Way of the Cross of John Chrysostom

Rhetorical art or service to Truth? Do you know, beloved brothers, why they want to destroy me? Because I did not order rich carpets to be laid out in front of me, that I never wanted to dress in gold and silk clothes, that I did not stoop to satisfy the greed of these people, and did not keep a table open for them. The tribe of the asp always dominates, Jezebel has offspring left, but grace also struggles with Elijah. Herodias is also here, Herodias is still dancing, demanding the head of John, and they will give her the head of John, because she is dancing. Christ is with me! What am I afraid of? His gospel is in my hands—the staff on which I lean. This is where my refuge is, this is the peaceful haven of my soul. The storms raised against me, the sea thrown down upon me, the furies of sovereigns and the mighty of the world... all this is nothing more than a web for me. “With us, because no one is completely healthy in the faith, but everyone is sick, some more, others less, no one is able to help those who are lying. So if someone from the outside came to us and knew well both the commandments of Christ and the disorder of our life, then I don’t know what other enemies of Christ he could imagine worse than us; because we are walking such a road as if we had decided to go against His commandments!” Leaving His disciples on earth, Christ did not tell them: “Now begin to live as I taught you.” He only warned them - wait for what was promised. And obedient to His word, the Church of Christ, still unborn, shut itself up in a cramped upper room and, as it were, ceased to live. The old has ended, but the new has not yet begun. And then it happened. God revealed himself as immeasurable, incomprehensible love. Having chosen His original Church, the Lord sends it on the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit - not help, but perfection. Complete imperfection and complete weakness are given complete power and perfection. The saying of the Lord: “I am the way, the truth and the life,” was not something that had to be achieved or learned. New things were revealed to the born again: his (His) way, his (His) truth, his (His) life. A new race of people was born. The life that was revealed in man was not according to the teachings of Christ, not according to the memories of His way of life, but in Christ. After the persecution of the Church in Jerusalem, the apostles become pilgrims - they go to fulfill the word of Christ commanded to them: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20). By preaching the gospel, they found churches. Every word, every message shows what a great fire of care, sorrow and love burned in their hearts: “You are in our hearts, so that we can die and live together” (2 Cor. 7:3); “Night and day I prayed with all earnestness that I might see your face and complete what was lacking in your faith” (1 Thess. 3:10). The apostles brought to life the word of Christ about the relationship of the higher to the lower: “Whoever wants to be first must be slave of all” (Matthew 20:27). The Apostle Paul said: “We could appear with importance, like the Apostles of Christ, but we were quiet among you, just as a nurse tenderly treats her children” (1 Thess. 2:6-7). The Apostle reveals the highest secret of the Christian “boss”: “I humbled myself in order to exalt you” (2 Cor. 2:7). How was apostolic power expressed? The fact is that, strange as it may seem to us now, they did not use it. Not by power, but by love, they conquered hearts and attracted them to Christ. “I preached the Gospel without using my authority, for, being free from everyone, I made myself a slave to everyone, in order to gain more... I became all things to everyone, so that I could save at least some” (1 Cor. 9:18-22). “I have become everything to everyone” - to belong to anyone, but not to myself; to sacrifice not something of one’s own, but oneself – and to the end. And how could a disciple of Christ rule otherwise? And the apostolic word, like fire, penetrated the heart and transformed it, for it was the fire of the grace of the Holy Spirit. It was he who transformed what was heard and thought into living, heartfelt knowledge, and gave a person such confidence in the invisible and inexpressible truth in human language, as a loving son, say, is confident in the presence of a loving mother in his life. And no one was able to tear this truth out of his heart. One who has received heartfelt knowledge—revelation—cannot lose faith, for it has become the blood of his heart. In the words of St. Basil the Great, “spirit-bearing souls, illuminated by the Spirit, impart grace to others.” But already in the 4th century St. Gregory the Theologian, in his homily to the bishops of his time, exclaims: “It was so once upon a time, and what is happening now is funny to see.” And St. John Chrysostom, as if continuing, concludes: “...The reason is that love has cooled.” The apostolic light of great love for the brothers gradually disappears, as if hidden. And the inner light gives way to the outer shine of mitres, diamond breastplates, the luxury of brocade... And more and more imperceptibly, given the general wealth of the Church, the living apostolic light seems more and more imperceptible. It is extremely rare that those chosen by the people for church service are the true chosen ones of God. But even these rare guests of the hierarchical system are mostly persecuted or have no place in this world (look at the lives of the saints - how few long-lasting holy bishops there are in the last millennium). What a prophetic image in the “Acts of the