St Robert Bellarmine's Commentary on the Psalter/2

Yesterday I posted some material on the life of St Robert Bellarmine.  Today I want to give a few samples of his Commentary on the Psalms, from the translation by the Ven.  John O'Sullivan.

St Robert Bellarmine's Commentary is particularly helpful, I find, because it is firmly grounded in the tradition of the Church up to his time.  He frequently cites St Augustine and other patristic sources, is conscious of both the Vulgate/Septuagint traditions, but also of the Hebrew text variants.  Yet at the same time it has a distinctly more modern and engaging character than some of the medieval expositions.  Above all, St Robert provides a verse by verse exegesis that gets straight down to the juice to be squeezed out of the text for our spiritual advancement.

A contemplative

Though St Robert was a Jesuit, his commentary, though practical in orientation, is deeply contemplative in tone, something that helps make it extremely attractive to readers today.  Consider, for example, this take on the opening verse of Psalm 41 (42), 'As the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so my soul panteth after thee, O God':

"Love is a fiery affection, and, therefore, cannot be restrained, but breaks forth in words and sighs. To express his love somehow, David compares himself to a thirsty stag, say­ing, "As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters;" a most happy and expressive simile.

The stag is noted for four pecu­liarities. It is a deadly enemy to serpents, and constantly at war with them. When it is pursued by the hunters, it betakes itself to the highest mountains as quickly as possible. By some nat­ural instinct, they singularly carry out the advice of the apostle, "Bear ye each other's burdens;" for, according to St. Augustine, when they move in a body, or swim across a lake, the weaker ones rest their heads on the stronger, and are thus helped along. Finally, when they are tired after a combat with serpents, or a flight to the mountain, or from helping each other along, they seek to refresh themselves by copious droughts of water, from which they cannot be tempted or deterred.

Such is a most per­fect idea of the true lover of God. He has to wage a continued war against the serpents of his evil desires. When he is nigh overcome by temptation, or by persecutions, he flies away to the mount of contemplation, bears his neighbor's infirmities with the greatest patience, and, above all, thirsts ardently for God, from whom he will not be held back by any earthly hap­piness or trouble. Such was David, though a soldier; so was Paul, Peter, and the other apostles and martyrs; such were all who felt they were, while here below, in exile, and, through good and evil days, never lost sight of that country, the supreme object of their wishes."

A God who guides us individually

St Robert advocates an active role for the laity, most especially the cultivation of a deeply personal relationship with God through the sacraments, reading of Scripture, prayer and good works.  In his commentary on Psalm 94, said daily at Matins in the older forms of the Roman and Benedictine Offices, for example, he discusses the sources of guidance God provides for each of us individually in relation to the verse, 'If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts'.  He points to the conventional injunction to obey the commandments:

"...the Prophet exhorts God's people to praise God, not only by word of mouth, but also by their works. Now, the most agreeable sacrifice we can offer to God is the observance of his commandments, according to 1 Kings 15, "Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed?"

But he points to other important sources of guidance as well:

"The word "if" seems to mean that God does not speak to us every moment, but that he advises in fitting time and place, either through his teachers, or through the reading of the Scriptures, or in some other mode to make his will known to us."

A counter to clericalism

One of the more notable features of the work is that throughout the text, the saint offers careful correctives to the excesses of clericalist authoritarianism.  In his remarks on the verse in the same psalm 'we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture', for example, on the one hand he stresses the importance of the pastors of the Church, but on the other he is conscious of the only too contemporary problem of false and unworthy priests, and stresses that God guides us each individually as well:

"...the Lord not only made us, but he governs us by a special providence, as a shepherd would the flock that belonged to himself....are not sheep devoid of reason, that need to be driven with a staff; and they are called the sheep of his hand, either because he made them, or because he guides them with his hand; for though God's people have shepherds and teachers to feed and to direct them, still he has a peculiar care for them, and does not let them suffer from the negligence or the ignorance, or even the malice of the pastors. Whence we infer that God's people should put great confidence in God, their supreme Pastor, and have recourse to him, through prayer, when they fall in with an unworthy pastor, for God himself says, "I will feed my sheep," Ezech. 34."

I hope this little taster will encourage you to acquire and read more of this great work.

