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DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
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Wisdom Selections B (11/13-11/26) Third Vesperal Reading: Saint John Chrysostom
Wisdom of Solomon, SAAS: Pr 29:2; WSol 4:1, 14; 6:11, 17-18, 21-22; 7:15-16, 21-22, 26-30; 10:9-12; 7:30; 1:8; 2:1, 10-17, 19-22; 2:22; Ps 85:9; WSol 16:13; 1:14; Pr 3:37.
Second Vesperal Reading: Recovery of the Relics of Saint John Chrysostom 1/27
Third Vesperal Reading: Saint John Chrysostom 11/13
Pr 29:2 When the righteous are praised, the people shall rejoice....
WSol 4:1 For immortality is in its memory; because it is known both by God and by man.
WSol 4:14 For his soul was pleasing to the Lord; therefore He took him early from the midst of evil
WSol 6:11 Therefore long for [wisdom’s] words; yearn for them and you will be instructed.
WSol 6:17 For the beginning of wisdom is a very genuine desire for instruction, and careful
attention to instruction is the love of her.
WSol 6:18 Now this love is the keeping of her laws, and giving heed to her laws is the assurance of incorruption....
WSol 6:21 Honor wisdom, that you may reign forever.
WSol 6:22 I will tell you what wisdom is and how she came to be, and I will hide no mysteries from you...
WSol 7:15 May God grant me to speak according to His purpose and to think worthily of what I was given, for He is also the guide of wisdom and the corrector of the wise.
WSol 7:16 For both we and our words are in His hand, and so are all insights and knowledge of handicrafts.
WSol 7:21 And to know whatever is hidden and whatever is visible. For wisdom, the artisan of all things taught me.
WSol 7:26 For she is the radiance of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the operative power of God and the image of His goodness.
WSol 7:27 Though she is one, she can do all things; renews all things; and in every generation, she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God and prophets.
WSol 7:28 Thus God loves nothing as much as the one who lives with wisdom
WSol 7:29 For wisdom is more beautiful than the sun and more than every constellation of stars. Compared with light she is found to be superior.
WSol 7:30 For night succeeds the light, but evil cannot overcome wisdom.
WSol 10:9 Wisdom rescued from troubles those who served her.
WSol 10:10 She guided a righteous man on straight paths when he fled his brother’s wrath.
She showed him the kingdom of God and give him knowledge of holy things. She prospered him in hardships and increased the fruit of his labors.
WSol 10:11 When they dishonored him in their covetousness, she stood by him and made him rich.
WSol 10:12 She protected him from his enemies, kept him safe from those who plotted against him, and arbitrated a strong contest for him, so he might know that godliness is more powerful than anything.
WSol 7:30 For night succeeds the light, but evil cannot overcome wisdom.
WSol 1:8 Therefore no one who speaks unrighteous things will escape notice nor will justice, when it cross-examines, pass him by.
WSol 2:1 For they said among themselves, as they reasoned incorrectly: ‘Our life is short and painful, and there is no cure for the death of a man, for no one has been known to return from Hades....
WSol 2:10 Let us oppress the righteous poor man; let us not spare a widow, nor respect the aged gray hair of an old man.
WSol 2:11 Let our might be our law of righteousness; for what is weak is shown to be useless.
WSol 2:12 Let us lie in ambush for the righteous man, because he is useless to us and opposes our deeds; he denounces us for our sins against the law and accuses us of sins against our upbringing.
WSol 2:13 He claims to have knowledge of God, and he calls himself a child of the Lord.
WSol 2:14 He has become for us as a refutation of our purposes; even seeing him is a burden to us.
WSol 2:15 Because his life is unlike that of others; For his paths go in a different direction.
WSol 2:16 We are considered by him as a hybrid, and he avoids our ways as something immoral; he considers the last things of the righteous as blessed, and pretends that God is his Father.
WSol 2:17 Let us see if his words are true, and let us put these last things to the test at the end of his life.
WSol 2:19 Let us test him with insult and torture that we may know his gentleness and test his patient endurance.
WSol 2:20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for there shall be a visitation because of his words.
WSol 2:21 So they reasoned these things and were led astray, for their malice blinded them.
WSol 2:22 But they did not know the mysteries of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness,
nor judge the reward of blameless souls.
Ps 86:8 There is none like You among the gods, O Lord, and there are no works like Your works.
WSol 16:13 For You have authority over life and death, and bring men down to the gates of Hades and lead them back again.
WSol 1:14 For You created all things that they might exist, and the generations of the world so they might be preserved.
Pr 3:37 But You give grace to the humble and oppose the arrogant.
Wisdom of Solomon, Brenton: 4:10-12; 6:21; 7:15-17, 22, 26, 29; 2:1, 10-17, 19-22
Third Reading at the Vespers of the Feast of the Saint John Chrysostom
4:10. He pleased God , and was beloved of Him: so that living among sinners he was translated. 11. Yea, speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul.