Apostles”: the first chosen by the people to serve in the Church and at the same time the chosen one of God - St. Stephen seems to be “in a hurry” to sacrifice himself for the sin of the people. Spirituals were always recognized in the apostolic age: they were teachers, prophets, apostles and lived like everyone else, like the entire church people. Now they are glorified, i.e. become visible, not so much by miracles, but by the painful and heavy cross of service and asceticism. The great fathers of the Church constantly testify to the astonishing weakness of the bishops of their day, without referring to this or that bishop, they speak generally about the episcopal sins of their time. Letter to the Bishops of St. Gregory the Theologian: “You who offer bloodless sacrifices, the illustrious guardians of souls, you who sit on famous thrones, are exalted, and in matters of internal piety do not differ from others, speak with importance about what you do too frivolously. There was a time that this great body of Christ was a perfect people, but what it is now is funny to see. The entrance to the unlocked door (i.e. to the rank of bishop) is open to everyone... Come here, you who are fat, wine drinkers who dress magnificently, offenders who devour the people, flatterers before the strong, double-minded, slaves of changing times - come boldly: a wide throne is ready for everyone. Everyone crowd around the Divine table, crowding and crowding others... Whoever looks at you will go the opposite path. And this is the only benefit from your depravity.” St. John Chrysostom writes: “...what could be more lawless, when worthless people and filled with many vices receive honor for something for which they should not be allowed to cross the church threshold... Nowadays the leaders of the Church suffer from sins... Lawless people, burdened with a thousand crimes, invaded the Church, tax farmers became rectors. This outrage has acquired some legal form and is especially spreading: if someone has sinned and is accused, then he tries not to prove his innocence, but to find accomplices for his crimes.” St. Basil the Great says: “I am afraid that at the present time others who have not put on Christ and mercy, humility, and long-suffering, if anyone takes them up, will not refuse, and if no one takes them up, they will be crowded in in large numbers, and there will be many self-appointed seekers of power, chasing after real splendor and not foreseeing the future Judgment.” The 11th-century saint Simeon the New Theologian speaks of the same thing: “Of the bishops, there are many of the few who are high and humble with a bad and nasty humility, who pursue human glory, exalt themselves above all those sitting below... Uninvited, they enter the interior of Christ’s sanctuary. They enter without the robe of grace of the Holy Spirit, which they have in no way received. When they enter, they show themselves to be persons close to Christ. Boldly and arrogantly they touch the Divine Mysteries.” This is what the true successors of the apostles say. It was impossible to “squeeze” into apostles, prophets and teachers, but, it turns out, it is possible to become bishops. Only the false successors of the apostles were capable of such actions that we read about in the historical documents used in our book. Can one imagine that the Apostle Paul or Gregory the Theologian, or John Chrysostom was able, like Pope Gregory VII, to order the emperor to kiss his shoe or, like Pope Innocent IV, to sign a bull introducing torture in the investigation of heresies?.. It is noteworthy that it was from among the priesthood that the main heresiarchs came. And not all bishops stopped the further spread of heresies. The chosen ones of God, the true successors of the apostles whom the Lord sent to the Church - these are the ones who were the conquerors of heresies in the Church. St. Cyril of Jerusalem writes: “By God’s will, in places especially affected by heresy, great lamps of the Church appear, armed with the power of faith and knowledge, both in life and in creation, true teachers and shepherds. Each of them, by the power of the truth of his talent given to him by God, and by the example of his life, protected his flock from the attacks of the Arians and was alone able to preserve the Church given to him. Orthodox Gaul owed its existence to St. Hilary, Egypt - St. Athanasius, Asia Minor gave three great teachers: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa." (The saint does not mention John Chrysostom, since he was not yet a bishop at that time). The councils that finally rejected heresies were always obedient to holy men, God’s chosen ones. Where there were no such men, the Councils often wandered in darkness. That is why there were many so-called “robber councils.” The protocols of such “councils” that condemned the great saint, the true successor of the apostles John Chrysostom, are used in our book. In the historical chronicle novel “The Way of the Cross of John Chrysostom,” the great preacher and moral teacher is shown primarily as an imperious bishop - a stern denouncer of untruth in Christian society, as a true successor of the apostles, who, one might say, imprinted his every word with his own life, full of real martyrdom. Chrysostom, with his ministry, once again confirmed: the true successors of the apostles are God's chosen ones. The distinctive internal property of such a chosen one is the fullness of Christ’s love, which is always inherent in him, and the fullness of freedom in the testimony of the Gospel. They can be persecuted, and even killed, but their holy will cannot be disposed