"We say to ourselves: 'My master is delayed in coming.' The faithful and wise steward has no such thoughts. Wretch! using the excuse that your Master is late, do you imagine he won’t come at all? His coming is certain. Then why don’t you stay on your guard? No, the Lord is not slow in coming; this lateness is purely in the imagination of the wicked servant."
St John Chrysostom, pray for us.
By the way, most of the icons I've been posting in this litany, which are excellent, come from the Orthodox Church in America's site. Their "Lives of the Saints" section provides exceptional information and icons of the saints. I would encourage you to browse through it sometime.
4 comments:
I'm a big fan of St. John of the Cross, especially right now. I find the harshness of this one curious from him though--"imagination of the wicked servant." If I were a saint, :-), I'd edit it to something like the heart of a child who doesn't know better, or something like that.
Not that it's our place to edit the saints, mind you. But the other quick edit I would impose on such a great man (oh the hubris!): Christ doesn't call his beloved, "Wretch!" He saves that for the Pharisees.
Regardless, this is a good reminder that God comes in his perfect timing which rarely coincides with our own. Don't I know it! :-)
Dan:
St. John of the Cross is a different saint. St. John Chrysostom was several centuries earlier. Chrysostom does not refer to the cross; it is Greek for "golden mouth," and refers to his ability as a preacher.
Thanks, anon.
Anon's correct, Dan - about 1,200 years apart. The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom is the liturgy used by the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is one of their three holy heirarchs. In other words, he's the man if you're Orthodox.
I think the saints were a little more rough and tumble way back when - Chrysostom reminds me of St Paul - and didn't put up with weenies like me. Of course, this is just a snippet of one of his sermons and you'd find much, very much, that you'd like from St John the Golden-mouthed.
I guess I've always had those two confused, and always assumed that Chrysostom was "of the Cross." Interesting though that this idea of God coming in his own time is very similar to much of what John of the Cross talked about.
Thanks for the clarification.
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