12. For the bewitching of evil doth obscure things that are honest; and the wandering of concupiscence doth undermine the simple mind.
6:21. If your delight be then in thrones and scepters, O ye kings of the people, honor wisdom, that ye may reign for evermore.
7:15. God hath granted me to speak as I would, and to conceive as is meet for the things that are given me: because it is He that leadeth unto wisdom, and directeth the wise.
16. For in His hand are both we and our words; all wisdom also, and knowledge of workmanship. 17. For He hath given me certain knowledge of the things that are, namely, to know how the world was made, and the operation of the elements.
22. For wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me: for in her is an understanding spirit, holy, one only, manifold, subtle, lively, clear, undefiled, plain, not subject to hurt, loving the thing that is good, quick, which cannot be hindered, ready to do good.
26. For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of His goodness.
29. For she is more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of stars: being compared with the light, she is found before it.
2:1. For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave. 10. Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient grey hairs of the aged. 11. Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth. 12. Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous: because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to our infamy, the transgressings of our education. 13. He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord. 14. He was made to reprove our thoughts. 15. He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, his ways are of another fashion. 16. We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father. 17. Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him. 19. Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness and prove his patience. 20. Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected. 21. Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them. 22. As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.
Saint John Chrysostom ~Martyrdom : Wisdom Selections B, especially WSol. 2:20, 21: “Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for there shall be a visitation because of his words. So they reasoned these things and were led astray, for their malice blinded them.” As Archbishop of Constantinople, Saint John Chrysostom preformed many outstanding works in the new Capital of the Roman Empire. Saint Nikolai of Zica summarizes his achievements: “He governed the Church for six years as Patriarch with unequaled zeal and wisdom, sending missionaries to the pagan Celts and Scythians and purging the Church of simony, deposing many bishops who were given to this vice. He extended the Church’s charitable works, wrote a text for the Holy Liturgy, put heretics to shame, denounced the Empress Eudoxia, interpreted the Scriptures with his golden mind and tongue, and left to the Church many precious books of sermons.”
Sadly, Saint John fell victim to the kinds of jealousy and political intrigue that remain a dark blot on the history of mankind - and even within the Church at times. Still, this present reading captures the spirit of the Saint’s life, as well as his incalculable contribution to Orthodox Christianity. Three particular verses (WSol 2:10-12) remind us of the abrupt tragedy that befell Saint John in his life and ministry, and another forms a fitting epitaph: “...his soul was pleasing to the Lord; therefore He took him early from the midst of evil” (WSol. 4:14).
The verses from (WSol. 7:15-29) inspire remembrance of the brilliant teaching of Holy Scripture which earned Saint John the title, ‘Chrysostom,’ or ‘Golden Mouth.’ He knew well both the Old and New Testaments, and his sermons and instructions delivered in Antioch, where he served as a Deacon for five years and as a Priest for another 11 years, and in Constantinople after becoming Archbishop, are among the finest expositions ever given on Holy Scripture. Any who read the recorded works of Saint John hasten to put Solomon’s prayer in Saint John’s mouth: “God grant me to speak according to His purpose and to think worthily of what I was given, for He is also the guide of wisdom and the corrector of the wise” (WSol. 7:15).
It was in AD 397, that Priest John of Antioch was spirited suddenly from the city of his birth by two imperial officials who swiftly brought him by coach to Constantinople where he was consecrated as the twelfth Bishop of the city. He was just under fifty years of age. His monastic preparation in the Faith before ordination revealed itself in his sermons. Often the homilies spoke out against frivolities like horse racing and theater, diversions that entertained many in the city. While for years the Saint was warmly received by Emperor Arkadios and the Empress Eudoxia, yet his sharp tongue “...against the well-off” cooled their relations with him, and played into the hands of his enemies in the Church, particularly Patriarch Theophilos of Alexandria.
In AD 400, a Church quarrel in Alexandria boiled over and came to Saint John’s attention. He strove to mediate, but his efforts were turned on him by Patriarch Theophilos’ intrigue. Saint John was removed as Patriarch by Imperial command - an act of influence and false justice (WSol. 2:11,12). He went into a brief exile in AD 403. Though restored in AD 404, he was again exiled to the isolated mountain city of Koukousos. But after some time, he was force-marched to a more desolate spot far east on the south coast of the Black sea. In illness and exhaustion he reposed. In ‘the mysteries of God’ (WSol. 2:22), thirty years later, his relics were brought back to Constantinople in triumph, and Saint John was vindicated and glorified.
As Grace shining forth from thy mouth like fire, hath illumined the universe, O Father John Chrysostom, intercede thou with the Word, Christ our God, to save our souls.
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