of according to the wishes of people! Like no one else, John Chrysostom could repeat after the Apostle Paul: “And my word and my preaching are not in convincing words of human wisdom, but in the manifestation of the Spirit and power.” This saint was led by the spirit of the apostles, the spirit of Christ, and therefore his word became spirit-bearing, and therefore the people gave him the rare title of Chrysostom. The Gospel was not written down on paper for him, but, in his own words, “in his own heart.” Only the perfect, who has the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and only by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit has the opportunity or right to become a clergyman - this is what the great teacher of the Church, John Chrysostom, reminds us throughout his life. Apostolic service cannot but be associated with martyrdom - this is what we wanted to emphasize in the story about the sorrowful path of this saint. “The bishop should be looked upon as the Lord himself,” wrote Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer. Of course, but to the bishop - the true chosen one of God, as John Chrysostom was. But it is madness to look, as if at the Lord himself, at such bishops about whom another saint, Gregory the Theologian, wrote with bitterness - at those “whose title has so often covered and continues to cover outrageous wicked people who distort the spirit of God.” The works, translations of which form the basis of the book: the biography of John Chrysostom, written by his friend Palladius, the novel by A. Thierry “John Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxia”, the statements of the historians Sozomen and Theodoret, the protocols of the “robber councils” that condemned and overthrew Chrysostom, and, of course, the words, letters and messages of the saint himself - show the great teacher The Church and the time in which he lived, in our opinion, are deeper than previous biographies of the saint. From the pages of the book, it is as if two Chrysostom look at the reader: one is a stern and powerful, true bishop, teacher of the people, a courageous defender of the Church of Christ, the other is a gentle, loving shepherd, amazingly merciful, even to his enemies. In addition, the sources used in the book should dispel the euphoria of modern man regarding the Christian state. In the first centuries, before the faith of Christ was declared dominant in the state, belonging to the Church was unsafe, sometimes scary, and in any case, Christianity did not provide any material advantages. And the life of Christians was high. Everything worldly and vain was suppressed by the joy of Christ, risen and coming again to reign forever. The church body was courageous, and members of the body that were not strong enough received strength from their brothers. How Christians differed from other people can be learned, for example, from the life of St. Pachomius the Great. Pagan, young soldier, St. Pachomius once on a campaign was amazed by the inhabitants of one village, who provided the passing soldiers with food, clothing and consoled them with every kind word. “Who are the people of this city?” – Pachomius asked and received the answer: “These are Christians. These are people who are always merciful, hospitable, not vindictive even towards their enemies and always serve everyone selflessly.” And Pachomius accepted Christianity. There is a lot of such evidence from the times of early Christianity. After Constantine the Great, countless people accepted Baptism: some for the sake of earthly glory, for the many benefits that now promised to belong to the Christian religion, declared dominant in the country; many simply by inertia - acting according to the saying: “like people, so are we.” They brought with them to the Church a “materialistic taste”, an addiction to vanity. Judas was the owner of the cash box. He, illuminated by the light of Christ, the chosen one, was defeated by the flickering of the Silvers. Martha, who loved Christ, could not help but reproach Mary, who was sitting idly at the feet of the Savior. Jealousy for the cause put dissatisfaction with her sister into her heart. What will happen to the Church when a mass of people pour into it, whose hearts are exclusively concerned with earthly affairs? Many Marthas who do not possess the true feelings of the Gospel Martha - as they strongly influence the soul of Christ-loving Martha - will begin to drag her deeper and deeper into the worries of life. And how they will all attack the Marias with reproaches will endlessly tire them, at best. And what a wide field for little Judases. Nothing separates people internally more than materialistic interests. The life of the apostolic age is completely forgotten; it even seems to everyone that the structure of the Church was the same then. The great testimony: “It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” a necessary consciousness for every Christian, becomes a dead saying. Members of the Church are not only not men, not only not young men, not youths, but not even children, but purely infants. And if even under Emperor Theodosius the saints dominated the Church, the spirit of Antichrist was already preparing to approach the throne. The word of St. can be called truly martyr. Gregory the Theologian to the Church of Constantinople with a request to release him... because it became unbearable for him to live and breathe in the capital - court etiquette is being imposed on the bishop. For St. Gregory, this etiquette seems to be a pure mockery of the servant of Christ. And when St. Gregory the Theologian left, and