Magnanimous Virtue: The Fruit of Redemptive Suffering Sr. Madeleine Grace, CVI

Suffering and Hope Conference University of St. Thomas November 10-13, 2005

While many of us may have met the name of John Chrysostom (347-407) as the golden tongued orator, the unraveling of his life and the difficult plight he entailed is known by few. His time period and home are far removed from current society yet the message of his famous orations are quite applicable within today’s milieu. Our focus however will not be a famous oration but a work written in exile. This piece of the Golden Tongue in a certain sense foreshadows our late Pontiff’s Salvifici Doloris, and yet, holds its own purpose. There are likewise certain commonalities within the lives of John Chrysostom and John Paul II (1920-2005), yet it must be stated up front that they travel very different paths.

Born at Antioch in what was then Syria of well to do Christian parents, he received his education in that city and then went off to live as a hermit in the mountains for four years. Returning to Antioch he was ordained to the deaconate in 381 by Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, and to the priesthood in 386 by Bishop Flavian, Meletius’ successor. In Antioch from 386 to 397, he delivered some of his most well-known homilies.

In 397, he was appointed patriarch of Constantinople where he focused on reform of the city and the clergy. In fact, the historian Sozomen recounts that Chrysostom, who was a moral reformer by nature, “did not confine his efforts to the reformation of his own church; but as a good and large-minded man, he sought to rectify abuses throughout the world.”1 The church historian Theodoret readily gives Chrysostom the title “the great teacher of the world.”2

The Patriarch set an example of simplicity in lifestyle and gave much of his income to the erection of hospitals and the support of the poor, yet his efforts to raise the moral tone of the city met great opposition.

Chrysostom’s archenemy was the empress Eudoxia who believed that his sermons on luxury and depravity of lifestyle were directed against her and her court. As the historian Sozomen further recorded, “this boldness [of the Patriarch] pleased the people, but grieved the wealthy and the powerful, who were guilty of most of the vices which he denounced.”3 Hostile bishops who did not share John’s reform nature joined Eudoxia in a successful maneuvering which led to John’s exile. When the populace heard of the Patriarch’s banishment in 403, they were outraged. The

1The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church 2, Socrates, Sozomenus: Church Histories (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1952), 8.3:400. 2Theodoret, The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 3, Theodoret, Jerome, Gennadius, Rufinus: Historical Writings (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983), 5.34:154. 3The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen, 8.2:400. Empress became frightened at the people’s anger and recalled Chrysostom.4 The exile, however, did not change the orator’s reform nature nor temper his tongue5 and he was sent into exile again on June 24th in the following year.6 Amid all of this intrigue, John complained that he was exiled “without a legal trial or any of the forms of the law,” yet immediately complied.7 The people followed him into exile. In an attempt to discourage further pilgrimages, he was led to a desolate region on the eastern edge of the Black Sea. He died en route at Pontus in the year 407.

It was during these final years, probably not long before his death, that John composed the work which has come to be known as None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself, or simply, On Suffering. In this short treatise, he maintains that no one can inflict harm or destroy one’s life of virtue if one does not allow that to happen.8 He recalls the example of Job who lost family, friends, property, and health — everything seemingly exteriorly precious to the individual in this life. As the solitary Bishop reflected on Job’s condition, he perceived that he was not robbed of his possessions but increased in the wealth of his virtue.9 At the same time, in taking the example of Cain and Abel, God does not abolish penalties on account of the virtue of those who suffer. Rather, He ordains punishments on account of the malice which individuals perform with wickedness in their hearts. Those who are entreated with evil “become more illustrious in consequence of the designs formed against them” due to “the courage of those who are the victims of them.”10

John calls upon the words of Paul, “We do not lose heart, because our inner being is renewed each day even though our body is being destroyed at the same time” (2 Cor 4:16).11 The great benefit of these sufferings for Chrysostom and certainly for the Christian world is that they “expiate sins, and work righteousness. So great is the advantage of them in the case of those who bear them [sufferings] bravely.”12

Proceeding in his argument, the Patriarch points out that if one receives unjust injury and then responds with “blasphemous speech,” this person has inflicted “damage” on himself which proceeds “from within, and from the man himself ... from his own littleness of soul.”13 Not even

