Note: On Fridays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
He wasn’t an intellectual, or a noteworthy theologian, for that matter. But some say Saint John Chrysostom, whose feast day we observe today, was one of the greatest orators our Church has ever known.
He didn’t use metaphors, didn’t try to share the Good News in ways that might be palatable to the establishment or to
those in the pew. He just told it as he saw it. And his statements from more than sixteen centuries ago continue to rattle our notions of faith in action today. This Doctor of the Church’s treatises, homilies, letters and commentaries include such gems as: “What good is it if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden chalices when your brother is dying of hunger?” Ousted as bishop of Constantinople, he died on the way to his final banishment.
Here’s how Pope Benedict XVI explained the saint’s philosophy in a 2007 homily:
… It was a question of giving the city a soul and a Christian face. In other words, Chrysostom realized that it is not enough to give alms, to help the poor sporadically, but it is necessary to create a new structure, a new model of society; a model based on the outlook of the New Testament. It was this new society that was revealed in the newborn Church. … Chrysostom reaffirmed the discovery that God loves each one of us with an intimate love and therefore desires salvation for us all.
That message that God loves us all remains bold and challenging today. May we learn from Chrysostom’s fearless example.
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