B233. Glory in Exile

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit, glory to Jesus Christ. Epistle of John the Beloved. He warns of the spirit of Antichrist going out into the world, and yet there is one still to come. At the end of this epistle he says But those who are of God cannot sin. Those who are of God cannot sin. And it's puzzling to us because, especially in this modern dark age.

We, those of the faithful, we recognize that we we do have sin. We do commit sin. So how are we to understand the words of Saint John? Uh the temptation can be to relegate it to another time. And this is very common for people. They say, well, these things were of a different age. People lived differently, they had different dispositions, they were closer to the coming of the Christ, and so therefore they had the strength to live in ways that were

seemingly uh impossible to us. And I think that there is some validity to that type of argument, but I don't think it's accurate actually. I don't think it really communicates what's happening. Not just in the epistle itself, but the spirit in which John was trying to communicate to people. who were, shall we say, being crushed under the heel of not just a political occupation, but rather the weight of the world and of the devil.

One of the mistakes people can make is they can uh project a naive perspective, a naive vision, a naive interpretation of the faith, and especially of those ancient times. No, I don't think it's a matter of people lived necessarily different or sinless as opposed to now. You see, today we are commemorating Saint John Chrysostom, the translation of his relics, and thanks be to God we have his relics with us today.

But what's interesting is Saint John, if you study Saint John, you study the homilies of Saint John, the life of Saint John. you are struck with something pretty profound actually. And it's something that's especially profound in this modern time, and that is this. Saint John was always, shall we say, exhorting We know from the writings of Saint John that the people were loud even then.

Not just on Sundays in Kansas City. We realize from the writings of St. John that there was various debaucherous acts that were still being practised among the faithful even in his time. So what are we to do with this? I think we can start to see that. St. John the Beloved, not St. John Chrysostom, Saint John the Beloved is speaking about something fundamentally deeper.

Getting back to St. John Chrysostom. St. John, as we are all familiar with, was exiled. And died in harsh exile. Let us be clear exile is not going to, you know, the Cayman Islands for arrest. He went to a godforsaken place with such poverty that the very trip itself essentially killed him. Yes, we just had a cold snap and it's it was cold, it was difficult, it was nothing compared to what St. John endured, it killed him. And Saint John dying in this

Extreme poverty. The last words he uttered were this Glory to God for all things. Glory to God for all things. What am I talking about? Have you ever been portrayed? Do you know the bitterness that can arise in you? And choke out the very life in your spirit. On and on and on. All these things that St. John suffered, and yet he says, Glory to God for all things. How is that? Because St. John's love, not just for God, but for the people It allowed him to see not with some naive eyes.

But with transfigured eyes, he had the vision of Christ and he saw things he saw people as Christ saw them. He saw the people of God as Christ saw them. Glory to God for all things. What does this mean? It means that those who are in Christ Even to what the world we may say is sin, for the faithfulness. It becomes the place in which they learn. For the faithful it becomes the place in which they are purified. For the faithful it becomes the place in which they are deified.

All things have their place, yes, including the quote unquote sin of the faithful. And this is a powerful mystery and one that we must be very careful and not play with. Because as Saint Paul says, Should we sin lest grace abound heaven forbid? So we're not speaking of this. We're not speaking of some distorted, moralistic teaching. We're talking about something profoundly mystical. That God in his wisdom preserves his people, even in the midst of what everyone else would say is sin.

In the gospel today, the first gospel, the Lord commands the disciples to go And to untie a cult. Mysteriously. What is this cult? Who are these people who have the cult? Why is it that they were able to hear this word and say, okay. Because God arranges and things he arranges things in such a way That they are beyond our understanding, and yet they have their purpose. This was the same donkey that he rode into.

And yet the context in which he arranged that is mysterious and we'll not know it really until the end of the age. But nevertheless, glory to God for all things, God in his mysterious way has everything fit in just such a way that he preserves his people. And in preserving his people even in the midst of exile, poverty, pain, betrayal. They cry out to him, Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord. This is only possible.

For those who have been touched, those who have been shepherd, and those who have been loved by the Christ. The prayers of Saint John Chrysostom, Lord help us to see with new eyes that all things in your hands are for the good of your people. Amen.