Commentaries on the Psalms: St Robert Bellarmine

Continuing my series on commentaries on the psalms, if you can only afford to buy one, the commentary by St Robert Bellarmine SJ is the one I would recommend. 

The best commentary on the market?

I love this commentary because St Robert gets straight to the spiritual juice of the text, providing a lively commentary that draws heavily on the tradition, but also offers some new insights and focuses spurred not doubt by the Reformation, but which remain particularly pertinent to our time.

You can find a version of it online here: Bellarmine's Commentary on the Psalms. 

So today, a little about St Robert Bellarmine, courtesy of a General Audience by Pope Benedict XVI earlier this year; tomorrow a taster extract of his work.

The life and work of St Robert

From a General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI, 23 February 2011:

"Born on 4 October 1542 in Montepulciano near Siena, he was the nephew, on his mother’s side, of Pope Marcellus II. He had an excellent formation in the humanities before entering the Society of Jesus on 20 September 1560. His philosophy and theology studies, at the Roman College in Padua and at Louvain, focused on St Thomas and the Fathers of the Church. They were crucial to his theological orientation.

He was ordained a priest on 25 March 1570 and for a few years was professor of theology at Louvain. Later, summoned to Rome to teach at the Roman College, he was entrusted with the chair of apologetics. In the decade in which he held it (1576-1586), he compiled a course of lessons which subsequently formed the Controversiae [Controversies], a work whose clarity, rich content and mainly historical tone earned it instant renown.

The Council of Trent had just ended and in the face of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church was impelled to reinforce and confirm her identity. Bellarmine’s action fitted into this context. From 1588 to 1594 he was first spiritual director of the Jesuit students at the Roman College — among whom he met and gave direction to St Aloysius Gonzaga — then religious superior.

Pope Clement VIII appointed Fr Bellarmine Papal Theologian, consultor to the Holy Office and rector of the College of Confessors at St Peter’s. His short catechism, Dottrina cristiana [Christian doctrine] dates back to the two-year period 1597–1598. It was one of his most popular works.

Pope Clement VIII created him a cardinal on 3 March 1599 and on 18 March 1602 he was appointed Archbishop of Capua. He received episcopal ordination on 21 April that same year. In the three years in which he was a diocesan bishop, he distinguished himself by his zeal as a preacher in his cathedral, by his weekly visits to parishes, by three Diocesan Synods and by a Provincial Council which he founded.

After taking part in the Conclaves that elected Pope Leo XI and Pope Paul V, he was called to Rome again, where he became a member of the Congregations of the Holy Office, of the Index, for Rites, for Bishops and for the Propagation of the Faith. He also had diplomatic responsibilities in the Republic of Venice and in England, to defend the rights of the Apostolic See.

In his last years he composed various books on spirituality in which he concentrated the results of his annual spiritual exercises. Christian people today still draw great edification from reading them. He died in Rome on 17 September 1621. Pope Pius XI beatified him in 1923, canonized him in 1930 and proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church in 1931.

St Robert Bellarmine carried out an important role in the Church of the last decades of the 16th century and the first of decades of 17th. His Controversiae were a reference point, still valid, for Catholic ecclesiology on questions concerning Revelation, the nature of the Church, the sacraments and theological anthropology. In them the institutional aspect of the Church is emphasized because of the errors that were then circulating on these issues.

Nevertheless, Bellarmine also explained the invisible aspects of the Church as the Mystical Body and illustrated them with the analogy of body and soul, to the point that he described the relationship between the Church’s inner riches and the external aspects that enable her to be perceived. In this monumental work that endeavours to organize the theological controversies of that time, he avoids any polemical and aggressive approach in speaking of the ideas of the Reformation. Instead, using the arguments of reason and the Tradition of the Church, he illustrates the Catholic doctrine clearly and effectively.

Yet his inheritance consists in the way in which he conceived of his work. Indeed, the burdensome offices of governance did not prevent him from striving daily for holiness, faithful to the demands of his own state as a religious, priest and bishop. From this fidelity came his commitment to preaching assiduously. Since as a priest and bishop he was first and foremost a pastor of souls, he felt it was his duty to preach diligently. He gave hundreds of sermones — homilies — in Flanders, Rome, Naples and Capua, during liturgical celebrations.