Nektary, a secular man who knew how to get along with the court world, was elected in his place. Such was the lot of bishops in the Christian empire. To illuminate the terrible picture of the devastation of love that the activity of the imperium, declared sacred, produced in the Church of Christ, it is enough to cite the following facts. At the end of the 4th century in Byzantium, a law was passed prohibiting clergy from taking criminals away from the hands of justice (for this is what the altar servers did then), and in the form of compensation (for then state power still considered God’s people) the right of asylum and a valid petition for mitigation of punishments was granted to criminals (then the right of asylum was abolished). This was the state of affairs in the first centuries of the empire, which declared itself Christian. At the end of the 10th century, when Russia adopted Christianity, bishops who came from Greece were indignant that Prince Vladimir did not execute criminals, and taught him. To this he answered them: “I fear God.” Later, it was the Russians, not the Greek hierarchs, who created the act of mourning. Thus, the imperial power subordinated the clergy to its “statesmanship”. This is why Byzantium is often not inferior in cruelty and ugliness of violence, and in some cases surpasses the pagan Roman Empire. If in the first centuries of Christianity few people doubted that a Christian is a spiritually reborn person, and whoever has not yet been reborn needs to acquire the Holy Spirit, then in the Christian state, especially in later times, a formal attitude towards the Christian title begins. The Church in the minds of people is increasingly turning into a kind of institution; it is forgotten that this is a new kind of people. But the Church can never be without the righteous. And for a true shepherd, if indeed his voice is the voice of the conscience of the world, the voice of the Church of Christ, it is especially difficult; under any power, service is always filled with martyrdom. But at the same time, freedom in Christ gives such a servant that spiritual happiness that allowed John Chrysostom, despite all the sorrows, both from the world and from his own “brothers in Christ,” to say from the fullness of his heart the words that are sometimes spoken today without a true understanding of their meaning: “Glory to God for everything. Amen". At the beginning of the 5th century, Archbishop John of Constantinople received the name Chrysostom. Later, in the 7th century, this honorary title became inseparable from his name, with it he went down in history as John Chrysostom, or even simply - Chrysostom. The episode with a genius unrecognized by his contemporaries is very recognizable in the history of literature, painting, music of modern times... The fatal fate of geniuses has nothing to do with John Chrysostom - novels become bestsellers, and paintings are sold for astronomical sums not too long after their author went bankrupt and died in poverty. Three hundred years in modern terms is the age of a hopeless antique. But John Chrysostom was read three hundred years later with the same awakening of the spirit from the dangerous sleep of conscience, with a sinking heart with delight, sometimes with tears, and sometimes with an involuntary smile, just as the crowds that filled the cathedral churches in Antioch and Constantinople listened to him. They read it with the same undying interest five hundred, one thousand and one and a half thousand years later. Few speakers have received the recognition enshrined in an honorary addition to their name. Chrysostom (Chrysostom) was the name given, for example, to the Roman orator and philosopher Dion in the 1st – early 2nd centuries. But the glory with which John Chrysostom was surrounded as a Christian teacher and master of eloquence completely eclipsed the oratorical glory of Dion Chrysostom. And if historians risk comparing John Chrysostom with anyone, it is only with Demosthenes and Cicero. For Christians of all times, Chrysostom is immeasurably more than just a talented master of words. He was given the rare title of universal teacher, which only three saints of the Church bear with him. These are his older contemporaries: Basil of Caesarea († 379), called the Great, and Gregory of Nazianzus († 389), who was awarded the no less rare title of Theologian. Saint John Chrysostom became a classic model for preachers and interpreters of the Bible during his lifetime. Thus, the Monk Isidore Pelusiot, himself a profound philosopher, ascetic and prolific writer, came from Egypt to listen to John Chrysostom and learn eloquence from him. The authority of the teacher of preaching that surrounded Chrysostom underwent an amazing metamorphosis: the further merciless time moved him away, the more strongly he shone from the depths of centuries. Countless works of Byzantine writers were forgotten and lost their significance, and Chrysostom filled everything with himself. Almost a thousand years later, the great finalizer of Byzantine culture, St. Gregory Palamas (1236–1359), was under the direct influence of Chrysostom in his choice of theological topics, in his methods of interpreting the Scriptures, and, of course, in his preaching. Byzantine Christian culture conveyed the attitude towards Chrysostom as the “number one” writer to Western medieval and ancient Russian cultures. Both the scholastics, who dogmatized preaching forms, and the reformers, on the contrary, who revived them, saw in him the main example to follow. In Europe, the works of Chrysostom were known in numerous Latin translations, and as soon as