Tag Archives: John Chrysostom

Partners in Ministry

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Veneto, 11th or 12th century 
Musée National de l’Age Médiévale, Paris
St. Benedict, identified by the inscription S[ANCTUS] BENEDICT[US] ABB[AS], “St. Benedict the Abbot.”  His peaked cowl is like that seen on this saint in the 10th century fresco beneath San Crisogono in Trastevere, Rome, but with vertical and horizontal bands such as one would see on a bishop’s mitre. Benedict was not a bishop, but he is sometimes pictured in a mitre nevertheless, because a medieval abbot—and an abbess!—generally wore a mitre.



For we write you nothing but what you can read and understand; I hope you will understand fully, as you have understood in part, that you can be proud of us as we can be proud of you, on the day of the Lord Jesus. (2 Cor. 1:13-14)

St. Paul tells the Corinthians that he trusts them to understand what he is writing to them, just as they have understood what he has already taught them. He wants them to be proud of him as their spiritual father, just as he is proud of them as his spiritual children. After some of the things he said in First Corinthians, it sounds surprising that he says he is proud of them. But like any father, he is proud of his children despite their misunderstandings and problematic behavior.

Ambrosiaster, a Bible commentary writer in the AD 300s, said, “Paul asserts that his boasting over his disobedient children is noticed and that this will be to their advantage on the day of judgement.” On the day of the Lord Jesus, i.e. Judgement Day, Paul will boast of his Corinthian spiritual offspring and that will win them a favorable judgement from Christ. Paul’s pride in his spiritual children will overcome any doubts the Lord has about their suitability for his Kingdom.

Paul cuts at the root of the envy which his speech might occasion by making the Corinthians sharers and partners in the glory of his good works.

St. John Chrysostom (d. AD 407

But the apostle also says that he is not simply covering over their misbehavior with false pride. They share in his ministry by supporting him, listening to him, responding to him, correcting themselves based on his instructions. No one should be jealous that he is saying good things about them just because he wants to put on a face of false bravado.

They have understood his teaching in the past and he is confident they will understand his teaching now. True understanding involves a real response. The Corinthians didn’t just say, “Yes, yes” and then ignore what St. Paul had said. They might have disagreed or argued with him at first but when they understood his points, they responded by putting their understanding into action.

This correlation of understanding and action is at the heart of what St. Benedict wrote in his six-century Rule. A true monk — i.e. a real Christian — listens to his teacher and that listening involves action in response. “Listening” is not a passive activity; sound waves don’t enter your ears and then get forgotten. Listening is a very active process, in which the monk — or lay Christian in the world — hears the teaching, chews on it, mulls it over, and then integrates the teaching into his/her behavior.

Many times in the Psalms this point is also made: to hear is to act (Ps. 40, 45, 85). Jesus makes the same point: he listens to the Father and his listening results in his obedient action. Truly listening, the speaker and the hearer each want the same thing, they have one will. Authentic fellowship, i.e. communion, results.

O Hell, Where is Your Victory?

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Lamentation of Christ found in the Church of St. Panteleimon (Nerezi) in Macedonia. The fresco dates back to the 12th century. Several times hymns ask, “What place is capable of containing your life-bearing body?” Only the Church—and each Christian—can contain the life-bearing Body, received in Holy Communion, by which Christ incorporates us into his victory.

So when this corruptible body has put on incorruption, and this mortal body has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? (1 Cor. 15:54-55)

St. Paul tells his readers that this mortal, corruptible body will become immortal and incorruptible when it is raised from the dead on the Last Day. That victory is already anticipated in Christ’s victory. St. Paul quotes three different verses from the Old Testament as if they were one passage, a common practice among ancient preachers–and modern ones!

Death is swallowed up in victory. (Isaiah 25:8)

O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? (Hosea 13:14)

There were several versions of these passages in circulation during the first century and most modern Bibles in English don’t have these exact versions in Isaiah and Hosea. But these are the passages most people are familiar with because of the way St. Paul used them and the way they appear in the famous Easter-Paschal homily of St. John Chrysostom:

[Hell] took a body and, face to face, met God! It took earth and encountered heaven! It took what it saw but crumbled before what it had not seen!

“O death, where is thy sting? O hades, where is thy victory?”

Christ is risen, and you are overthrown!

Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!

Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!

Christ is risen, and life reigns!

Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in a tomb!

Hosea 6:1-6 is traditionally read on Good Friday by Western Christians although most revisions of the services in the 1970s removed the reading from Hosea, which is unfortunate. Hosea’s reading on Good Friday and these words of his quoted at Easter express the traditional understanding that Christ’s victory begins on the Cross and will not be complete until the Last Day, when the entire human race is raised from the dead. Thus, Easter-Pascha is not the celebration of a past event; it is the celebration of an eschatological, apocalyptic event that began 2,000 years ago, is still happening, and will continue until time has ceased. It is an ongoing reality.

What Kind of Body?

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This wall painting from the Dura Europa synagogue in Syria depicts the raising of the dead from the dry bones, described in Ezekiel 37.


But someone will say, “How can the dead be raised? What kind of body will they have?” You fool! What you yourself sow does not come to life unless it dies. As for what you sow, you do not sow the body that will be but only a naked seed, such as wheat or something else. (1 Cor. 15:35-37)

Greek thinkers were disgusted at the thought that a dead body would be raised by God. They taught that the soul was immortal and that at death, it was set free from the prison of the body. That’s why pre-Christians and non-Christians often cremated the dead: to destroy the jail that was the body and liberate the soul.

Jews, like the Apostle Paul, did not believe in the immortality of the soul. They taught that the dead would be raised, body and soul together. A person was not complete without both a body AND a soul. The body was not a prison that a soul was trapped in; a body was an essential aspect of human reality. Early Christians taught that a human body was an aspect of the image and likeness of God that the human race was created to be.

The body is not the obstacle that prevents us from entering the Kingdom of God but rather our willful wickedness.

St. John Chrysostom, Homily 41 on 1st Corinthians

But none of the Jewish or Christian thinkers thought the resurrected bodies would just be our natural bodies resuscitated. The resurrected body of a person would be different somehow from the natural body before death. But no one was sure how the body would be different.

Origen thought our bodies would all be round, like beach balls, because the sphere is the perfect shape. Others thought our bodies would all look as they did when we were 33 years old since that is the age Jesus was when he was raised from the dead. Others said that the resurrected body would be gloriously bright, like Jesus’ body at the Transfiguration.

The resurrected body was described as “spiritual.” This did not mean “immaterial” or “ethereal.” St. Paul always uses the word flesh to mean “fallen, sinful.” He uses the word spiritual to mean “godly, saved.” Our resurrected bodies will not be sinful but godly, permeated and saturated with the Spirit and glory of God. Just as Jesus had a spiritual body after the Resurrection that could eat and drink and that the apostles could touch, so our bodies will be touchable but able to walk through locked doors and appear or disappear from rooms.

Certain saints are able to display some of these qualities even before they die, working various miracles by the Spirit of God that is already saturating their bodies because they have been washed with the water of baptism, anointed with the holy chrism, and consumed the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion. Which is also why their bodies (i.e. relics) are able to perform miracles after they die. Our bodies display characteristics of the resurrection even before being raised because they are already becoming spiritual, i.e. godly.