Equally prolific were his expositiones and his explanationes to the parish priests, women religious and students of the Roman College on Sacred Scripture and especially on St Paul’s Letters.

His preaching and his catechesis have that same character of essentiality which he had learned from his Ignatian education, entirely directed to concentrating the soul’s energies on the Lord Jesus intensely known, loved and imitated. In the writings of this man of governance one is clearly aware, despite the reserve behind which he conceals his sentiments, of the primacy he gives to Christ’s teaching.

St Bellarmine thus offers a model of prayer, the soul of every activity: a prayer that listens to the word of God, that is satisfied in contemplating his grandeur, that does not withdraw into self but is pleased to abandon itself to God.

A hallmark of Bellarmine’s spirituality is his vivid personal perception of God’s immense goodness. This is why our Saint truly felt he wasa beloved son of God. It was a source of great joy to him to pause in recollection, with serenity and simplicity, in prayer and in contemplation of God.

In his book De ascensione mentis in Deum — Elevation of the mind to God — composed in accordance with the plan of the Itinerarium [Journey of the mind into God] of St Bonaventure, he exclaims: “O soul, your example is God, infinite beauty, light without shadow, splendour that exceeds that of the moon and the sun. He raised his eyes to God in whom is found the archetypes of all things, and of whom, as from a source of infinite fertility, derives this almost infinite variety of things. For this reason you must conclude: whoever finds God finds everything, whoever loses God loses everything”.

In this text an echo of the famous contemplatio ad amorem obtineundum — contemplation in order to obtain love — of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola can be heard. Bellarmine, who lived in the lavish and often unhealthy society of the end of late 16th and early 17th centuries, drew from this contemplation practical applications and applied them to the situation of the Church of his time with a lively pastoral inspiration.

In his book De arte bene moriendi — the art of dying a good death — for example, he points out as a reliable norm for a good life and also for a good death regular and serious meditation that should account to God for one’s actions and one’s way of life, and seek not to accumulate riches on this earth but rather to live simply and charitably in such a way as to lay up treasure in Heaven.

In his book De gemitu columbae — the lament of the dove — in which the dove represents the Church, is a forceful appeal to all the clergy and faithful to undertake a personal and concrete reform of their own life in accordance with the teachings of Scripture and of the saints, among whom he mentions in particular St Gregory Nazianzus, St John Crysostom, St Jerome and St Augustine, as well as the great founders of religious orders, such as St Benedict, St Dominic and St Francis.

Bellarmine teaches with great clarity and with the example of his own life that there can be no true reform of the Church unless there is first our own personal reform and the conversion of our own heart.

Bellarmine found in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius recommendations for communicating the profound beauty of the mysteries of faith, even to the simplest of people. He wrote: “If you have wisdom, may you understand that you have been created for the glory of God and for your eternal salvation. This is your goal, this is the centre of your soul, this the treasure of your heart. Therefore consider as truly good for you what leads you to your goal, and truly evil what causes you to miss it. The wise person must not seek felicitous or adverse events, wealth or poverty, health or sickness, honours or offences, life or death. They are good and desirable only if they contribute to the glory of God and to your eternal happiness, they are evil and to be avoided if they hinder it” (De ascensione mentis in Deum, grad. 1).

These are obviously not words that have gone out of fashion but words on which we should meditate at length today, to direct our journey on this earth. They remind us that the aim of our life is the Lord, God who revealed himself in Jesus Christ, in whom he continues to call us and to promise us communion with him. They remind us of the importance of trusting in the Lord, of expending ourselves in a life faithful to the Gospel, of accepting and illuminating every circumstance and every action of our life with faith and with prayer, ever reaching for union with him."

Lectio notes on the Propers, Ninth Sunday after Pentecost - Introit (Psalm 53)

The Introit for this week is from Psalm 53 (54), Deus, in nómine tuo salvum me fac.  The text of the Introit in the order that we hear it as Mass is as follows: 

Ecce Deus ádjuvat me (Behold, God is my helper), et Dóminus suscéptor est ánimæ meæ (and the Lord has sustained my soul): avérte mala inimícis meis (turn back the evil on my enemies), et in veritáte tua dispérde illos (and in your truth disperse them), protéctor meus, Dómine (O Lord my protector). Deus in nómine tuo (O God by your name) salvum me fac (save me): et in virtúte tua (and in your strength) líbera me (deliver me).