4It is believed by some that the famed Eudoxia had a miscarriage and blamed the loss of the child on the injustice committed against Chrysostom and therefore led to recalling him. Other accounts refer to the tremblings of an earthquake which so frightened Eudoxia that she pleaded with the Emperor for the recalling of Chrysostom. See Philip Schaff, “Prologomena: The Life and Work of st John Chrysostom, ” Introduction to John Chrysostom, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 9, Saint Chrysostom: On the Priesthood; Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters; Homilies on the Statues (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908), 13 and New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2002 edition, sv “John Chrysostom, St” by P. W. Harkins. 5See The Ecclesiastical History by Socrates Scholasticus in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 2, Socrates, Sozomenus: Church Histories, 6.18:150. 6New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2002 edition, sv “John Chrysostom, St” by P. W. Harkins. 7The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen, 8.22:413. 8Chrysostom, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself, 2:272. 9Chrysostom, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself, 3:273. 10Chrysostom, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself, 4:274. 11New American Bible 12Chrysostom, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself, 4:274. 13Chrysostom, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself, 5:274. 2 the devil has the power to upset the individual “who lived before the law and before the time of grace. ... Such is the force of nobility of soul.”14

Chrysostom contrasts the response of Paul and that of Judas to what each had been given. Paul experienced “innumerable storms of trial” yet was crowned with victory all the more in consequence for Paul had a mind “disposed to virtue” which Judas did not. While Judas who was initiated in the “highest form of the Christian life,” received the grace to perform miracles, heard many sermons on poverty, the Savior, knowing his covetous nature, entrusted him with the money for the poor. Christ provided the opportunity for Judas to have a “means of appeasing his greed [so that] he might be saved from falling into that appalling gulf of sin, checking the greater evil beforehand by a lesser one.”15

Thus, Chrysostom repeats his theme, “in no case will anyone be able to injure a man who does not choose to injure himself.” Likewise, the person who is not willing to be temperate cannot be of any profit to others.16 Referring to the example of the house built on sand, buildings of this kind will fall, even if no one put pressure on them for there is no foundation.17 The Patriarch concludes his essay by reiterating his thesis:

If any one be harmed and injured he certainly suffers this at his own hands, not at the hands of others, even if there be countless multitudes injuring and insulting him: so that he does not suffer this at his own hands, not all the creatures who inhabit the whole earth and sea if they combined to attack him would be able to hurt one who is vigilant and sober in the Lord.18

The key to such steadfastness is a decisive belief in the redemptive value of suffering, the strength of which is drawn from his last line: “one who is vigilant and sober in the Lord.”

There is no question that suffering borne in a Christ like sense bears its own fruit. History is fortunate to have retained much of the correspondence of the “Golden Tongue” while in exile. For a man who suffered terribly from the cold, he shows a great compassion for those who have experienced any kind of ill health whatsoever. Further, his heart goes out to his followers in Constantinople who have suffered on his account. At one point, Chrysostom counsels the deaconess Olympias on restorative health remedies.19 Certainly compassion — a sharing in the passion, the suffering of another — is a natural fruit. At another time, in recalling the very difficult times of suffering, he exhorted Olympias to realize there is only one, “really terrible ... real trial, and that is sin. ... as for all other things, plots, enmities, frauds, calumnies, insults, accusations, ... exile, the keen sword of the enemy ... or anything you like to name, they are but idle tales.”20

14Chrysostom, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself, 5:274. 15 Chrysostom, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself,11:279. 16Chrysostom, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself, 12:279. 17Chrysostom, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself," 12:280. 18Chrysostom, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself, 17:284. 19 “Letters to Olympias,” Saint Chrysostom 9, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 293. 20 “Letters to Olympias,” 289. 3

Seemingly, John has put his own thesis into practice. Pope Innocent I (d.417) who had recently ascended the chair of Peter in 402 likewise recognized the patriarch as one who readily understood the purification found in one’s response to suffering:

Although one conscious of his own innocence ought to expect every blessing and to ask for mercy from God, yet it seems well to us ... to counsel you to long- suffering, lest the contumely cast upon you should have more power in subduing your courage than the testimony of a good conscience in encouraging you to hope. It is not requisite to teach you, who are the teacher and pastor of so great a people, that God always tries the best of men to see whether they will continue in the height of patience, and will not give way to any labor of suffering. ... For he ought to endure everything, who first trusts in God, and then in his own conscience. Especially when an excellent and good man can exercise himself in endurance, he cannot be overcome; for the Holy Scriptures guard his thoughts, and the devout lectures, ... abound in examples ... Let thy conscience encourage thy love ... for that faculty amid tribulations possesses an encouragement for virtue. For since Christ, the Master, is observing, the purified conscience will station you in the haven of peace.21

This flowering of the fruit of Christian suffering may also be seen at the time of his death, for when the Golden Tongue was silenced by His Maker, the orator’s words of farewell were very simply, “Glory be to God for all things. Amen.”22 Perhaps the most significant word here is all. One would have to say that Chrysostom’s thesis is an uncommon one today. One finds within the American populace the mighty attempt to hide from suffering, seek the quick fix, that robs many of that reflective time in coming to know the spiritual richness of the message of Christian suffering. While American society so readily places blame for relational quarrels on the other party, the Patriarch perceived that one can be ever sealed by virtue when injustice is received. Recall the number of crimes committed in our society today because some individuals cannot deal with unjust injury. Mental anguish, so common in this day, causes many to seek relief from a therapist. Clinical counsel may be often necessary and quite growth producing, yet as Chrysostom readily images, suffering taken within Christian counsel steels one against a life of mental anguish.

Suffering within the Christian context calls forth a transforming power. One finds in Chrysostom a man very compassionate toward his neighbor when he himself was living under great duress. A frequent theme of our late John Paul II is that the cross transfigures human suffering. He refers to those who pass through “the great catechesis of the cross, anyone who contemplates the mystery,” cannot come away empty-handed.

He must feel that he possesses hands ready for great tasks, and possesses a heart ready for genuine love, and a whole life worthy of being lived freely, for his own

21The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen, 8.26:416. 22John Chrysostom, as quoted by Donald Attwater, in St. John Chrysostom, Pastor and Preacher, (London: Harbill Press, 1959), 169. 4 liberation and that of his neighbor, his family, his children, and his country. Suffering configures you to Christ, who alone can give meaning and value to every act of our lives.23

While John Chrysostom did not live beyond exile (one may only hypothesize how this compassionate Chrysostom would have preached moral reform), his transformation through suffering lives in his correspondence and writings. Recall that for one who had been treated so cruelly in his own lifetime and actually struck down when he would have ministered further to God’s people, there is not a trace of unkindness, much less bitterness in these last writings.

Our late pontiff, John Paul II, in Crossing the Threshold of Hope, states that “The scandal of the Cross remains the key to the interpretation of the great mystery of suffering, which is so much a part of the history of mankind.”24 There will always remain mystery to suffering, but the late pontiff refers to the greatness of that mystery.25 Discovering the greatness of the mystery is what each individual need find as he faces suffering and certainly, in his journey toward an afterlife. In quoting the familiar words of Paul “Be imitators of me, as I am in of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1), our late pontiff points out that there is no liberation from suffering here, but rather the message of the text calls forth the transforming power of suffering. They are an invitation to become like unto Christ. We are called through grace, to find “all the interior good in that which in itself is an evil.”26 Christ’s familiar words, “Come and follow Me” is the invitation to take part in the “transmutation of the evil of suffering into salvific good: that of the redemption, of grace, purification, and conversion ... for oneself and for others.”27 As John Paul states in his apostolic letter on human suffering, “It is suffering more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls.”28 As the late Pontiff would express, as the individual takes on the cross, uniting himself to Christ, the spiritual fruit of suffering is revealed to him. Christ is his personal answer to the problem of suffering. The meaning to suffering is found on the level of the suffering of Christ. God’s love is manifested in weakness and humiliation, what John Paul refers to as the omnipotence of humiliation on the Cross.29

The interior process of conversion leads to the belief that one’s suffering is not useless. Rather, it provides the means of uniting one’s sufferings with the sufferings of Christ. Some suffering is an appropriate reaction to a real situation. Despite the fact that human beings suffer whenever they encounter any kind of evil, the evil may be absorbed by an outweighing good. Some suffering can be meaningful as a means with an end in view. 30 As John Paul II states, this may happen

