The spirituality of the Commentary on the Psalms; moral accents
+ Commentary on the Psalms THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS; Morat ACCENTS In general it could be said of his treatment of this great spiritual resource, the Psalms, that, faithful to the principles of Antiochene realism, Chrysostom has his feet on the ground not only in biblical commentary but also in his approach to spirituality. We do not look to him for ascent into mystical experience; in fact, his spiritual guidance of his congregation can be of a pedestrian kind, mechanical even. When the question of response to prayer arises in connection with the words "God hearkened to my righteousness" in Psalm 4.1 (referred to in commenting on Psalm 7.3), he reels off a list of the necessary qualities of prayer, rather like a physician writing a prescription:
Being heard happens in this fashion: first, of course, worthiness to receive something; then, praying in accordance with God's laws; third, persistence; fourth, asking nothing earthly; fifth, seeking things to our real benefit; sixth, contributing everything of our own.
In fact, a physician curing ailments is the model of spiritual direction Chrysostom chooses, and it occurs frequently in the commentaries. Immediately after the above prescription comes the comment, "Prayer, you see, is a medicine; but if we do not know how to apply the medicine, neither will we gain the benefit from it." So learn the rules, follow the prescription (dictated by God and/ or the preacher).
Commentary on Psalm 4, the beginning of the extant collection, appropriately shows Chrysostom as teacher in "the art of prayer," as he styles it, again as a means of bringing God to hearken. He would like to suggest prayerfulness is something angelic and infused:
The human being who has been taught to converse with God as befits the one conversing with God will from then on be an angel...
'* Louis Bouyer speaks of Chrysostom's "asceticism without mysticism," and sees it within the context of a contemporary movement within monasticism (of Antioch in protest against Alexandria) "from mysticism towards a rather moralistic asceticism" (The Spirituality of the New Testment and the Fathers, Eng. trans., London, 1963, 444,436).
There is no need to take ourselves to a library, nor outlay money, nor hire teachers or orators or debaters, nor devote a great deal of time to learning this oratorical skill. It is instead sufficient to want to do it, and the skills fall into place.
But at the same time he is equally insistent he can teach what is involved in this art of praying: being of sober mind and contrite spirit, approaching him ina flood of tears, seeking nothing of this life, longing for things to come, making petition for spiritual goods, not calling down curses on our enemies, bearing no grudges, banishing all disquiet from the soul, making our approach with heart broken, being humble, practising great meekness, directing our tongues to good report, abstaining from any wicked enterprise, having nothing in common with the common enemy of the world - I mean the devil, of course."
The prescription for the art of prayer has here becomea recipe for Christian ascesis in general, and contains many of the characteristics of Chrysostom's view of Christian life in the world. It is a world in which the devil and the demons are active and palpable; they figure constantly in the psalm commentaries. It is a world not completely good that one would do well to escape from; there is not the cosmic optimism that one associates with other eastern theologians. After seeing the art of prayer turning the Christian into an angel, Chrysostom proceeds: "In this way the soul is released from the shackles of the body; in this way the mind is raised on high; in this way our abode is transferred to heaven; in this way one scorns things of this life." And he must have puzzled his congregation on Psalm 9.10 by recommending them to achieve "freedom from all worldly concerns" and, at the close of commentary on Psalm 110, to be "unencumbered by any concern of the present life" and not to "wallow in the mire of earthly concerns" (Psalm 120). There is thus an element ofdualism in his thinking on spirituality that makes us uneasy today, though pastors proverbially tend to weigh in more heavily on spiritual than on material values. At all events, we may quibble at the claim made for him as "the precursor, if not the initiator, of a spirituality for the laity.""°
"= He speaks on prayer again in commenting on Psalm 141 and the Penitential Psalm 130.
"*So Bouyer, Spirituality, 446. Cr Malingrey, "John Chrysostom," 441: "The majority of Christians are called to live in the world. For them John traces
+ Commentary on the Psalms His catalogue of vices and virtues is probably traditional, though one looks for the marks of personal experience. The savage irony with which, in commenting on Psalm 49, he depicts at length the futile attempts of the rich fop to attain everlasting remembrance by outlaying great sums on funereal monuments is indicative of his abhorrence of greed and avarice in the rich, as is his graphic portrayal of the wealthy person's despondency at a funeral (on Psalm 111.1-2). The disparity between rich and poor in his society leads him to elevate poverty asa virtue: "You well know thatwealth is an encouragement to vice in those who do not take heed, whereas poverty is the mother of wisdom; the truth of this emerges every day," he says in commenting on Psalm 4.7 (and similarly Psalm
143.4). A correlative virtue for the rich is the practice of almsgiving, which he advocates in the absence of means to address structural
| causes of poverty in society. Psalm 45.4 speaks of "the cause of truth, gentleness and righteousness," and this provokes a lengthy series of biblical texts and examples illustrating the meekness of Moses and David (as also Psalms 120.7; 132.1). One would wonder why this virtue attracts the attention of the preacher were it not for his obvious affinity with the situation of the righteous sufferer in Scripture; the plight of the young men in the fiery furnace from Daniel 3 is given prominence time and time again, likewise David maltreated by Saul and Absalom, Noah alone in a vicious generation, Job, the Maccabees, the Paul of 2 Cor. Is he speaking from personal experience of sucha lot in life?
We saw Chrysostom above mentioning as the sixth requirement forbeing heard by the Lord "contributing everything of our own."