Context

This psalm is given a particular historical context by its title (noting that the titles of the psalms preserved in the Septuagint/Vulgate are very ancient indeed), namely the warning to David that the Philistines with whom he had taken refuge planned to betray him to Saul, causing him to flee once more to the wilderness (1 Samuel 23).

Dom Gueranger's commentary on the day in his Liturgical Year, however, puts it in the context of today's Gospel, Our Lord weeping for the coming destruction of Jerusalem, and the cleansing of the Temple:

"Israel had made himself the enemy of the Church; and God, as He had warned him, punishes and disperses his children.  The Church takes occasion, from the fulfilment of the divine judgments, to profess the humble confidence she has in her Spouse's aid."

The virtue of justice

This psalm, like many, asks for deliverance from enemies, and asks for them to be punished.  In the version used in the liturgy, the final plea is to be freed from his enemies; in the Vulgate, the word 'judge' is used instead of 'deliver' or 'free' me.  They come to the same thing, as St Robert Bellarmine observes in his commentary on the Psalm: "...that is, be my judge, defend me as I deserve, and avenge me of my enemy.."

Over and over Scripture tells us that the righteous man can call on God and be confident of his help, while the unjust man's pleas will go unheeded.  Over and over we are told that what we do now will either store up for us treasure in heaven, or punishment in hell.

Yet this basic concept of justice - the idea that sooner or later there will be consequences for our actions - is one we tend to shy away from these days, to the destruction of society, as is seen in the English riots. Modern theologians promote the idea of an empty hell (an idea completely at odds with the repeated warnings of Our Lord); too often the punishments meted out by the courts fall well short of fitting the crime; and in too many countries the State works to undermine the authority and bonds of the family rather than promote it.

Today's Gospel (St Luke 19) tells us that the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD was a punishment for the failure of the failure of the Jewish people to recognise their Messiah.  

What then should the punishment be for a society that has turned its back on God and worships pleasure instead; that rejects even the gift of life, slaughtering its unborn innocents?  No wonder we have global warming, a financial crisis, and a society losing all cohesion....

How then, can we personally work to restore the concept of justice in our faith and society?  A worthy topic for meditation, contemplation and action.

Propers for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost/1

You can find a listing of readings for this Sunday in the Ordinary and Extraordinary Form, together with links to useful resources on them over at the Divine Lamp.  For Sunday the psalms set down are:

Ordinary Form: Psalm 66 (67)

In the Ordinary Form, the Responsorial Psalm is Psalm 66, which will be extremely familar to those who say the Benedictine version of the Office since it is said daily at Lauds.  This joyful and uplifting psalm starts and ends by requesting God’s blessing on us. It is the quintessential psalm of the Church’s mission though: it asks for and points to God’s guidance for Governments, and for the spread of God’s word and praise across the whole world:

Deus misereátur nostri, et benedícat nobis: * illúminet vultum suum super nos, et misereátur nostri.

2 Ut cognoscámus in terra viam tuam, * in ómnibus Géntibus salutáre tuum.
3 Confiteántur tibi pópuli, Deus: * confiteántur tibi pópuli omnes.
4 Læténtur et exsúltent Gentes: * quóniam júdicas pópulos in æquitáte, et Gentes in terra dírigis.
5 Confiteántur tibi pópuli, Deus, confiteántur tibi pópuli omnes: * terra dedit fructum suum.
6 Benedícat nos Deus, Deus noster, benedícat nos Deus: * et métuant eum omnes fines terræ.

The Douay-Rheims translates this as:

May God have mercy on us, and bless us: may he cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us, and may he have mercy on us.
3 That we may know your way upon earth: your salvation in all nations.
4 Let people confess to you, O God: let all people give praise to you.
5 Let the nations be glad and rejoice: for you judge the people with justice, and direct the nations upon earth.

