Encomium in sanctum Joannem Chrysostomum

11. Encomium of our Father among the Saints John of Damascus to Saint John Chrysostom. 1. It would be necessary, O all-golden John, for those attempting to touch upon your encomia to have been blessed with a golden tongue, to produce a gold-flowing speech. And in addition to these, your own voice would need to be present; for it alone could aim at a eulogy worthy of itself, and even that only now. For you, who lived on earth before your departure, forgetfulness of your own accomplishments was an accuser in your first discourses. For somehow the wise conceal their own achievements, lest the thought of them cause their being to slip away; but since to fathers even the lispings of their children are dear, and two mites are more pleasing to God than the delicate accomplishments of the proud—for He is accustomed to judge these not by power but rather by intention—and since the encouragement of a God-loving man is not to be rejected (for he is worthy of reverence and owes us the greatest thanks), I lay hold of the discourses, but not without restraint, nor without diffidence, but rather, constrained by fear, I offer you the firstfruits of your own divine and sacred teachings. For as I unfold such a subject, if I come near to its worth, the praise will not be ordinary; but if I fall short of it—which it is best not to suffer, yet impossible to avoid—I will submit to a just defeat with pardon, and grant me the fire-breathing grace of the Spirit. For you yourself became the mouth of Christ, drawing forth from the unworthy one who is worthy, not just one or two—for this perhaps even many could do—but whole households, and peoples, and cities. 2.

Beginning from yourself, you truly made yourself a Jerusalem, a city of the living God as a dwelling place of the divine Spirit, and you traversed in speech the limits of the whole earth, both of the East and of the West, of the North and of the South, so that the divine proclamation of the inspired David was most aptly spoken concerning you: "Their sound went forth into every land, and their words to the ends of the inhabited world." For you became a disciple of the true wisdom itself of Christ, the hypostatic power of God and Father, and you followed his tracks with all your might, and became an imitator of God as far as is possible for a human. For you built the limits of nature, the Gadeira of every form of virtue, upon the deepest foundation of humility, through which alone God deigns to save, and a human is saved. For there is no more secure support than this. And that humility comes from faith is evident to everyone. For how could one submit to a superior without believing that he is superior and most high?

You were full of words as a servant of the Word, through which you proclaimed the divine Word, consubstantial with God the Father through the Spirit, clearly knowing a unity worshipped in Trinity, and a Trinity recapitulated into a unity, bearing a paradoxical union and division. Neither is the unity confused, nor is the trinity divided apart; rather, each is preserved in the other, the unity of substance and the unalterable nature of the hypostases in the union. You taught these things to the whole world: one divinity in three hypostases, which in one of its hypostases communed with us wholly—that is, the Son of God and Word, who, being impassible, was united to a passible nature, and underwent these things as it were, and began to exist, being enfleshed and thickened, and the one simple in nature was compounded by the assumption of a nature, and was truly known as of two natures, bearing two natures after the union, from which he is one, as is proclaimed; each nature having its own definition and principle perfectly, the one unoriginate and uncreated, the other having a beginning and created; the one impassible, invisible, intangible, uncircumscribed, the other passible, visible, tangible, and circumscribed; each volitional, self-determined, and energetic, he himself accomplishing both this and that, the one Christ, and Son, and Lord; the one serving instrumentally, the other acting despotically; each having its own energy and self-determined motion.

And this one himself accomplishes both, through both working our salvific renewal, for which he compassionately emptied himself. 4. Having learned these things, you taught them, and upon them you built the golden and silver-bright comeliness of the best works, so that, approaching the critical fire, we might not be consumed as dry brushwood, but rather be purified more and more, being consumed only in what is counterfeit, and, pure, co-eternal with the purifying and deifying fire. Who would grant me a tongue worthy of the praise? Who would set me in that former day, when the divine fire, shaped in the form of a tongue, rested upon each of the apostles both unitively and in many parts, so that the one doctrine of the faith might be proclaimed in manifold tongues, gathering into one what was divided, the manifold error being dissolved—the error for which those who once built the tower wickedly conspired and received as wages of their impiety the confusion of tongue, and through it the division of mind? Who would impart to me that tongue of the Spirit, so that I might proclaim the super-natural excellences of this Spirit-bearing man? An ocean of words and an abyss of thoughts might be present here, but the grace of the Spirit does not yield to words. For he who wishes to speak of the things of the Spirit without the Spirit chooses to see without light, and has darkness as the guide of his vision. Therefore I return again to the one now being praised, kindling the lamp of knowledge from him as from a divine lamp, so that he himself might be the subject of the praise and the provider of the encomia. 5.

