This explains why the vices listed by St. Paul in today’s Epistle are no longer considered sins in many quarters of our culture, but rather, are championed as some kind of ‘liberation’ and freedom of speech from conformity to the modesty and restrictions on expression of the past. It does seem at times that we live in a world where everything is permitted and celebrated except the timeless faith in Jesus Christ.
I don’t know about you, but I meet many people today who are blissfully disinterested in Christianity. Part of me understands the apathy: much of what is understood as Christianity in America is a superficial and pale shadow of the fullness of the life in Christ He offers us through His Church. This people does not know the Orthodox life in Christ, but only caricatures of Christianity, which often appears staged, backwards (opposite of ‘progressive’), and irrelevant if not inauthentic. At the same time, I’m always stunned at the apathy. It makes me want to shout out, “Don’t you know what you’re missing? Don’t you realize that Jesus Christ is Truth and Life itself, that God loves you and invites you to share His life forever?”
While I don’t usually shout that at people, it’s in my heart sometimes to do so, because I ache for those who are missing out on the true life that’s only in Christ and don’t care that they are. Time feels very short to reach this country with the Gospel and Orthodox Faith.
The two Saints we celebrate today, St. John Chrysostom and St. Nino, both understood the urgency of the Gospel for each generation, for each people, for the world. Love of Jesus Christ translated as it always does as it grows into love for all people. As we grow in the knowledge and love of God through our increased communion (koinonia) with Him, we naturally come to see and love others as He does. This is why the Saints all share this love for their fellow man in common, if manifested sometimes in different ways, it’s nevertheless universal.
St. John Chrysostom did not compromise the truth of the Gospel to please the Empress Eudoxia. Instead, he held her to account for the egregious vices, and contempt for the value of human life. For his outspokenness he was exiled to the Caucus Mountains. There he died, uttering his last words in 407 A.D., “δόξα τῷ θεῷ πάντων ἕνεκεν” (“Glory to God for all things.”) To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, the role of the Saint is to hold up a mirror to the culture so it sees itself in light of the truth. And so, for this reason, the Saint often ends up a martyr. Many people don’t want to be held accountable or told they’re wrong, or have the teachings of Christ interfere with their lifestyle or want they themselves want to get away with. The Empress Euxodia was one of them. But St. John loved Christ more than he feared the Empress or any man. His citizenship was so much of heaven; he was truly in this world, but not of this world. For this reason, for His love of God and His Church, for His countless gifts of teaching, prayers, homilies, and commentaries of the Holy Scriptures and the life in Christ, his memory will be eternal in God’s sight.
St. John died in Georgia, where another great Saint, Nino, whom we also commemorate this day, was called by Jesus Christ to spread the Gospel, the Good News to a people still dead in paganism. Nino was compelled by her love for God to reach Georgia with the Gospel. The Georgians possessed the robe of Christ, but they were ignorant of its treasure. She couldn’t bear to think of this people, not knowing Christ and His Church. Imagine: a woman in this age, setting out with a blessing from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to evangelize a whole nation.
Nino received a mixed reception in Georgia. Her grape-vine cross in hand, equipped with a prayerful spirit and love of Christ for the Georgian people, she smashed the pagan idol temples through her humble prayers. But while the queen embraced the life in Christ, her husband, King Mirian, was not pleased seeing his countrymen turn from pagan idols to Christ. He planned to murder Nino, but just as he fixed his plan, God blinded him. He turned to the man-made pagan gods; they were, of course, of no help. Through this humbling experience, not knowing what else to do, King Mirian promised God that He would be baptized in return for his vision. Immediately, he received his sight again. The king informed Nino of his decision to become a Christian and soon the whole nation followed him in baptism.
Through Christ, even the smallest, the weakest, have all that is needed to change the world. Just look at what God accomplished through Saint Nino. Like the Good Shepherd, Christ, she and St. John, layed down their lives, dying to self, so that others could come to Christ and His Church and be admonished in the only true life there is. They did not compromise the truth to please those around them for they knew that Christ is the truth which prevails over every philosophy.
King Mirian found that paganism couldn’t save him. Queen Eudoxia’s son, Theodosius II, who brought back St. John’s relics, tearfully pleaded with St. John to beseech Christ God for the forgiveness of his mother. In the end, secular humanism, like paganism and all the philosophies and empty religions that have come before Christ, will pass away. As St. Nicholas of Velimirovic says, “If human philosophy can content a man, why did the philosophers Justin and Origen become Christians? Why did Basil and Chrysostom and Gregory, who had in Athens studies all Hellenic philosophy received baptism?” He goes on to list a great number of Saints, including the rich, the wealthy, the educated, the noble, Saints like Clement of Rome, Catherine, and many others—all of whom sought the Truth and found Christ God. Christ, the Logos (Wisdom, Word) of God, alone will remain and all with Him.
May we pray fervently to be a light of Christ in the dark places of our culture, our world. May we ask St. Nino and St. John to intercede for us that Christ God may give us a portion of the love for Christ they shared in, that we too may help others through our witness, words, and actions, to follow us on our journey of healing and growth in the life of the one true God.
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, 27 January 2013
St. Nino, Translation of Relics of St. John Chrysostom
