The preacher with the golden mouth

BY MARGARET MOLLETT

In this second of six monthly articles on preaching, I would like to introduce you to one of the great preachers of the early Church: St John Chrysostom. (You’ll find the first in the series here)

St John Crysostom

John, later nicknamed Crusostum (or “golden mouth”) was born around 350 AD in Antioch. His mother Anthusa, widowed at the age of 20, had taught him from the Bible but as he grew older she insisted that he receive formal training in Greek classics.

However, those able to offer this were all pagans. Being a devout Christian John’s mother required that the educator should at least be tolerant of Christianity. The orator of the day, Libanius (314-393), proved to be the man most suitable for training him in logic and rhetoric.

Before long, Libanius’ protégé became well known for his brilliant performance in the law courts—but not for very long. With support of Anthusa, his friend Basil, and Melitius, the bishop of Antioch, who showed him how to use his skills in service of preaching and evangelism, as well as his own study of Scripture, Chrysostom first became a monk, then a deacon, a priest and eventually archbishop of Constantinople.

The congregation of Antioch listened intently to every word that came from the mouth of their preacher; so much so that they became the prey of pickpockets, an occurrence that Chrysostom would frequently alert them to.

Though empathetic and encouraging, he never minced words when it came to the prevailing vices of avarice, luxury, sensuality and excessive love of the circus and theatre. After repeatedly preaching against the shameful behaviour that arose, particularly from the latter, he warned: “But if you continue in the same courses, I will make the knife sharper, and the cut deeper; and I will not cease, till I have scattered the theatre of the devil, and so purified the assembly of the Church.”

There were those Christians in Antioch who headed for the circus on Sundays,  but there were also a number of the faithful who loved Chrysostom and knew that he loved them, albeit it a rather tough love. Of their handclapping and foot-stamping after a sermon he would remark that the only praise he desires is that they perform what they hear from him.

Chrysostom could preach for two hours: “I treat of so many things in each of my sermons and make them so varied because I want everybody to find something special in it and not go home.”

He suggested, however, that they should hear and receive, as much as they can, and having received enough should retire.

“There is no one who forbids, or compels them to remain beyond their natural strength.” For those deciding to stay he would give solutions to the questions addressed, but if they were found to be “gaping and non-attentive” he would conceal them.

While some of Chrysostom’s sermons were multi-thematic, sermons on books in the Bible were expository, that is, they were a point-by-point explanation and application of a sequence of verses in a specific text, to which he added a sprinkling of other texts.

Chrysostom also developed the Antiochene school of exegesis founded by another of his mentors, Diodorus. Unlike the Alexandrian school that allegorised Biblical texts, this school focused on the historical situation of a text as well as how the author’s message could be applied in day to day life.

A refrain throughout Chrysostom’s sermons was that men should read from the Bible to their wives and children, “not lightly” or “in any sort of way but with much earnestness.”

A special time for this was after Communion: “As soon as ever we get home to take our Bible into our hands, and call our wife and children to join us in putting together what we have heard, and then, not before, engage in the business of life.”

Next month: St Augustine of Hippo seeks a response