6 Let the people, O God, confess to you: let all the people give praise to you:

7 The earth has yielded her fruit. May God, our God bless us,

8 may God bless us: and all the ends of the earth fear him

Extraordinary Form

The Epistle this Sunday is 1 Corinthians 10:6-13 (against idolatry, fornication, temptation of God, and murmuring); the Gospel is St Luke 19:41-47, the cleansing of the Temple and prophesy of the destruction of Jerusalem by Our Lord. This week's psalm propers in the Extraordinary Form are from:

Psalm 53:3, 6-7 (Introit)

6  Ecce Deus ádjuvat me, et Dóminus suscéptor est ánimæ meæ:

7. avérte mala inimícis meis, et in veritáte tua dispérde illos, protéctor meus, Dómine.

3. Deus in nómine tuo salvum me fac: et in virtúte tua líbera me.

Or:

For behold God is my helper: and the Lord is the protector of my soul.

Turn back the evils upon my enemies; and cut them off in your truth.

Save me, O God, by your name, and judge me in your strength.

Psalm 8:2 (Gradual)

Dómine, Dóminus noster, quam admirábile est nomen tuum in univérsa terra! Quóniam eleváta est magnificéntia tua super cælos.

O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth!

Psalm 58:2 (Alleluia)

Erípe me de inimícis meis, Deus meus: et ab insurgéntibus in me líbera me.

or

Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; and defend me from them that rise up against me.

Psalm 18:9-12 (Offertory)

Justitiæ Dómini rectæ, lætificántes corda, et judícia ejus dulcióra super mel et favum: nam et servus tuus custódit ea.

or

The justices of the Lord are right, rejoicing hearts: and his justice is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb: for your servant keeps them.

Gentle Jesus meek and mild? St John Chrysostom on tough love

I gave a little background yesterday on the great doctor of the Church St John Chrysostom and his commentaries on the psalms. 

Today I want to give a little taster of his commentary, using as an example his discussion of an issue that is important for us today, namely the nature of meekness, drawing from his introduction to Psalm 131 (132), 'O Lord remember David, and all his meekness'.

The sanatisation of Our Lord

One of the biggest problems in modern Catholicism is the highly selective, highly sanitised picture often presented of Our Lord and his teaching: the faux-version that emphasizes that Jesus associated with sinners but omits to mention his insistence that they sin no more; a version that emphasizes turning the other cheek and praying for enemies, but forgets about his driving the money-lenders from the Temple and taking the pharisees and others to task for hypocrisy; the version that altogether omits some of the 'hard sayings' on doctrine Our Lord taught, such as the nature of the Eucharist, the prohibition on divorce, and much more. 

It leads to a version of Christianity where true catholics are berated for the crime of promoting orthodoxy; where those who campaign against liturgical abuses are denounced as 'temple police'; and where most bishops and priests prefer to stay silent rather than cause 'discomfort' by teaching the truth. 

In his commentary on Psalm 131, St John Chrysostom looks precisely at this issue.

Psalm 131, verse 1

The first line of Psalm 131 in the Vulgate is Meménto, Dómine, David, et omnis mansuetúdinis ejus', or Remember Lord, David and all his meekness.

There is an obvious connection here between the claimed meekness for David, the third beatitude (Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth), and God's promise to David that his descendants would rule Israel forever.

It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that the Hebrew Masoretic Text version of this verse (not followed by the neo-Vulgate in this particular case), in what may be a classic piece of anti-Christian text manipulation by the early post-Temple Jewish community, substitutes a word meaning 'hardships' for meekness in this verse

But what does meekness actually mean in this context?

King David, after all, is hardly the popular image of a meek and mild, pacifistic personality: he learnt his slingshot skills as a shepherd defending his flock against lions and other wild beasts, and from his famous encounter with Goliath and throughout his turbulent reign, he was above all, a warrior.

Paris Psalter

Meekness does not mean inaction, quite the contrary!

In order to tackle the question, St John points us to another 'type' of Christ, namely Moses, in order to understand that meekness, or gentleness, does not imply weakness, failure to speak up, or pacifism:

"While in other places they ask to be saved only on the basis of remembrance of the ancestors, here by contrast they cite the reason for the good things - moderation, humility, gentleness, for which Moses too was particularly remarkable. "He was the gen­tlest of all the men on the earth," Scripture says, remember.   But some of the heretics criticize his way of life and what is said of him, asking, "What do you mean? Was that the gentlest of men who struck down the Egyptian and slew him? Who filled the Jews with internecine blood and wars? Who ordered kith and kin to commit murder? Who sundered the earth with a prayer, and drew down thunderbolts from on high, drowning some and incinerat­ing others?"