a new Slavic writing appeared in the Christian world, created by the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century, immediately after the Holy Scriptures and divine services, the works of Chrysostom began to be translated into the Slavic language. This says a lot. It was his conversations, along with the obligatory documents of the Church, the Gospel and liturgical texts, that laid the foundation for an immense library of reading “for the soul,” which in modern times was supplanted by fiction, and that, in turn, in the second half of the 20th century was seriously supplanted by the latest means of mass communication, cinema and video... In the 16th-17th centuries in Rus', the collection of words of St. John, which was called Chrysostom, was especially widely distributed. The conversations included in this collection even became a mandatory element of the divine service; these were the so-called statutory readings, which later, however, went out of practice due to the intensification of oral preaching. Saint John received an excellent classical education. His early widowed mother put all her strength into raising her son. Antioch, the birthplace of Chrysostom, at that time was not only the de facto capital of the Byzantine ecumene, but was a leading world cultural center. The pride of the Antiochians was the thriving school of rhetoric of the pagan sophist Libanius. John turned out to be his most brilliant student. According to the church historian Sozomen (5th century), Livanius admitted on his deathbed that he would have chosen John as his successor if he had not been “kidnapped” by Christians. It must be said that Livanius was the standard and canon of ancient speech not only for pagan Hellenism, but also for early Byzantine Christian culture. The Monk Isidore Pelusiot, who considered himself a student of Chrysostom, in one of his letters calls Livanius a model of eloquence along with his teacher. From the very beginning, Christianity contrasted the taste for beauty developed in ancient rhetoric with its literary principle, expressed by the Apostle Paul: “And my word and my preaching are not in convincing words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power” (1 Cor. 2:4). However, in the process of acceptance and adaptation by the Church of ancient culture, which took place throughout the 3rd-4th centuries far from painlessly, the question of beauty again became very acute for the Christian worldview. As an echo of this unrealized polemic, which remained in the shadow of trinitarian and Christological disputes, in the speeches of Chrysostom, although spontaneous, clearly formulated aesthetic judgments are often heard. The standard of Christian literature - the Holy Scripture attracts people not with rhetorical finds, the musicality of verse or beautiful symbolism, which is valued in secular literature, but with its content. “Holy Scripture,” Chrysostom emphasizes, “does not strive for the beauty of words or their combinations; it has within itself Divine grace, which imparts brightness and beauty to its words.” Divine truth is perceived not only by reason, it causes incomparable aesthetic satisfaction as the highest beauty. St. John Chrysostom, in accordance with the Christian worldview, understands the beauty of the word not as an elegant weaving of rhetorical figures and not even as deep poetic experiences conveyed by the speaker, but as the beauty of Truth expressed in the words of human language. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Christian rhetorician Chrysostom was alien to the emphasized artistry of the pagan Livanius, alien to the public narcissism of the teacher, from whom he learned the secrets of oratory. Chrysostom taught eternal truths, the knowledge of which he drew from the Gospel. But his sermon was not a simple retelling or interpretation of what he had read. Chrysostom experienced the life-giving effect of Truth. Scripture helped him to receive direct knowledge from God, knowledge-communication of the human person with the Personality of a loving God. From the depths of this personal experience he preached his sermon. The same Divine Revelation that the writers of the holy books of the Bible received became available to him, and his preaching itself became spiritual. Chrysostom also did not need to invent and reinvent the method, the path of unity with God. It was given by Christ at the Last Supper. This is the main thing that unites Christians - the Divine Liturgy. The Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord. John Chrysostom edited the Eucharistic prayers in the most frequently used liturgy in the Eastern Church, which is called after him - the Liturgy of John Chrysostom. The sacrifice of praise offered in the Eucharist unites people among themselves and through the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, under the guise of bread and wine, unites them with God. Most of the works of John Chrysostom, brought to us by history, are stenographers’ notes edited by the author. Therefore, his Words and Conversations emanate the indescribable freshness of a live conversation between a shepherd and the people. In the church rhetoric-sermon of St. John Chrysostom, everything is subordinated to the goal: to convey to the consciousness of the people the Good News of Christ. A clearly recognized goal determines all of Chrysostom’s rhetorical means. To achieve it, he uses any reason. When the luck of the minister of Emperor Arcadius, the insidious and cruel temporary worker Eutropius, who kept the whole country in fear, changed, he, who had previously issued a decree abolishing