My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOMOS BEGINS A SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
Saint John wished to bring about A SPIRITUAL REVIVAL, and encouraged the faithful to attend the Divine Liturgy. Although the Liturgy had been shortened already by Saint Basil the Great, still people complained that it was too long, and they stayed away. Saint John, filled with grace, abbreviated the service even further. What abridgments were made is not definitely known, but they were of some consequence must be assumed, otherwise why was his name placed in conjunction with the Greek Liturgy? Possibly the Antiochene Liturgy formed some kind of outline for him. Constantinople had just finished recuperating from the Arian occupation, leaving the city with no bishop, nearly no priests, and very few Orthodox. Reforms were needed. The former bishop, Nektarios, a court official with little theological training, seems to have continued with what he found in place. Other scholars suggest that when Saint Gregory the Theologian occupied the throne, he had already introduced Saint Basil’s Liturgy, and that is what Chrysostomos shortened. The Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostomos, as we know it today, developed somewhat over the centuries. The oldest text is now in the Vatican Library, and that one was in use between the years 788 and 797 A.D.
Whenever the Saint liturgized he beheld the Holy Spirit. Who DESCENDED UPON THE PRECIOUS AND HOLY GIFTS WITH A SIGN, WHICH ONLY HIS PURE AND BLAMELESS SOUL BEHELD. Once when he was liturgizing with a certain Deacon, that same one was gazing long into the gynaeceum, (gynekonite), which was that part of the Church reserved for women, where one beautiful woman was a stumbling block for him. The Saint perceived this because he observed that the Holy Spirit had not descended, as was customary. The Saint then dismissed the Deacon from the service, and then Saint John beheld the Spirit. After this occurrence, that it might at another time, he commanded the construction of a lattice for the gynaeceum. The women could look out toward the holy vema, but the clergy would not be able to see the women.
A Warning About the Spectacles
There were times when the crowds preferred the theater and the hippodrome to attendance at church. It was Great Wednesday, just before the Feast of Pascha. A severe storm hit the city. The frightened populace hastened to the churches, where prayers were offered up for their deliverance. A procession of the Holy Cross was made, and God hearkened to their entreaties.
By Great Friday the storm that visited them was already old news and forgotten in the minds of many. Not a few were excited about the upcoming shows that Friday and Saturday in the circus and theater. Saint John was both grieved and upset at how many of his congregation quickly forgot the visitation of God earlier that week; instead of preparing themselves for Pascha, they were already to run to the spectacles. Many of the people received the wise counsels of their Prelate, and attended church for Great Friday and Great Saturday, refusing to patronize the spectacles.
It was Great Friday, and many went to the chariot races, and circus. Bishop John was profoundly pained. On Pascha 399 A.D., when the church was half empty, and the yells, shouts, and cheers could be heard from the nearby circus in the ears of those in church, he reprimanded those absent from their venerable assembly, saying, "Is this to be borne? Is this to be tolerated?" Saint John then addressed his flock, and warned them of the negative effects of the theater on morals. "Now I have preached so often and instructed you for so long, still there are those who simply leave us here alone, and run off to the circus and charioteers and the horse races! So far have they yielded to their passions, that they fill the whole city with their cries and unrestrained yelling, at which one would have to laugh if it were not so sad… When the immense roar struck my hearing when I was in my house, I threw myself to the floor and hid my face. But what can I say, or what excuse can I give, if a stranger in the city should say, "Is this the city of the Apostle? Is this the city which received the Prophet Samuel’s holy relics? These are the people who love Christ? …Not once have you paid any attention to the holiness of the day on which the mystery of the redemption of our race was accomplished! Even on Great Friday, the day when our Lord was crucified for the whole world? …
"Three days ago when violent torrential rains swept our city and submerged everything, you prayed and wept. You went in crowds to the graves of the Apostles. You implored the assistance of Saint Peter and Saint Andrew. Then, only one day later, you are jumping with joy, and making an uproar, dragged away by your passions! If you wish to see unreasoning animals run, why do you not couple together the animal passions in yourseles, the anger and fleshly lust, and throw over them the yoke of piety, and give them your own conscience as charioteer, and drive them to the goal of your own supernatural vocation, in which you do not run from the outrages of the circus to those of the theater, but from earth to heaven? That kind of chariot racing is not merely entertaining, but also very much to your advantage!"
Saint John often spoke of the stage, admonishing the people, "For when you go up to the theater, and sit feasting your eyes upon the naked limbs of women, for the time indeed you are delighted, but afterward, you have nourished thence a mighty fever. When you see women exhibited thus… and behold spectacles and hear songs of irregular loves… tell me, how will you be able to continue chaste afterward with these narratives, these spectacles, these songs filling your soul, and dreams of this sort henceforth succeeding? For it is nature of the soul for the most part to raise visions of such things, as it wishes for and desires in the daytime. Now this whore goes with you, although not openly and visibly, but in your heart, andin your conscience. There she kindles the Babylonian furnace, in which the peace of your home, the purity of your heart, the happiness of your marriage, will be burnt up!
"Therefore, I make it known and announce in a loud voice: If any one, after this sermon and admonition, runs to the sinful outrages of the theater, I shall not allow such a one to pass the threshold of this church, to partake of the Holy Mysteries (Sacraments), to approach the Holy Table. I will do as the shepherds do, who separate the mangy sheep from the flock, lest they contaminate others…"
THE FINAL JOURNEY
Saint John, already weakened, was forced to go on foot over at least six mountain ranges, two great rivers, and nine tributaries. In the middle of a terrific rainstorm, they made the Saint continue walking, though streams of water ran down his back and chest. All the while, in spite of the hardships, he kept faith with Christ and had continual recourse to prayer. After a torturous three-month journey he came upon Comana. His health was greatly enfeebled by his forced march. At the Church of Saint Vasiliskos (a bishop from Comana who has been martyred by the pagans under Maximian in Nikomedia), he partook of the Mysteries. Saint Vasiliskos appeared to him in a vision and said, "Have courage, Brother John, tomorrow we shall be united."
That evening the Saint understood that the hour of his death was at hand. Sozomen says he was attacked with pain in the head, from the day’s march in the heat of the sun. He called the two hieromonks and the Deacon and disclosed his imminent departure. He asked for white clothes and received them. He gave his own garments, except his shoes, to those around him. Then, after receiving Holy Communion the following day, the victorious athlete laid down and surrendered his soul to God, saying, "Glory Be To God for all things!" At the last "amen," he signed himself with the Cross and reposed. This took place in 407 A.D., on the 14th of September, when the Church commemorated the Exaltation of the Precious Cross. Saint John was then laid to rest in that same church at the age of 63.
Thus, beloved Christians, we have done our best to recount the life of our holy Father John Chrysostomos. We have mentioned only some of his deeds, words, and missionary activities.
May we be deemed worthy to emulate his God-pleasing life and be vouchsafed to the heavenly Kingdom in Christ Jesus our Lord! To Him be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. [Resources: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church]
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 