 

St John's key point is that failure to speak up or take corrective act in the face of sin is not a sign of meekness and humility, but is in fact a vice:

"Ignoring the wronged, not grieving on behalf of the wronged or fuming over the abused is a mark not of virtue but of vice - not of gentleness, to be sure, but of torpor.  And so this very thing demonstrates his gentleness, and the fact that he was so ardent as to spring into action in cases where he saw others being wronged, unable to contain his irritation in de­fence of the righteous..."

In fact, St John argues, the mark of meekness is that Moses - and thus David, foreshadowing Our Lord - was more concerned about the spiritual welfare of the many than about his own fate; and did not consider sparing the rod in the case of the guilty the right course when it could cost the souls of others:

"Should he have ignored the trampling un­derfoot of the priesthood, the overturning of God's laws and the dissolution of all their content - I mean the dignity of the priest­hood, the opening of the sanctuary to all and, out of indifference for the priests, exposing the sacred precincts to the invasion of anyone inclined and letting everything go to the dogs? These things most of all, however, would not have been marks of gentleness but of inhumanity and cruelty, to ignore such an increase in evil and by sparing two hundred to destroy so many tens of thousands. I mean, tell me, when he bade kith and kin to be slain, what should he have done, with God enraged, impiety on the increase, and no one available who could save them from this rage? Should he have let a blow fall from heaven on all the tribes, the race be abandoned to utter ruin, and with that punishment ignore as well the incur­able sin committed? Or with retribution and death of a few mem­bers expunge the sin, avert the rage and render God propitious to those who had committed such awful sins? If you examine the righteous man's behavior in this way, you will acknowledge from this in particular his being most gentle."

Moses and Korah, c15th

Accepting personal suffering with patience

What actually constitutes meekness, St John concludes, is acting for the good, and accepting attacks on ourselves with grace and forbearance:

"If first we distinguish and define what on earth is gentleness and what harshness. I mean, striking is not a mark of harshness pure and simple, nor sparing a mark of gentleness; rather, that person is gentle who is able to bear faults against himself...And so this very thing demonstrates his gentleness, and the fact that he was so ardent as to spring into action in cases where he saw others being wronged, unable to contain his irritation in de­fence of the righteous. At any rate, when he personally was abused, he neither took vengeance nor demanded retribution, but without fail continued faithful to his sound values. Had he been harsh or irascible, on the contrary, he who showed such feeling and ardor for the sake of others would not have been strong enough to ac­cept his own fate, but in that situation would have been much more enraged."

Note: All extracts quoted above are from St John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Psalms, Translated with an Introduction by Robert Charles Hill, Volume Two, Holy Cross Orthodox Press: Brookline, MA; 1998, pp 202-4.

St John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Psalms

As well as some notes on selected psalms, such as those in the Mass propers, I plan to have a series of posts on this blog on the major patristic and later commentaries on the psalms, providing a little context for them.  And today, to start the ballrolling, a look at St John Chrysostom.  Tomorrow I'll post a short extract from one of his psalm commentaries in order to give a flavour of his work.

St John Chrysostom (349-407), bishop and Doctor of the Church, tends to be rather neglected in the West (though he is cited extensively in the Catechism of the Catholic Church), but undeservedly so in my view.  His commentaries on the psalms are particularly worth reading, filled with gems of expositions on key topics, and clearly directed at a lay audience.

The author

Pope Benedict XVI gave two General Audiences on the saint in 2007, the year of the sixteen hundredth anniversary of his death.  Here are some extracts on his life:

"He was born in about the year 349 A.D. in Antioch, Syria (today Antakya in Southern Turkey). He carried out his priestly ministry there for about 11 years, until 397, when, appointed Bishop of Constantinople, he exercised his episcopal ministry in the capital of the Empire prior to his two exiles, which succeeded one close upon the other - in 403 and 407. Let us limit ourselves today to examining the years Chrysostom spent in Antioch.