Who was so great in speech and so mighty in wisdom, the comparison of whom is beyond comparison, that it is unclear in which respect this one is more admirable? Who was such a visible model of virtue as to need no word for instruction? Who poured forth snowflakes of words that followed upon deeds, receiving their power from them, so that concerning this one also one may say what the divine Luke says about my God Jesus, that he began both to do and to teach, from whom he received both his being and his well-being? Who pursued both action and contemplation, trampling upon the pleasures of the flesh as if bodiless, and contemplating divine things with God? Who, with faith as the soul, fittingly arranged and subordinated works as the limbs of a body, and animated and enlivened works with faith, each of which without the other is useless and profitless, even if one might grant precedence to faith, not unreasonably? Who so expelled gluttony, enslaving the mistress, and muzzling her raging with pious reasoning, becoming her master, not her servant?

6. And so great was his excess of self-restraint that it escaped notice what and how much he partook of food and drink. For nature is perishable, and the flesh is fluid and mobile, and as if lacking breath; for without respiration it is impossible to live, and thus it is necessary to fill the deficiency of the rest. For there are three things that are emptied: dry, moist, and breath; for each of these, the corresponding replenishment that naturally constitutes this body was ordained by the Creator. But the grace of the Spirit does not yield to the limits of nature. For man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds through the mouth of God. Who was so pure in both soul and mind, as well as in body, that even his indifference to sexual unions was attested? But it was not truly indifference; for it was not irrational, nor a weakness of nature, but the mastery of reason guiding the irrational, raising every desire toward God, for whom he had been created, turning away from the smoothness of pleasure as fuel for fire, and choosing the roughness of virtue that leads to eternal ease. Thus, habituating himself, advancing from small steps, day by day he became ever more self-restrained than himself, until he completely lulled the passion, taming it by ascetic discipline and making it docile, until habit over time and progression drove it into a state of nature. For labor, when it meets with divine assistance, is naturally disposed to grant dispassion.

7. Who so utterly cast off love of money before possessions, and with it possessions themselves, desiring not to have as another desires to have? The foundation of the passions, the deprivation of hope, the adversary of faith. For this reason Paul, the divinely sounding lyre of the Spirit, the many-voiced mouth of apostolic tongues, aptly calls this a second idolatry. For one who lets go of the anchor of hope from divine providence leans upon the accumulation of wealth. Placing these before the better, as though about to live forever, and like a sea never filled, even if the greatest and most abundant rivers of gold flow in, the one now praised did not choose these, but thrusting all aside, boasted of a glorious and conspicuous homeland—I mean Antioch, which received the helm of the East—and of distinguished lineage and blood, yielding gold, silver, precious stones, and all that is soft and splendid in attire to others, and likewise the fame of eloquence and power. 8. He went to Meletius, the president of the Church of Antioch, a man abounding in many divine gifts, renowned in life and speech to all. Receiving him when he was about eighteen years old, and becoming a lover of the beauty of his heart, as if with a prophetic eye beholding the young man's outcome, after grounding him in the doctrines of piety, sufficiently ennobling his character and conduct, and prefiguring the beauty of truth, he thus through the bath of regeneration forms Christ in him, the fairest among the sons of men, shining with the beauty of divinity.

He was about thirty years of age, and thus having arrived at the fullness of both bodily and spiritual maturity, and having been advanced as a reader and teacher of the divine words together, he was moved by a rush of divine love to the desert, wishing to wither the flesh that was teeming and swelling with passions, so that the better might not be enslaved to the worse. For both desire against each other, and the corruption of the tabernacle naturally gives dominion to the soul; and having conversed with the neighboring mountains, he was led to a certain old man, Syrian in language, but not ignorant in knowledge, practicing extreme asceticism, and having wiped away his harsh discipline with four years, and having more easily overcome every self-indulgence, having a word that rivaled his labor, yearning for obscurity, he became a dweller of some remote place, boasting of a cave as a dwelling place, as a wrestling school and dusting-ground of virtue. There, how many struggles did he undergo, receiving the consolation of the Spirit in proportion to the multitude of pains? How many ascents did he make in his heart,