This is a constant emphasis in his spiritual teaching: we must play our part, no sitting about waiting for grace to strike. Grace is not completely gratuitous, God can be won over, as we saw above in his prescription for being heard from Psalm 7 quoting Psalm 4.1, a verse he is happy to read as "God hearkened to my righteousness:" it is the petitioner's righteousness, not God's (which a more critical reading of the text would suggest), that is the critical factor.
Likewise in commenting on the words from Psalm 6.2, "Have mercy the way, giving advice marked at once by an extraordinarily concrete sense of situations and by a genuinely evangelical inspiration." Documentation from this Commentary would help moderate these glowing estimates. on me, O Lord, for lam weak," he insists, "We all stand in need of mercy, therefore, but we are not all worthy to receive it. Even if it is mercy, you see, nevertheless he seeks out the worthy recipient."
And he closes commentary on the last of the penitential psalms, Psalm 143, with a remark that leaves his editor gasping: "It is not possible simply to attain our requests; rather, we must in all cases make ourselves worthy to receive what we ask and contribute what we have to contribute, and thus present our request. By its nature, prayer on its own is not sufficient, you see." Luther also, to whom
Chrysostom was "only a foolish babbler,""" might not have been happy with his statement (on Psalm 111), "Faith is not sufficient if a way of life in keeping with faith is not forthcoming."
He has been called semi-pelagian in his theology,'* and Augustine would not like his insistence on the role ofhuman effort. To an extent it comes from his businesslike, mechanical approach to the spiritual life: you can work at it, there are rules to be followed in the divine scheme of things. But he would also see it consistent with his overall vision of the synthesis of the divine and the human — in the person of Jesus, in the inspired Scriptures, where by an act of considerateness God employs human means for the benefit of limited creatures. Even the psalmist has to work at his craft like shipwright and builder; so too must the ordinary Christian at the task of salvation. On Psalm 45.13, "All the glory of the king's daughter is within," he remarks, "His reference to her colorful attire was well put: the garment was not of one hue. I mean, it is not possible to be saved from grace alone; instead, there is need also of faith, and after faith virtue, too." There is a deliberate sequence here and a balance.
There is no room for quietism in his spiritual theology, nor in "' That this view was not typical of all the Reformers has been pointed out to me by students of Calvin, who admired Chrysostom's homiletic skills, like John L. Thompson and David F. Wright.
"8 Cf Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, 373: "Variants of such teaching were current in the Antiochene school too, though crossed with an intensified emphasis on individualism." Kelly finds it necessary to defend more particularly Theodore and Theodoret from accusations of a "Pelagianizing strain" in their works, generally unfounded. For further detail on Chrysostom's position, see my articles, "The spirituality of Chrysostom's
Commentary on the Psalms" and "A pelagian commentator on the Psalms?"
+ Commentary on the Psalms his morality generally."" The Christian must take the initiative, and be busy about the serious business of cultivating virtue, on the one hand, and avoiding vice and the wiles of the demons, on the other.!"°
Just as in the Genesis homilies"! the sin of the first parents was diagnosed as indifference, sloth, neglect, oaSuyia (rhathyntia), so too in the conduct of the spiritual life. Unlike the attention we give to people of rank, he says on Psalm 4.1, "in approaching God, by contrast, we yawn, scratch ourselves, look this way and that, pay little attention, loll on the ground, do the shopping." The parables ofJesus, he rightly recognizes (on Psalm 49.4), were spoken to challenge us, and what needs challenging is our indifference. In one of the "binomials" in his thinking on which F. Asensio has remarked," he promotes the opposite attitude, that of enthusiasm, prothymia,
| zeal, as in his comment on Psalm 9.10: "How is God to be sought, being everywhere as he is? With zeal and enthusiasm, and freedom from all worldly concerns." How this freedom might be achieved in their workaday lives, his congregation must have had some uncertainty; but they were left in no doubt as to their responsibility for "contributing everything of their own" to the work of salvation.
We may quarrel with Johannes Quasten's verdict on Chrysostom's .
Psalms Commentary as "by far the best ofhis homilies on the books of the Old Testament." Yet there is no doubting the scriptural and theological richness of the work, and the opportunity it gives us of seeing this theologian of the Word at work on material offering a particular challenge. It is therefore regrettable that, perhaps on account of its unavailability in translation, it has not figured largely in histories of Christian spirituality and hermeneutics; if only by reason of its length and genre, it has much to offer such historians.
4° Cf Wenger, "Jean Chrysostome," 336-37: "De fait, il n'a rien d'un quiétiste... Prédicateur et moraliste, il est vrai toutefois qu'il a davantage insisté sur le réle du vouloir humain que sur celui de la grace."
"2 Chrysostom's attitude to the moral law is interesting. He is a strong exponent of the natural law, perhaps to balance Jewish privilege in the Mosaic Law. It is unfortunate, and significant, that the long Psalm 119 on the Law is missing from the Commentary, probably owing to its length.
See note 48 to Psalm 111, note 61 to Psalm 143, note 32 to Psalm 147.
"21 Cf Homilies 14,18,19,21.
'2 "Fl Criséstomo y su visién de la escritura en la exposicién homilética del Génesis."
For a balanced comment on the degree to which Chrysostom measured up to the challenge and on the purpose he had in mind in composing (and, it would seem, preaching), let us close with a further comment of Photius in Constantinople in the ninth century:
"He may seem to have taken no account of individual ideas, or endeavored to avoid depth of treatment or the like, through ranking everything of less importance to the welfare of his listeners."!"
~ Bibliotheca (PG 103,505).