He lost his father at a tender age and lived with Anthusa, his mother, who instilled in him exquisite human sensitivity and a deep Christian faith.

After completing his elementary and advanced studies crowned by courses in philosophy and rhetoric, he had as his teacher, Libanius, a pagan and the most famous rhetorician of that time. At his school John became the greatest orator of late Greek antiquity.

He was baptized in 368 and trained for the ecclesiastical life by Bishop Meletius, who instituted him as lector in 371. This event marked Chrysostom's official entry into the ecclesiastical cursus. From 367 to 372, he attended the Asceterius, a sort of seminary in Antioch, together with a group of young men, some of whom later became Bishops, under the guidance of the exegete Diodore of Tarsus, who initiated John into the literal and grammatical exegesis characteristic of Antiochean tradition.

He then withdrew for four years to the hermits on the neighbouring Mount Silpius. He extended his retreat for a further two years, living alone in a cave under the guidance of an "old hermit". In that period, he dedicated himself unreservedly to meditating on "the laws of Christ", the Gospels and especially the Letters of Paul. Having fallen ill, he found it impossible to care for himself unaided, and therefore had to return to the Christian community in Antioch (cf. Palladius, Dialogue on the Life of St John Chrysostom, 5).

The Lord, his biographer explains, intervened with the illness at the right moment to enable John to follow his true vocation. In fact, he himself was later to write that were he to choose between the troubles of Church government and the tranquillity of monastic life, he would have preferred pastoral service a thousand times (cf. On the Priesthood, 6, 7): it was precisely to this that Chrysostom felt called.

It was here that he reached the crucial turning point in the story of his vocation: a full-time pastor of souls! Intimacy with the Word of God, cultivated in his years at the hermitage, had developed in him an irresistible urge to preach the Gospel, to give to others what he himself had received in his years of meditation. The missionary ideal thus launched him into pastoral care, his heart on fire.

Between 378 and 379, he returned to the city. He was ordained a deacon in 381 and a priest in 386, and became a famous preacher in his city's churches. He preached homilies against the Arians, followed by homilies commemorating the Antiochean martyrs and other important liturgical celebrations: this was an important teaching of faith in Christ and also in the light of his Saints.

The year 387 was John's "heroic year", that of the so-called "revolt of the statues". As a sign of protest against levied taxes, the people destroyed the Emperor's statues. It was in those days of Lent and the fear of the Emperor's impending reprisal that Chrysostom gave his 22 vibrant Homilies on the Statues, whose aim was to induce repentance and conversion. This was followed by a period of serene pastoral care (387-397)..."

In his the second General Audience on the saint Pope Benedict XVI continued:

"...After the period he spent in Antioch, in 397 he was appointed Bishop of Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire of the East. John planned the reform of his Church from the outset: the austerity of the episcopal residence had to be an example for all - clergy, widows, monks, courtiers and the rich. Unfortunately, many of those he criticized distanced themselves from him. Attentive to the poor, John was also called "the Almoner". Indeed, he was able as a careful administrator to establish highly appreciated charitable institutions. For some people, his initiatives in various fields made him a dangerous rival but as a true Pastor, he treated everyone in a warm, fatherly way. In particular, he always spoke kindly to women and showed special concern for marriage and the family. He would invite the faithful to take part in liturgical life, which he made splendid and attractive with brilliant creativity.

St John confronts the Empress Eudoxia,

c19th painting, J-P Laurens

Despite his kind heart, his life was far from peaceful. He was the Pastor of the capital of the Empire, and often found himself involved in political affairs and intrigues because of his ongoing relations with the authorities and civil institutions. Then, within the Church, having removed six Bishops in Asia in 401 A.D. who had been improperly appointed, he was accused of having overstepped the boundaries of his own jurisdiction and thus he easily became the target of accusations. Another accusation against him concerned the presence of some Egyptian monks, excommunicated by Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria, who had sought refuge in Constantinople. A heated argument then flared up on account of Chrysostom's criticism of the Empress Eudoxia and her courtiers who reacted by heaping slander and insults upon him. Thus, they proceeded to his removal during the Synod organized by the same Patriarch Theophilus in 403, which led to his condemnation and his first, brief exile. After Chrysostom's return, the hostility he had instigated by his protests against the festivities in honour of the Empress, which the Bishop considered as sumptuous pagan celebrations, and by his expulsion of the priests responsible for the Baptisms during the Easter Vigil in 404, marked the beginning of the persecution of Chrysostom and his followers, the so-called "Johannites".