He was wrought upon by the Spirit, advancing from power to power, and through both action and contemplation, banishing every Egyptian thought from soul and body. 9. Another Moses given to the world, he had left behind Egypt—that is, this life and its affairs—and having in a manner become outside of life, he saw God shining forth as in a bush amid the roughness of life; and just as a rose from a thorn, so from the labors of virtue a fragrant plant naturally grows for the savor of God. Thus freed from lowly thoughts, and having cast off earthly things like sandals in the place of God, he comes to his own mind and sees God as it is possible to see, and again arrives in Egypt, to transfer many and countless multities from Egypt and from the bitter tyranny of Pharaoh the world-ruler, and to transfer them to the promised land above, through the Red Sea of divine water and blood, those who have lived as citizens in the desert of the passions, and who have turned aside Amalek by the stretching out of hands raised in the form of a cross toward the one who stretched out his hands on the cross for us, receiving from him the victorious power. Having then spent two years in the cave, and having kept both soul and body wakeful, as if bodiless, occupied with the study of the divine scriptures, he drove out all ignorance, settling in the light of true knowledge. And if it was necessary to partake of sleep for the recovery and restoration of nature, let it be that he performed the service of nature, so that during the two years he never reclined at all, neither by night nor by day.

Thus the lower belly is mortified, the powers of the kidneys are dissolved, the inflammation of the navel and stomach is quenched, and he becomes feeble even for serving his own needs. 10. Then, returning to his homeland, and being placed in the order of presbyter in the Church, and having paid his due of nurture to this nurse-mother as a grateful child, he is transferred by divine providence to the purple-clad city, and is wedded to the daughter of the great high priest. For it is not fitting that such a luminary, upon whom the timeless and eternal light has rested, be hidden under a bushel, but rather that he be set upon a high and conspicuous lampstand, so that, as from a lofty and central vantage point, like a golden trumpet, he might resound throughout all the ends of the earth. Who so governed and ordered the Church, and displayed such lowly-mindedness amid the high privilege of office? Who so curbed anger and wrath, as to acquire a lawful gentleness, abhorring everything contrary to virtue, yet championing the just man against the unjust? Who so great in love, from which compassion springs? Of his virtue, even now, living pillars bear the tokens.

Every word of his was an occasion for mercy, so that those who heard his discourses were brought to a state of compassion and generosity. For he persuaded them to lend their own possessions to God, giving perishable and fleeting things in exchange for stable and imperishable ones, and to store up in heaven the contribution of compassion, which is not consumed. Nor is it plundered by a thief; to cleanse sins by almsgiving, and injustices by pity for the poor; to break bread for the hungry in an evangelical manner, and to give a cup to the thirsty; to cover the nakedness of the naked, and to clothe the unclothed, and to shelter the homeless under the open sky; to visit the sick, and to send forth a foot for their protection, to reap mercy by mercy. 11. But who has cast off wrath, and persuaded his flock to cast it off, which closes the divine bowels of compassion to those who possess it? For as you have done, so it shall be for you, he says; by the measure you measure, it will be measured back to you. For if you forgive, you will be forgiven. And the converse has been declared: for he who does not forgive will not be forgiven. Who has condemned envy and malice,

receiving imperishable things in return. He taught that to be envied is best, for every good thing is an object of envy. But self-condemnation, together with the basest thing, is envy, the most unjust and most frivolous of all passions, the opponent of pity—since pity is to be pained at the misfortunes of others, while envy is to be pained at their goods, not for one's own sake, but for the sake of the sufferer; and to increase one's own wasting away by the increase of others' goods, first punishing the one who possesses them. And he taught us not to judge our fellow servant, lest we be judged by the just scales of the only judge, who weighs out justice for us; nor to usurp the authority of the master. For there is one judge, who is not by nature subject to judgment, as the only one free from sin, ruling, not being ruled. "Forgive," he cried evangelically, "and you will be forgiven." Who has banished the grief that leads to death and taught the grief that procures cheerfulness? Of these, the one, as sorrow for sin from God, is salvific—since to sin is to fail, as those skilled in these matters have understood—while the other, which accompanies the deprivation of pleasures, is truly spirit-destroying and utterly disreputable. For it is not possible, it is not possible for grief to occur except over the deprivation of desire. As the desire is, so also is the grief over its failure: if the desire is good, the grief is best; if it is otherwise, the grief is otherwise. But the best of desires is the one that inclines toward the only best. And the desires of opposites are themselves opposite. And did he not strengthen the weakness of listlessness by the memory of death?

