BUILDING ON THE ROCK


SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, BISHOP, DOCTOR 

1 Tim 1:15-17; Ps 113:1-7; Lk 6:43-49

Our House on the Rock

The Son of Man is the mystery of our human nature rooted in God. As we have reiterated throughout the week, God created us for himself. So, when our nature was taken from the purpose for which he made it in the beginning by the evil one, God decided to plant the head of our nature in his Eternal Word. By doing this, he bypassed the corruption introduced by the evil one and reclaimed humanity for himself. God accomplished the enmity he created between the woman and the serpent by this mystery. Saint Paul sings of this mystery hidden in God before the creation of the world, unknown to the principalities and powers, but now revealed to the Church of God. By planting the human head firmly in the Son, the Father opened a fountain for the cleansing of our sins and corruption of the evil one. The same Jesus Christ is our brother and our God. As our brother, he is our High Priest and prays for us to the Father; and as our God, he hears our prayers and receives our sacrifices. What can be more certain than this? Saint Paul assures us of the cleansing power of this divine fountain, saying: “Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them; and if mercy has been shown to me, it is because Jesus Christ meant to make me the greatest evidence of his inexhaustible patience for all the other people who would later have to trust in him to come to eternal life.”

If, according to Paul, the Son of Man came for our salvation, then he is all we need in the present life. God made us that we may know him, love, and serve him. These three are only available through Jesus Christ. Creation teaches the knowledge of God, but our nature is disfigured and damaged by sin, so that we are not able to learn of God from nature. All the lessons that nature teaches about God and more are contained in the Son of Man, and given in a personal way to suit our maladies. Everything we need for life and salvation is given to us in Jesus Christ. The Lord himself bears witness to this fullness of salvation package for our illness in his word. “Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and acts on them—I will show you what he is like. He is like the man who when he built his house dug, and dug deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built.” The process of building our lives on the heavenly foundation is to listen carefully and act on the words of Jesus Christ. These involve sinking our spiritual roots deeply into the words of Jesus Christ. It involves engaging our minds, hearts, and wills with the Son of Man. As stated in our previous reflections, the introduction of Jesus Christ into our minds, hearts, and wills removes the disorderliness of sin and orders us back to our origin, God himself. The repair will not work for us if we fail to fix our gaze on Jesus Christ, who is our head.

The establishment of our roots deeply in the words of God restores our goodness as branches of the true vine. Only through this can we bear good fruit, as our Lord teaches in the Gospel. “There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. For every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles.” The aforementioned process produced Saint John Chrysostom as an astounding preacher, in words and in deeds. He was born in Antioch around 349 AD. He had a thorough education and took up the ascetic life. He was ordained to the priesthood. When he was elected Patriarch of Constantinople in 397, he energetically reformed the lives of the clergy and the laity. His fearless preaching provoked the emperor, and he was exiled twice by him. After the second exile to Armenia, the Emperor decided to send him further away. He died on the way, worn out by his hardships. His eloquence in explaining the Catholic faith and encouraging Christian life earned him the surname ‘Chrysostom’, which means golden mouth.

Let us pray: O God, strength of those who hope in you, who willed that the Bishop Saint John Chrysostom should be illustrious by his wonderful eloquence and his experience of suffering, grant us, we pray, that, instructed by his teachings, we may be strengthened through the example of his invincible patience. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.            

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