John then denounced the events in a letter to Innocent I, Bishop of Rome, but it was already too late. In 406, he was once again forced into exile, this time to Cucusus in Armenia. The Pope was convinced of his innocence but was powerless to help him. A Council desired by Rome to establish peace between the two parts of the Empire and among their Churches could not take place. The gruelling journey from Cucusus to Pityus, a destination that he never reached, was meant to prevent the visits of the faithful and to break the resistance of the worn-out exile: his condemnation to exile was a true death sentence! The numerous letters from his exile in which John expressed his pastoral concern in tones of participation and sorrow at the persecution of his followers are moving. His journey towards death stopped at Comana in Ponto. Here, John, who was dying, was carried into the Chapel of the Martyr St Basiliscus, where he gave up his spirit to God and was buried, one martyr next to the other (Palladius, Dialogue on the Life of St John Chrysostom, 119). It was 14 September 407, the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross..."

The Commentaries on the psalms


c9th Chlkudov Psalter

 St John Chrysostom wrote his Commentaries on the Psalms roughly between 386-398. He may have written notes on all of them, but all that survives today is Psalms 4-12; 43-49; and 108-150 (omitting Ps 118).

In general he starts from a historical perspective, attempting to set each psalm in its original context, making his commentary particularly approachable to modern readers, even if modern critics will sometimes disagree with his particular conclusions.  His orientation is practical rather than mystical, but often all the more helpful for that.

The commentaries can be found online in Greek on Migne's Patrologia Graceca.  A modern English translation is available in two volumes in a translation by Robert Charles Hill (Holy Cross Orthodox Press, Brookline MA, 1998).  Be warned though: treat the footnotes and accompanying materials with extreme caution!   Hill is not an appreciative translator of his subject, and his footnotes are almost uniformly critical of the work.  In general he seems not to be aware of the latest scholarship that attests to the integrity of the Septuagint, and takes what can only be described as a modernist perspective on St John's theology. Nonetheless, the text speaks for itself.

In addition, St John draws on and comments on many of the psalms in the course of his other (vast volume of) homilies on Scripture, and many of these commentaries can be readily accessed online, including through Bibliaclerus, CCEL and New Advent.

Lectio notes on the propers for the Eighth Sunday - Psalm 47/2

Tres Riches Heures, Purification of the BVM

The Introit for this week in the Extraordinary Form (on days not displaced by feasts) is, like the Alleluia discussed in my last post, also from Psalm 47, verses 10, 11 and 2:

10 Suscépimus, Deus, misericórdiam tuam, * in médio templi tui.

11 Secúndum nomen tuum, Deus, sic et laus tua in fines terræ: * justítia plena est déxtera tua.

2 Magnus Dóminus, et laudábilis nimis * in civitáte Dei nostri, in monte sancto ejus.

A translation is 'We have received God (suscepimus Deus), your mercy (misericoridam tuam) in the midst (in medio) of your temple (templi tui). According to your name O God,(secundem nomen tuum Deus), so also is your praise (sic et laus tua) unto the ends of the earth (in fines terrae): your right hand (dextera tua) is full of justice (justitia plena est).

Commentary

The text points us to the Sunday Gospel story of the unjust steward, with its reminder that we will all be called to account before God at some point, and fall in need of his mercy. 

St Augustine points out that the wording of the verse suggests that while we have received mercy, others have not.  St Thomas Aquinas explains this idea further: we have received mercy, he suggests, in the form of faith; in the form of grace conferred through the sacraments; and in the form of Christ himself (note that the text and chant setting is also used on the feast of the Purification of the BVM), whose message has been spread by the Church to the ends of the earth.  Thus, he argues, those who receive the sacraments unworthily, or who do not accept the teaching of the Church do not receive God's mercy...

A tough, counter-cultural message to meditate on indeed, that should make us think and do something about our own sins, encourage us to give thanks and praise for the graces we have received, and encourage us to pray and work ever harder for the conversion of others.