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| John Chrysostom |
The two letters Chrysostom wrote to his friend Theodore of
Mopsuestia provide the earliest examples of Chrysostom’s certainty of God’s
love, patience, and forgiveness. Theodore had left his religious community and had
decided to marry a woman named Hermione. His friends were aghast; they prayed
and worked diligently for Theodore’s restoration, and these two letters from
Chrysostom are part of those efforts urging Theodore to repent and to return.
Their efforts were successful; Theodore decided not to marry, returned to his ascetic
community, was ordained a priest, and later became the Bishop of Mopsuestia (CCEL 392).
The issue Chrysostom addresses is what Christians should do
when they sin. Because God loves us and forgives us, Chrysostom argues, the most
grievous error is not to fall into sin; the grievous error is “to remain
prostrate after falling, and not to get up again” (An Exhortation To Theodore After His Fall, Letter 1.7). The “Lost”
parables of Luke 15 serve as prime examples of people who have “fallen away
after having believed” and who returned (thus, unlike Tertullian, Chrysostom
believes those who are lost in the parables symbolize Christians who have
fallen away):
But other things also shall be
said, partly by means of parables, partly by plainer deeds and words. Now that
sheep which had got separated from the ninety and nine, and then was brought
back again, represents to us nothing else than the fall and return of the
faithful; for it was a sheep not of some alien flock, but belonging to the same
number as the rest, and was formerly pastured by the same shepherd, and it
strayed on no common straying, but wandered away to the mountains and in
valleys, that is to say some long journey, far distant from the right path. Did
he then suffer it to stray? By no means, but brought it back neither driving
it, nor beating it, but taking it upon his shoulders. For as the best
physicians bring back those who are far gone in sickness with careful treatment
to a state of health, not only treating them according to the laws of the medical
art, but sometimes also giving them gratification: even so God conducts to
virtue those who are much depraved, not with great severity, but gently and
gradually, and supporting them on every side, so that the separation may not
become greater, nor the error more prolonged.
And
the same truth is implied in the parable of the prodigal son as well as in
this. For he also was no stranger, but a son, and a brother of the child who
had been well pleasing to the father, and he plunged into no ordinary vice, but
went to the very extremity, so to say, of evil, he the rich and free and
well-bred son being reduced to a more miserable condition than that of
household slaves, strangers, and hirelings. Nevertheless he returned again to
his original condition, and had his former honour restored to him. But if he
had despaired of his life, and, dejected by what had befallen him, had remained
in the foreign land, he would not have obtained what he did obtain, but would
have been consumed with hunger, and so have undergone the most pitiable death;
but since he repented, and did not despair, he was restored, even after such
great corruption, to the same splendour as before, and was arrayed in the most
beautiful robe, and enjoyed greater honours than his brother who had not fallen
. . . . So great is the power of repentance.
Chrysostom counsels Theodore not to despair; since God love
us as a parent loves a child, all Theodore has to do is to ask God for
forgiveness, and Theodore will be joyfully welcomed back into God’s family.
Tomorrow, a short conclusion about Chrysostom and allegorized readings of the parables.
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