of the soul, teaching that its power which severs the sinews is to be shaken off, and in its place he instilled divine fear, and with longing he urged the people toward prayers, and that laziness is to be utterly shaken out of the souls, and that with all their strength they should guard their own hearts, so that death might not ascend upon them as through some windows of the senses. 13. He taught to search the Scriptures, becoming an interpreter and teacher of them, and with prophetic spirit he explored the hidden depths of the Spirit, and tore away the veil of the letter, and made public the beauty stored within; and all this with a spirit free from pride and vainglory. For he knew, he knew how to trample upon empty glory, that empty expenditure of toils, that which ruins the harvest of virtues. For it knows how to perforate, like a jar, the soul's vessel of virtues, and by the outflow receiving an inflow, it renders the vessel no less empty, bestowing fruitless sweats, and producing toil without a share of fruit. For he knew that it is fitting that all glory and exaltation belong to God, and to man humility, which becomes the best path to elevation, and the steps of Israel, which raise man to God, and make God a dweller of the heart.

He humbled himself before all creation for the sake of the Creator Lord, to whom alone Christ was not dishonored, and divine law was neglected and overturned. He rejected every haughty and fierce thing, and every supercilious glance; giving a gentle eye to those conversing with him, and a mild and divine speech seasoned with salt. His character was graceful, and the smile on his face was refined, not dissolving into dissolute laughter. For knowing that vices cling to virtues and are somehow adjacent, he obeyed the one who commanded excellently, and attended to himself, becoming a clear-sighted money-changer: rejecting every counterfeit stamp, but accepting the drachma bearing the royal image, casting out every form of vice like dust from his heart by the force of the divine Spirit, and being watered and fattened by the virtues opposite to the vices, and like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, the Church, he was known as ever-blooming, and bore to God a ripe fruit: the multitude of those saved through him; or like a palm tree fenced with the thorns of the best reproofs. And

He most excellently refuted those who joined house to house and hastened to seize Naboth’s vineyard, as though there were no Elijah to expose them. But the Holy Spirit again raised up Elijah, dwelling in the souls of the righteous. From generation to generation it sets up prophets, zealots of good works, abhorring whatever is base and improper, and introducing and establishing everything lawful and just. Thus this divine man became a judge of injustice; not judging it—far from it, for how could he?—but condemning it, showing it to be abominable, and excluding from the sacred precincts those who commit unjust acts. For a widow constantly importuned him, troubling him frequently, her heart worn down by the wrong. She takes refuge in this man of God as in some strong and impregnable fortress, having resolved not unwisely. For what other could she have found to take up her cause? A ruler? But the one who inflicted these outrages ruled over the rulers. A king? But he was enervated in judgment by passion for his own flesh. For she who committed the violence was flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone. And she who ought to have silenced the wrongdoers hastened to do wrong. What are you doing, lawless woman? You are clad in purple, set forth as a guardian of the law, and you trample the law? O the ineffable wisdom of the one who said: Do not give the holy things to the dogs, nor cast the pearls before swine! For she, having trampled the divine law—the holy one, that is, the precious pearl—turned and struck the poor widow, plundering her ephemeral livelihood.

What does this do, O insatiable and ungrateful woman? You have land and sea bearing gifts for you, yet you run down the poor property of a destitute widow, whose life it would have been just for you to have exchanged? Do you confirm the law by word, yet in deed make it a dead letter? Were you not ashamed before the father of orphans and the judge of widows? But he, who is always nourished by the divine words, truly heard the God-inspired saying: Judge the orphan, and do justice to the widow. And having Elijah as his guide of zeal, the fire-breathing one, he imitates the boldness of John, saying, It is not permitted for you to have the vineyard of your sister. For do you think you have transcended nature, even if you have exceeded your rank by your tyrannical office? For a rule formed by law becomes a kingdom, but one founded on lawlessness is not unjustly called a tyranny. Have you not read the drama of Jezebel? Why do you enter this divine sanctuary? Away, far from the divine precincts. The divine temple is a laver, washing away sins. Did not the tax collector, having received Jesus as a guest in his home, well scatter what he had wickedly collected? And you, daughter (for I still consider you a member, even if a troublesome one, I have surrounded you with hope of salvation, but salvation without repentance is among the impossible things): restore well what you have wickedly seized. 15. Saying these things, he did not persuade. For she stopped her ears like an asp, not heeding the one who was lovingly and wisely administering the remedy. But when he saw the affliction was utterly incurable, he thrust from the sacred chamber the one who did not have the garment of marriage. Then what?