23John Paul II, Words of Certitude: Excerpts from His Talks and Writings as Bishop and Pope (New York: Paulist, 1980), 24-25. 24John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, (New York: Knopf, 1994), 63 25John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, (Boston, MA: Pauline Books and Media), 4. 26John Paul II, Healing and Hope, (Daughters of St. Paul, 1982), 34. 27John Paul II, Healing and Hope, 34-35. 28John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, 27 29John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering 27 as referenced in Christian Faith and the Problem of Evil, Peter van Inwagen, ed. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, Publishing Company, 2004), 145. 30Eduardo J. Echeverria, “The Gospel of Redemptive Suffering: Reflections on John Paul II’s Salvifici Doloris,” in Christian Faith and the Problem of Evil, 116, 119. 5 “because it creates the possibility of rebuilding goodness in the subject who suffers.”31 Within the mind of the pontiff, “to suffer means to become particularly susceptible, particularly open to the working of the salvific powers of God, offered to humanity in Christ.”32 Suffering needs to serve the process of conversion. Only when one is open to the saving power of God does he hear and act on the Word of God. Certainly, the words of Paul echo within our minds: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9-11). Thus, the moral virtue that should be produced is the outweighing good that absorbs some evil. There is also innocent suffering. One could argue here that the risk of evil is logically implied by the good of free creatures.33 However, a definitive answer cannot be given to the question about the reconciliation of evil and suffering with the truth of divine providence, without reference to Christ.34 God’s providential care and love for human beings is definitively and unsurpassably manifested in His conquering evil through the saving work of Christ crucified. Suffering now possesses a redemptive and salvific value and power. Therefore my suffering can be redemptive for myself and for others, provided I unite it with the sufferings of Christ.35

In a certain sense, a person in the midst of suffering experiences an aloneness apart from others. At the same time, there is a certain solidarity in suffering in that people who suffer share an allegiance with one another through the trial of the suffering, the need for understanding, care and perhaps through the persistent question of the meaning of suffering. This is apparent particularly when suffering is concentrated as in natural disaster.36 It is at such times that the moral greatness, the spiritual maturity of individuals37 is manifest in the midst of suffering, especially innocent suffering. There is no question about the fact that within suffering there is a special call to virtue.38

Christ acts at the very heart of suffering through His Spirit of truth, through the consoling Spirit. It is within the act of suffering that He transforms the spiritual life, indicating for the person who suffers a place close to Himself. Suffering can only be transformed from the grace within through this “wonderful exchange,” as John Paul termed it.39

Suffering, more than anything else, makes present the powers of the redemptive act. Christ wills to be united with those who suffer and allows those sufferings to complete his own. Yet, “there is

31John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, 12. 32John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, 23. 33Eduardo J. Echeverria, “The Gospel of Redemptive Suffering: Reflections on John Paul II’s Salvifici Doloris,” in Christian Faith and the Problem of Evil, 122. 34John Paul II, A Catechesis on the Creed, 1:273-274, as referenced in Eduardo J. Echeverria, “The Gospel of Redemptive Suffering: Reflections on John Paul II’s Salvifici Doloris,” in Christian Faith and the Problem of Evil, 124. 35Eduardo J. Echeverria, “The Gospel of Redemptive Suffering: Reflections on John Paul II’s Salvifici Doloris,” in Christian Faith and the Problem of Evil, 125. 36John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, 8. 37John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, 22. 38John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, 23. 39John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, 26. 6 no insufficiency in Christ’s redemptive suffering. Indeed, our making up what is lacking derives its redemptive efficacy from Christ’s cross and resurrection.”40

John Paul II understands that God’s response to human suffering to be a personal response of love. Love is the richest source of the meaning of suffering which always remains a mystery. “Christ causes us to enter into the mystery and to discover the why of suffering, as far as we are capable of grasping the sublimity of divine love.”41

The pastoral theology of redemptive suffering gives rise to compassion for the suffering of others. The parable of the good Samaritan belongs to the Gospel of suffering. There is more to a relationship with my neighbor than obligation; rather there is also compassion. Therefore, all are called to cultivate a “sensitivity of heart which bears witness to compassion towards a suffering person.”42

At times this may be the only or principal expression of our love for and solidarity with those who suffer. The Christian is called to an understanding through which he can fully discover his true self only in a sincere giving of self. The Good Samaritan illustrates such a gift for we are called to personally bear witness to love in suffering. 43