the traditional refuge of criminals at the church altar, had no choice but to resort to refuge at the throne in the cathedral church of Constantinople to save his life. John Chrysostom did not fail to pronounce an edification on this occasion, which turned out to be one of his most brilliant sermons. The next day after fleeing to the church altar of Eutropius, Archbishop John, ascending to the pulpit in front of a huge crowd of people, ordered the altar curtain to be opened and, pointing to the pitiful old man who clasped the canopy column above the altar, began the conversation with the words: “Always, but especially now, it is time to say: vanity of vanities, all vanity. Where is the pomp of the consulate now? Where are the shiny lamps? Where are the applause and rejoicing, feasts and holidays? Where are the wreaths and veils? Where is the city noise and shouts of praise at horse racing and the flattering speeches of spectators? All this passed: suddenly the wind blew and tore off the leaves, exposed the tree and shook it to the ground with such force that it seemed to tear it up by the roots and destroy its very fibers...” Not everyone reacted equally to this sermon of Chrysostom. There were reproaches that he turned a person’s misfortune into a national spectacle. Perhaps it would be more humane to hide from the crowd the suffering and fear that declared yesterday’s ruler of the empire. But Chrysostom is a doctor who is not afraid to cause short-term pain to a patient for a final recovery. The pitiful, defeated tyrant needed mercy, the crowd needed edification. Chrysostom achieves all this at the same time, using a more than bold pastoral technique. Chrysostom entered the history of Christianity as one of the main teachers of morality. However, most of his creations are in form an interpretation of biblical books. Stunning is the fantastic ability of John Chrysostom to exhaust all conceivable and inconceivable potentials of logical analysis of sacred texts and all levels of their understanding. At the same time, as an extremely sober realist, he ideally balances the literal-logical level of meaning of the text with the moral and theological-symbolic allegorical interpretation. The modern Orthodox patrolologist Archpriest John Meyendorff notes with surprise that somehow John Chrysostom avoided those aspects of the teachings of exegesis and theology of his time that were later recognized as heretical. In Christian matters, John Chrysostom avoided ambiguous terminology only by the Holy Spirit, although there were plenty of reasons for various kinds of Christological reservations. However, there is nothing surprising in this; the only meaning of Chrysostom’s life and the main core of his preaching is the knowledge of God, one of whose names is Truth. Serving the Truth, Which Chrysostom never betrayed, not only predetermined the rhetorical form of his speeches, but crystallized his exegetical methods. In the early 60s of the first century of the Christian faith, in two epistles, the Apostle Paul returned several times to compare the Church with a living organism, with a body, the Head of which is Christ, and the members, cells that make up this organism are Christians (Eph. 1:22–23; Col. 1:18–24). In accordance with this, each member of the Church has his own function, his own ministry. “God,” wrote the Apostle Paul to the Ephesian Christians, “has appointed some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some shepherds and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of serving for the edifying of the Body of Christ...” (Eph. 4:11-12). The leadership of the Church is not the management of a superior by his subordinates, it is the care of a father for his family, the work of a shepherd, concerned that all the sheep of the flock are well-fed, healthy, and safe. One of these shepherds of the Church was St. John Chrysostom. The meaning of shepherding is to guide the spiritual life of people, the goal is to lead them to a state of spiritual perfection and holiness, which, even on earth, makes them participants in the Kingdom of God and in the Future Life will ensure their stay in Eternal joy with Christ. Temporary life for church shepherding is never a goal, but always only a means to achieving a Blessed life in Eternity. But even in this life, every good shepherd is at the same time a loving father, therefore he is always on the side of the suffering and humiliated. Just two words, accidentally dropped by Chrysostom, characterize his personality no less than thousands of his homilies. “We are poor,” says the first hierarch of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. He identifies himself not with the rich, the haves and the powerful, but with the have-nots and the powerless. It is noteworthy that Chrysostom preached not even from the episcopal pulpit, but from the pulpit of the reader, who stood in the middle of the church and surrounded by people. Chrysostom fearlessly denounced the powers that be. He alone among the court flatterers was not afraid to raise his voice against the abuses of the temporary worker Eutropius; he boldly denounced the aristocracy and even the Empress Eudoxia herself. But he was also not afraid to confront the passions of the crowd alone. The people did not approve of the fact that Chrysostom gave refuge in the church to the hated Eutropius, but Chrysostom saw the greatest victory of the Church in sparing the enemy. Incorruptible and straightforward, he stood between the oppressors and the oppressed, and his voice was the voice of the conscience of the world. In Constantinople, in the last period of his