23rd Sunday of the Year (C)

Sunday Readings for Your Reflection: Liturgical Years 2011 (A), 2012 (B), and 2013 (C)

23rd Sunday of the Year (C), September 8, 2013

Liturgical readings
Wisdom 9:13-18
Psalm 90
Philemon 9-10, 12-17
Luke 14:25-33

"...He will send a delegation...asking for terms of peace."


On one occasion
when a great crowd was with Jesus,


he turned to them and said,


"If anyone comes to me
without turning his back
        on his father
        and mother,
        his wife
        and his children,
        his brothers
        and sisters,
        indeed his very self,


he cannot be my follower.


Anyone who does not take up his cross
and follow me
cannot be my disciple.


If one of you
decides to build a tower,


will he not first sit down
and calculate the outlay


to see if he has enough money
to complete the project?


He will do that
for fear of laying the foundation
and then not being able
to complete the work;


at which all who saw it
would then jeer at him,


saying,


'That man began to build
what he could not finish.'"


"Or


if a king
is about to march
on another king


to do battle with him,


will he not sit down first
and consider


whether,


with ten thousand men,
he can withstand an enemy
coming against him with twenty thousand?


If he cannot,


he will send a delegation
while the enemy is still at a distance,
asking for terms of peace.


In the same way,


none of you can be my disciple


if he does not renounce
all his possessions."

Scripture quotes from the readings:
"In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge." (Psalm 90)
"Teach us to number our days aright, that we may know wisdom of heart." (Psalm 90)
"And may the gracious care of the Lord our God be ours." (Psalm 90)

Early Christianity and the Dark Ages: The Age of Pioneers

Introduction

Before the Roman Catholic Church had experienced division, it was a unified whole. There was centralization of belief, conduct and forms of worship. This began in Nicaea (325 A.D.), and continued until the ninth century, through many leaders who championed the faith from its roots in the person of Christ, Scripture, and early liturgical forms. It was a very difficult time for Christendom because the Church had to conquer those who opposed her orthodoxy, and at the same time defend herself from many barbarian invasions during the Dark Ages (a time described as one filled with widespread illiteracy, low levels of cultural activity, and towards eventual disintegration of the Roman Empire). In the midst of all this 'darkness', many pioneers championed the Light of Christ by inducing religious fervor and an intellectual spirit.

Learning from the wisdom of the past

There is a lot of wisdom to be gained from the study of how the early Christian faith had to organize and unify herself. Scholars may discover insights needed for present day missions to work for Christian unity and ecumenism.
Below is a list of important persons and events that shaped the early direction of Christianity (those who kept the Light of Christ aflame):

• Nicaea (325 A.D.) and St. Athanasius
• Constantinople (381 A.D.), St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and St. Gregory of Nyssa
• Pioneers of the monastic movement: St. Anthony of Egypt, Pachomius, St. Paul the Hermit, St. Hilarion, St. Martin of Tours
• The early Fathers of the Church: St. Ambrose, St. Augustine of Hippo, and St. Jerome
• Chalcedon (451 A.D.), Pope St. Leo the Great, and St. Cyril of Alexandria
• St. Benedict and his monastic movement
• The Irish monastic movement: St. Columba of Iona, St. Brigid of Kildare, St. Ita of Killeedy, and St. Columban
• St. Gregory the Great: Benedictine Pope-Monk
• The missions to Britain (597 A.D.) and St. Augustine of Canterbury
• Scholars, monks and bishops who preserved Catholicism: St. Isidore of Seville, St. Benedict Biscop, and St. Cuthbert
• The missions to the Germans (ca. 719 A.D.): St. Boniface, St. Chrodegang of Metz, and St. Walburga
• Nicaea (ca. 787 A.D.), Venerable Bede, and St. John Damascene

This is just a sample list of Christianity's leaders and important Church events from 325 A.D. to 787 A.D. As you search and research online, more names, and other important events will show and reveal how rich and influential Christ and His message meant to all in the world at that time.

St. John Chrysostom, Patron Saint of Preachers (feast September 13)

St. John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor: c. 347-407 A.D.

Feast day, September 13

Birth, education, and baptism

St. John was born about the year 347 A.D. in Antioch, Syria, the only son of Secundus, an imperial military officer. Anthusa, St. John's mother, was left a widow when she was only twenty. However, Anthusa was left with sufficient means to have St. John receive the best education available. And so, St. John studied law and rhetoric under the famous pagan rhetorician, Libanius, and took special studies in theology under the Antiochean priest Diodorus of Tarsus. John was then baptized by Bishop Meletius about 369 A.D.

Hermit, deacon and then priest

In 374 A.D., after Anthusa's death, St. John became a hermit under St. Basil and Theodore of Mopsuestia. He joined one of the communities of monks in the mountains to the south of Antioch. For four years, John led an austere life of fasting, prayer and study. The next two years he lived as a hermit in a cave. However, he overdid his austerity and weakened his health, thereby forcing him to return to the city in 381 A.D. He was ordained a deacon by Meletius in about the same year. Serving five years as deacon, he was then ordained a priest in 386 A.D. by Bishop Flavian of Antioch, whom he assisted for the next twelve years.

Chrysostom (golden-mouthed)

St. John became popular for his preaching and earned him the title Chrysostom or Golden-Mouth - on account of his eloquence. More than seven hundred of his preached sermons have come down to us, and it was mainly because of them that he was declared a Doctor of the Church. He preached a series of homilies on books of the New Testament (including eighty-eight on John, ninety on Matthew, and thirty-two on Romans). He is also called Doctor of the Eucharist for his beautiful witness to the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Patriarch of Constantinople

Declared Bishop of Constantinople

In 398 A.D., against his wishes, St. John was named Patriarch of Constantinople and at once began to reform the Church there. His first move was to cut down all the unnecessary expenses of his predecessors and to give the money to the poor. He also took to task the reformation of the clergy by his words and example.

First exile

St. John's preaching and Christian practice gained him many enemies, both in the imperial court (the empress Eudoxia) and among less worthy bishops. In 403 A.D., Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria (and John's rival to the see of Constantinople), came to Constantinople to convene a council of thirty-six bishops. Here, a list of false charges was drawn up against John and handed over to the emperor, who then ordered St. John to be exiled.

Return from exile

Civil war threatened Constantinople and when an earthquake shook the city, the empress Eudoxia (whom St. John criticized for her vanity, lack of charity, and dress) revoked the banishment order - imploring the emperor to return St. John to his see. Once again returning to the see, St. John denounced the excesses of the public games held to celebrate the building of a silver statue of Eudoxia. This renewed Eudoxia's enmity against John.

Further exile and death

On June 24, 404 A.D., Emperor Arcadius ordered John into exile at Cucusus, Armenia, despite the support of the people of Constantinople, Pope Innocent I, and the whole western Church. From Cucusus, John wrote at least 238 letters that are still extant. John was then further exiled to a more distant location, Pityus, at the far end of the Black Sea, and died on the way at Comana, Pontus, on September 14 from exhaustion from the forced marches on foot in the stifling heat and inclement weather.

Doctor of the Church

St. John Chrysostom is the fourth of the four men - along with Saints Athanasius, Basil and Gregory Nazianzen - who were considered the great Doctors of the Church from the East until more were added in the sixteenth century. He was declared a Doctor of the Universal Church at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. and was named patron of preachers by Pope Pius X. His feast day is September 13.

References of this article

• Dictionary of Saints, by John J. Delaney
• Saints for Our Time, by Ed Ransom
• The Doctors of the Church vol 1, by John F. Fink
• A Year With the Saints, by Don Bosco Press, Inc.