Homily on the Holy Sabbath (St. John of Damascus)

Homily on the Holy Sabbath 

Discourse 4

By St. John of Damascus

“Who can speak of the mighty works of the Lord and make His praises heard?” (Ps. 105:2). Who can describe the vast sea of His goodness? Who can express His boundless love for His servants? Who can speak of His condescension, which surpasses all understanding? Who can describe His compassion toward us and the unspeakable care that flows from it?

There is no one — even if he speaks the tongues of angels and of men, even if he has gathered within himself all human knowledge. For though the spirit is willing, the tongue is weak to speak and the mind dim to comprehend. Truly great is the mystery of the divine economy: the mind cannot contain it, but only faith can receive it — and it requires purity of soul, accompanied by fear of God and longing for Him.

For it is not possible to attain purification of the soul in any other way than through divine fear and love. Nor is it possible to receive divine illumination unless the faculty of the soul’s vision is first purified. For the divine is inaccessible to the profane, and only those who are pure in heart will see God, as Christ, who is Truth itself, said (Matt. 5:8).

Likewise, at the Theophany granted long ago to Moses in the burning bush, he is first commanded to remove his sandals, and only then to approach the symbol he beheld (Ex. 3:2). The removal of the sandals signifies the casting off of dead and earthly-minded thoughts (Gregory, Oration II on Pascha). And again, when Mount Sinai was enveloped in smoke during the giving of the Law, not all ascended, but the ascent was regulated according to each one’s purification. If, then, even in the symbols purification from every stain was required, how pure and God-like must those be who are to approach the true and original realities?

Homily on Holy Friday and the Cross (St. John of Damascus)

Homily on Holy Friday and the Cross 

Discourse 3

By St. John of Damascus

1. The struggle of our fasting is completed and ends at the Cross. And where ought the end of the victory to arrive, if not at the trophy of Christ? For the Cross is the trophy of Christ, which indeed happened once, but always puts the demons to flight. Truly, where are the idols and the vain slaughters of animals? where are the temples and the fire of impiety? All were extinguished by one holy blood and were cast down, and there remains the Cross — an all-powerful power, an invisible arrow, an immaterial remedy, a pain-relieving blow, a glory full of reproach.

So then, even if I recount countless other things about Christ, and if I astonish my listener by narrating countless miracles, I do not boast so much in those as in the Cross. I mean this by what I say: Jesus came forth from a Virgin; it is a great miracle for marriage to be bypassed and for nature to innovate; but, if the Cross had not existed, the first virgin of Paradise would not have been saved by her deeds.

Now, however, through the event of the Crucifixion the woman is saved first, healing the ancient evil with new gifts. The dead man was raised in Galilee, but he died again; but I, who have been raised through the Cross, can no longer fall into death. Jesus crossed the sea, God in a boat, and the wood offered a temporary benefit; but I have acquired an eternal wood, beneficent, which, using it as a rudder, I confront the spiritual waves of wickedness.

Homily on the Withered Fig Tree and on the Parable of the Vineyard (St. John of Damascus)

Homily on the Withered Fig Tree and on the Parable of the Vineyard 

Second Discourse

By St. John of Damascus

I am moved to speak by the personal Word of God the Father — He who did not depart from the bosom of the Father and was ineffably conceived in the womb of the Virgin; He who became for my sake what I am, He who is impassible in His divinity yet clothed Himself with a passible body like mine; He who rides upon the cherubic chariots and upon the earth mounts a colt (cf. Matt. 21:7–9).

The King of glory — He who together with the Father and the Spirit is praised by the Seraphim as holy and receives the lisping praises of children from their innocent tongues; He who is God and has the form of a servant and took the form of a servant; He who is immaterial and invisible God and yet accepted to assume a visible and tangible body; He who willingly went to the Passion, in order to grant me dispassion.

For when He saw man, the work of His hands, deceived by the guile of the serpent — man whom He had formed according to His image and likeness, yet who had fallen into the transgression of His commandment and had become subject to corruption and liable to death — He who is full of compassion could not endure the loss of the one whom He loved. Rather, He called him back in many ways to return and repentance, chastening him as an ungrateful servant, as a child of immature mind, in many and various ways, and devising every means to shake off the tyranny of the despot and return to his Creator.

Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep in Faith (St. John of Damascus)

PROLOGUE

Here I wish to add a very important note of Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite concerning Memorial Services:

“Since the present discussion concerns memorials, we note that the third-day memorials performed for the departed brethren signify, according to the sacred Symeon of Thessaloniki, that the departed brother was from the beginning composed by the Holy Trinity.

The ninth-day memorials signify that, having been dissolved into the elements from which he was composed, he is to be numbered among the nine immaterial orders of the Angels, being himself immaterial.

The fortieth-day memorials signify that, in the future resurrection, having again been re-constituted in a higher manner, he too is to be taken up as the Lord was, and, caught up in the clouds, to meet the Judge.

These three states of man are also signified by the three-month, six-month, and nine-month memorials; in general they are performed for the purification of the departed — especially the fortieth day, as is indicated by the example of our Lord, who in His three births kept three complete forties, thus imprinting our own life in Himself. For the day of birth and the death of each person are called a ‘birthday,’ according to the temple in Laodicea.