service to the Church, he turned against himself virtually the entire ruling elite and aristocracy. On his side were the people who loved him and a small circle of intellectuals close to him in spirit. Has anything changed in the social and political life of Antioch and Constantinople towards improvement and justice after Chrysostom’s sermon in these cities? History does not provide reasons for a clear positive answer. On the contrary, his preaching aroused the hatred of those in power, and he ended his life in unjust exile, exhausted by the unbearable conditions of exile. But his influence, invisible to the world, on the souls of people, transforming them through repentance, revealing the beauty of God’s love for man, was enormous. And this enlightenment of people by the grace of God coming from within, without any doubt, had and continues to have an effect on social life as a whole. Saint John Chrysostom had a sober view of state power as fulfilling the negative function of limiting and regulating relationships between people. At the same time, the sinfulness of the bearers of this power is an obstacle to the implementation of the ideal of justice. In conversations on the Epistle to the Colossians, Chrysostom says: “Once upon a time our city insulted the emperor, and the emperor ordered it to be completely destroyed: husbands, children, and homes. So kings get angry! They use power as they want! Such is the evil of power.” The euphoria of having a Christian emperor at the head of the state after three centuries of persecution did not affect Chrysostom. Nowhere in his numerous writings is there a shadow of a desire to rely on the power of the emperor in church activities. On the contrary, he asserted with conviction that does not allow doubt: “It is not permissible for Christians to overthrow errors by coercion and violence; We are commanded by word, persuasion and meekness to work out the salvation of people.” Understanding the activities of people in this world from a Christian point of view, Chrysostom does not reject the achievements of civilization as a deliberate evil. Property and wealth are not evil in themselves. Judgments about the socio-economic mechanisms of social life, expressed by the Christian thinker of the 4th century, are somewhat consonant with today's search for rational economic models. Saint John Chrysostom is confident that a rich person should not look at his property as personal property, with which he can act solely at his own discretion. The rich must recognize himself only as the custodian and distributor of the treasury, entrusted to him by God so that he spends it not for his own pleasure, but for fair distribution for the needs of his poor brothers. According to the teachings of Chrysostom, in an ideal Christian society there should be no inequality. “Animals have everything in common: land, springs, pastures, mountains, forests, and none of them has more than the other. People also have a common nature, a common destiny, a common sky, moon, air, sea, and also common spiritual benefits. Therefore,” Chrysostom concludes his words, “isn’t it crazy for those who have so much in common with each other - nature, grace, promises, and laws - to be involved in wealth, not to observe equality in this, but to surpass the ferocity of animals.” The words of Chrysostom, directed in the 4th century against the senseless accumulation of wealth, are especially relevant today, when a sharp jump in material progress has led to an environmental crisis. “I would like to know,” he says, “why people care so much about wealth, because God has assigned nature measures and boundaries so that we have no need to seek wealth. He commanded, for example, to dress the body with one or two clothes, and then the extra one is not needed to protect the body. Why are thousands of clothes a moleedin? There is also a measure in the intake of food, and anything consumed above this measure necessarily harms every living being; What are these herds, pastures and accumulations of meat for? We only need one shelter, what are these mansions, these valuable dwellings for? What would a preacher say about the hundreds of thousands of tons of metal smelted per capita today, and the millions of kilowatt-hours of electricity that are generated for every person living on earth... Truly, it is no longer a person who owns material wealth, but it has made him its slave, forcing him to senselessly reproduce on a fantastic scale what a person cannot physically use. Truly, wealth already reproduces itself, making a person its appendage, using the mind and hands of a person as a tool, as a means. Moreover, this monster gives in return to man only poisoned air, a dead desert in place of flowering fields and forests, a swamp in place of seas, destructive radiation and poisonous food... Having become the head of the Church of Constantinople in 398, Saint John had the opportunity to fully implement the Gospel teaching about the purpose of material values. The economic mechanism of the archbishopric during the time of his predecessor Nektarios, who loved splendor and splendor in the decoration of churches, lost its evangelical simplicity. The new archbishop refocused him exclusively on charitable activities. Chrysostom sold church vessels and precious marble prepared by his predecessor for the church of St. for the benefit of the poor. Anastasia. He considered it possible to use the property bequeathed to the Church for charity. Subsequently, however, this was brought against him as an accusation by his enemies. Chrysostom considered the Church to be the force that is the only one