Jezebel again rises up against the prophet, and the herald of truth flees nowhere, nor is he handed over to custody, with such a voice crying out, but he is condemned to exile. O the absurdity of the mindset! Again the serpent's charm of the Church hastens to banish the man of God, and it did not fail in its desire. For a brief moment, as the divine gaze slumbered patiently, he is exiled from the royal city; rather, by the providence of God, who triumphed over the manly mindset of his own beloved attendants, and being wholly of God as God is in him, he went about with him, called with Abraham to a foreign land, banished with Moses from the royal court, departing with Elijah to the cave of Horeb, fleeing with Jesus the God to Egypt, so that his courage might be known in his struggles, and he might reap fitting rewards. So that he might in some way imitate Job, and God will say to him: Or do you think I have dealt with you otherwise, than that you might appear righteous, so that you might proclaim the Gospel to others? 16. But if some others have become accomplices in this unlawful exile, we honor them with silence out of reverence for the Fathers, so that we may not incur the penalty of Ham by mocking the Fathers. For the account of this matter is manifold, with some bishops pouring forth the absurdity, others utterly refusing it, and the empress condemning them, threatening the renewal of the Hellenic precincts, already recently demolished, if they did not become unanimous in the persecution of the divine man. And let the favorable prevail.

It is not good to compare Fathers, lest we be set up as judges of them by ourselves. 17. Whether in this way or that, the president of the Church is removed, the head of the body, and the flock is bereft of its good shepherd, who in imitation of Christ ever placed his own soul for the sheep. And the Church longed for the herald, the shepherd, the sheep, and the pipe; the defenders of Christ longed for the commander and the trumpet that confounds the invisible foes; the widows longed for the protector; the orphans for the father; the sick for the healer; the strangers for the guide; the purple of the cities longed for the pure gold that adorns through itself and blends the empire with the priesthood, and with the father's grace graces the scepter and the diadem; the God-loving ears longed for the golden-speaker and the golden-mouthed. And if it is not rash to say, Christ whom he bore within went out with him. Oh, how shall I without tears lament the incurable calamity? Not even a heart of stone could refrain from weeping at this, since even a stone struck by Moses' rod poured forth streams, and a hard heart struck by the magnitude of the tragedy pours forth rivers of tears. 18. But suddenly the palace is shattered, and Pharaoh again calls upon the God-seer for defense against the scourge; and this indeed happens. For as soon as John returns by royal decree, the destruction ceased. Thus God knows how to honor those who are his: "For I live," says the Lord, "but I will glorify those who glorify me." So again the flock of Christ is in good spirits.

For to all is given the one who becomes all things to all, and the whole flock of Christ rejoices, grows fat, and increases in the good soil of the heart, receiving the words of John as seed of the Spirit. But the devil is crushed, and again rises up against the herald in his usual way, and the impotent one demands the removal of the brave bulwark of the Church, attempting to destroy it and to plunder the inviolable wealth; and he gains power over the body, as once over Job, not having previously endured his roar. And again the righteous man is taken away, the bridegroom is cast out of the bridal chambers, and the Church is stripped of her bridal adornment, and is shorn of her head, not having him. For fire from the throne, like a god-sent thunderbolt, consumes both the Church and the Senate. And again there are lamentations and tears, as the multitude desires to accompany him or to remain, and death was more desirable to them than the loss of John. But when God permits, the evils that are to be fled prevail, by judgments which He knows.

Thus again, changing his abode, moving from city to country and from country to country, he overtook the one he yearned for, deeming life good and death gain, having contended in the noble contest, kept the faith, completed the course, and received the prizes of his labors, the crown of righteousness. But even in death, the beloved, lover of the bride, and lover of his children did not abandon his own bride, nor did he leave his own children deprived of their proper grace; rather, by divine Providence and judgment, he is fittingly borne toward the royal courts, his body toward the visible, his spirit toward the invisible; and he remains a herald of the divine oracles until Christ comes again, with whom he will be glorified, delighting in his joy and beauty. These are my lispings to you, O Father of Fathers; but may you watch over us who share your name, and grant us intimacy with the Creator, who is Christ, eternal gladness. To him be glory and power always, now and forever, and unto the unending ages of ages. Amen.