he would come back to his main point.  In one of his asides he urged people to leave their wallets and pocketbooks at home as they had been plagued by pickpockets who were stealing money and possessions by the congregation listening to his sermon.  Most pastors today, present company included, would not agree with that recommendation!
 
John’s lifestyle at the imperial court was not appreciated by some bishops who hoped to received favors by hanging around in the hopes of getting the attention of the imperial family.  John recommended that they go back to their dioceses and properly serve their people.  He also offered a modest table to these bishops who were used to expensive foods and fine wines.  John also did not like court protocol that accorded him precedence before the highest state officials.  He did not want to be a kept man.
 
John’s zeal as a bishop prompted him to act in decisive ways.  Bishops who bribed their way into office were deposed.  Many of his sermons called for concrete steps to share wealth with the poor.  The rich did not appreciate hearing from John that private property resulted from Adam’s fall from grace—any more than married men were bound to marital fidelity, just as their wives.  When it came to charity and justice, John recognized no double standards.

John’s style of life offended some powerful people, including the Empress Eudoxia.  Another enemy was Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria.  Theophilus had hoped that he might be promoted from being Archbishop of Alexandria to Archbishop of Constantinople.  If that wasn’t to be the case, he lobbied for a candidate whom he could easily manipulate and control.  He came to realize that he would not be able to control or manipulate John. In 403 Theophilus presided at a synod (known as the Synod of the Oak) near Constantinople that deposed John.  John was banished twice; the first time for only a short while.  But during the second time he died (on September 14, 407) while being forced to travel in harsh conditions.
 
As Fathers Leonard Foley and Pat McCloskey have observed, “John Chrysostom’s preaching, by word and example, exemplifies the role of the prophet to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable. For his honesty and courage, he paid the price of a turbulent ministry as bishop, personal vilification, and exile.  John’s life was a great demonstration of this advice given in the Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops at the Second Vatican Council: “Bishops ‘should set forth the ways by which are to be solved very grave questions concerning the ownership, increase, and just distribution of material goods, peace and war, and brotherly relations among all people.’”
 
Until next week,
Fr. John