Ultimately, the proper response to suffering is twofold. Christ has taught man to do good by his suffering and to do good to those who suffer. In this double meaning he has revealed the meaning of suffering.44 Thus, as our late Pontiff states:

Suffering is present in the world in order to release love, in order to give birth to works of love towards neighbor, in order to transform the whole of human civilization into a civilization of love. In this love the salvific meaning of suffering is completely accomplished and reaches its definitive dimension.45

In reviewing these two works, it is apparent that these Churchmen see as essential to a Christian approach to suffering an entrance into conversion which leads to a change in attitude — ultimately a change in heart leading to compassion. In sharing the fruit of his own prayerful journey, John Paul places suffering in a rather mystical light in describing it as “configuring” one to Christ. The solidarity with others in suffering is apparent in these works as well as the awareness of isolation and aloneness. We are called to do good to those who suffer but also as imitators of Christ, do good to those who inflict suffering upon us.

While John Paul’s work is more expansive in searching out the Christian meaning behind any suffering, Chrysostom’s work addresses our reception of suffering maliciously inflicted.

40Eduardo J. Echeverria, “The Gospel of Redemptive Suffering: Reflections on John Paul II’s Salvifici Doloris,” in Christian Faith and the Problem of Evil, 146. 41John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, 13. 42John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, 28. 43John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, 29. 44John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, 30. 45John Paul II, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, 30. 7 Preparation for such a cross must be found in “one who is vigilant and sober in the Lord.” One may well ask if the message of this fourth century prelate is the more needed of these two works studied.

In noting the lives of these two great churchmen, they each leave behind tremendous writing legacies. Each will show, from his own pen, an attraction to moral theology. Both held their own charisma in preaching, which was always direct and clear. It is apparent that Chrysostom and our late Pontiff experienced great suffering in ministry. Chrysostom’s work is written in exile; John Paul’ Salvifici Doloris is penned three years after an attempted assassination on his life. Chrysostom had already experienced the disapproval of bishops who fabricated charges against him at the illegal Synod of the Oak in 403 which eventually led to his first exile.46 Recall the strife in Poland as Karol Wojtyla contemplated the priesthood and his years in episcopal ministry. It is further apparent that entering into suffering did not diminish their zeal for ministry. While in exile, Chrysostom kept up a correspondence with the faithful of Antioch and Constantinople. In the last ten years of his pontificate, John Paul suffered from Parkinson’s disease as well as a hip replacement which made it painful to walk.47 In a certain sense, each modeled a dignity of the person while enduring suffering, even though one was in exile and the other photographed by the media round the world. Yet, there is genuine contrast in the approach of each of these churchmen. By all accounts, Chrysostom failed to recognize that the Empress Eudoxia viewed all attempts at moral reform as a censure on herself and chose to reiterate his untempered message condemning the immorality within that society, including the court. Karol Wojtyla had to deal with a fascist, then communist world in which the approach to an issue of conflict determined the possibility of victory for the Church. Survival meant awaiting the ripening fruit of the Spirit. It is difficult to conjecture historical outcomes when key players are changed, but it appears that a Wojtyla would have searched for a different path of addressing the immorality in Constantinople, if it needed to be addressed at that time at all. Might Chrysostom have produced a more fruitful ministry if he had imbibed more of the temperance of which he often spoke?

An exile in Pontus is a far fetched phenomena from reality today, yet the anxieties found within the life of a Karol Wojtyla seem to be a part of our time. The vigilance and soberness before the Lord is apparent in the pilgrimage of each of these churchmen. The terribly uncommon message is that a great hunger for God, an openness to be led, somehow blossoms into virtue. We also are called to that same journey that we might be as readily steeled against injury.

Associate Professor, Theology, University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas

46For further background, see Philip Schaff, “Prologomena: The Life and Work of st John Chrysosotom, ” Introduction to John Chrysostom, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself. 13, Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone, eds. 1997 edition, s.v. “Chrysostom, St. John,” and “Oak, Synod of the” and New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2002 edition, sv “John Chrysostom, St” by P. W. Harkins. 47 New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2002 edition, sv “John Paul II, Pope” by G. Weigel. 8