capable of smoothing out and comforting the suffering caused by earthly power either out of necessity or as a result of abuse. Therefore, in relation to earthly structures of power, the Church has a dual task: firstly, to console the punished and offended and, secondly, to denounce and appeal to the conscience of the holders of power if they abuse their position. Two years after John’s ordination to the rank of presbyter, he demonstrated in action the calling of the Church in the world. In Antioch, in connection with the announcement of a new tax, a popular riot occurred and royal statues were overthrown from their pedestals. The city lay low in agonizing anticipation of the most brutal reprisal. Presbyter John, who then acted only as one of the representatives of the clergy, actually took the inhabitants of the city under his protection. The elderly Bishop of Antioch Flavian, ahead of the mayor's messengers, hurried to the capital to beg for mercy. In these days of fear and expectation of cruel punishments, John truly became the guardian angel of the city. He gave 21 conversations “On Statues”, in which he encouraged the residents and encouraged them to pray and repent. Chrysostom's social denunciations were intensified by the fact that he himself came from an aristocratic environment and knew well the life of the upper strata of society, the ideals and prejudices of this circle. “Why, tell me,” he addressed the rich parishioners with devastating denunciation, “do you wear silk clothes, ride golden-bred horses and decorated horses. The hinny is decorated from below, and gold lies on its cover. Dumb hinnies wear jewelry and have a golden bridle. The dumb mules are decorated, and the poor, tormented by hunger, sits at your door and Christ is tormented by hunger... When you return home, when you lie down on your bed, when brilliant lighting is arranged in your house and a sumptuous meal is prepared, remember the poor and unfortunate one, who, like dogs, walks along the alleys in darkness and dirt and often returns from there not home, not to his wife, not to bed, and on a pile of hay, like dogs barking all night..." At that time, Constantinople was a new city that had recently become the capital. John Chrysostom, with his strict moralistic sermons, seemed old-fashioned and provincial. To the huge, seething crowd he spoke in the same manner that had brought him fame and love in Antioch. Chrysostom's first ill-wishers were his subordinates. The new archbishop did not give luxurious receptions like his predecessor Nectarius. He brought order to the church treasury, and most of the church funds began to be spent on helping the poor and setting up hospitals. John attacked the rich, court ladies, and even the Empress Eudoxia herself with a merciless accusatory sermon. The real struggle of the empress against the saint began, in which the West and the East, ancient and new Rome, popes and emperors, bishops and all the clergy, the people and courtiers were involved - in a word, absolutely everyone took part in it. All human passions - hatred, love, envy - flared up on both sides with equal force in Christian society, and the pagans were also excited. Empress Eudoxia could not remove an archbishop she did not like without convening a church council. And on the initiative of the imperial couple, bishops who were Chrysostom’s ill-wishers were gathered in the emperor’s villa, called “Under the Oak”, in the vicinity of Constantinople. This cathedral went down in history as the Cathedral “Under the Oak”. The accusations brought against the Archbishop of Constantinople were nothing more than gossip, often of a ridiculous nature. Chrysostom three times rejected the invitation to appear at the Council, was removed in absentia and expelled from Constantinople. This caused the indignation of some bishops and the common people, who were on the side of Chrysostom. Street unrest began in the capital. In order to avoid unrest, the unjustly deposed archbishop decided to submit and went to his place of exile, in Bithynia, not far from Constantinople. As soon as John left for exile, an earthquake occurred in the capital. Empress Eudoxia saw in this a sign of heavenly wrath at the persecution to which the righteous man was subjected. By imperial decree, John Chrysostom was returned to the department. However, soon with his denunciations he again restored the imperial court against himself, and on June 9, 404 he was arrested and again sent into exile, first to the city of Kukue in Armenia, where he spent two years, from there to Pithiunt, or Pitsius (as Pitsunda was then called). Exhausted by illness, the saint, accompanied by a convoy, made his last journey on earth for three months, in rain and heat. In Comana his strength left him. He died in 407 at the crypt of St. Basiliscus. Once upon a time, while still serving in Antioch, Chrysostom said from the depths of his sincere heart: “I see well that I cannot leave this place of residence and that I must remain here until the end of my days.” But God's Providence judged differently. The great church lamp, once brought out of hidden solitude in the desert and placed on the church candlestick in the midst of a crowded city, gave such a strong and beneficial light around itself that even this city was not enough for it. Its light had to shine throughout the entire universe, and for this the lamp had to be placed even higher, in the very center of the Christian world. Divine Providence elevated John Chrysostom to the primacy of the Eastern Ecumenical Church in order to make him not only a great saint, but also a great martyr for the truth.