The Apostolic Constitutions (Book VIII, ch. 42) say that the third day is observed because Christ rose on the third day; the ninth day in remembrance of the living and the dead; and the fortieth day according to the ancient type — for thus also the people mourned Moses.

Some say the third day is for the purification of the threefold aspect of the soul; the ninth for the purification of the five bodily senses together with the generative, natural, and transitional faculty; and the fortieth for the purification of the four elements in the body — each of which served in the transgression of the ten commandments; and four times ten make forty.” (Pedalion, Athens 1886, p. 221)

Saint John of Damascus in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

There are mainly three points around which the grace-filled pen of the Holy Hymnographer Stephen the Sabbaite moves in order to praise the great Father and Hymnographer of the Church, John of Damascus. First, his struggle against heresy — against all those of corrupt dogma who distorted the Orthodox faith, both concerning the Holy Trinity and concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, the vast hymnographic corpus of his poems, through which, beyond the Holy Trinity and the Lord, the Most Holy Theotokos (who, by her command, activated his hymnographic gift) and all the Saints of the Church are glorified. Third, the fundamental presupposition for the existence of the Saint’s entire work and his entire contribution to the Church — especially the very existence of the gift of God that he himself was: his inner, vigilant, watchful struggle, expressed through his whole ascetic effort and discipline.

December: Day 4: Teaching 2: Saint John of Damascus

December: Day 4: Teaching 2:
Saint John of Damascus
 
(Lessons From His Life:
a. We Must Acquire Spiritual Knowledge, and 
b. Use It For the Glory of God)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Venerable John of Damascus, who is celebrated today, received an excellent education under the guidance of the learned monk Kosmas and, having become governor of the city of Damascus after the death of his father, he used all his knowledge for the glory of God — in defense of the truth of icon veneration, contested by iconoclast heretics, in expounding the dogmas of the Christian faith, and in composing those wondrously beautiful church hymns that are sung today in all Orthodox churches of the world and which were composed in great numbers by Saint John of Damascus. Having died as a priest in the Lavra of Saint Savvas near Jerusalem in 776, Saint John of Damascus, in addition to remarkable knowledge in all areas of human knowledge, and especially in the spiritual sciences, and amazing gifts in composing church hymns, showed in his life wonderful examples of renunciation of worldly glory and wealth, obedience to the will of his mentor, a simple elder, amazing humility and ardent love for God and neighbors.

December: Day 4: Teaching 1: Saint John of Damascus

 

December: Day 4: Teaching 1:
Saint John of Damascus
 
(Lessons From His Life:
a. In His Life He Demonstrated What He Taught Others In Words;
b. In the Spirit of Christian Wisdom He Not Only Taught, But Also Lived)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The now being glorified Saint John of Damascus was the son of the governor of the city of Damascus and received an excellent education under the guidance of the learned monk Kosmas of Calabria, and also had a foster brother named Kosmas who was famous for his Canons for the Great Feasts. John, who was passionate about science and reading divine books, thought to devote his whole life to scholarly pursuits. But he soon had to sacrifice his desire for the good of others. His father died and the Saracen caliph made him governor of the city of Damascus.

At that time, the Greek Emperor was Leo the Isaurian, who cruelly persecuted the venerators of holy icons. This caused troubles and unrest among Christians. The Holy Teachers of the Church instructed them, explaining the meaning of icons. John, in his epistles, or letters, exhorted Christians not to be disturbed by persecutions and false interpretations and to firmly adhere to the decrees of the Church. These letters, full of fiery faith and lively eloquence, had a strong effect on Christians; but they reached the emperor and aroused terrible anger in him. Leo decided to destroy John. He slandered him before the Saracen prince, sending the latter a forged letter in which John allegedly offered him Damascus. The prince, believing the letter and not listening to John's justifications, cruelly punished him, namely, he ordered his right hand to be cut off and deprived him of his position. However, soon John's innocence was revealed through the miraculous healing of his hand, with the help of the Mother of God; and the prince, repenting that he had so easily believed the slander, returned his trust to John and wished to make him ruler of the entire region.

On the Veneration of the Holy Cross (St. John of Damascus)

By St. John of Damascus

"For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18).For he that is spiritual judges all things, but the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit. For it is foolishness to those who do not receive in faith and who do not consider God's goodness and omnipotence, but search out divine things with human and natural reasonings. For all the things that are of God are above nature and reason and conception. For should any one consider how and for what purpose God brought all things out of nothing and into being, and aim at arriving at that by natural reasonings, he fails to comprehend it. For knowledge of this kind belongs to spirits and demons. But if any one, under the guidance of faith, should consider the divine goodness and omnipotence and truth and wisdom and justice, he will find all things smooth and even, and the way straight. "But without faith it is impossible to be saved" (Hebrews 11:6). For it is by faith that all things, both human and spiritual, are sustained. For without faith neither does the farmer cut his furrow, nor does the merchant commit his life to the raging waves of the sea on a small piece of wood, nor are marriages contracted nor any other step in life taken. By faith we consider that all things were brought out of nothing into being by God's power. And we direct all things, both divine and human, by faith. Further, faith is assent free from all meddlesome inquisitiveness.