Chrysostom
Beloved of All
The cry of a soul burdened by the past, by ancestry, by a sense of destructive forces and false accusations, reaches the very throne of God. You seek a proof, a divine demonstration concerning your lineage, a tearing away of all that is deceptive, mocking, and worthy of punishment. You plead in the name of Jesus Christ, of God, of the Holy Spirit, and the angels, for a work in the midst of your family.
Hear then the truth that cuts through every entanglement of ancestry. The Apostle places no difference between nation, rank, or family tree. The true man in Christ has nothing of these externals, and needs them not. Circumcision, uncircumcision, bondman, freeman, Jew from his ancestors, all these are external things. If you have this new man, you obtain the same things as all others who have him. Your cry about your DNA, your lineage, your mother’s plea, these are the very things the Gospel tramples underfoot as worthless for salvation.
You ask from where this destructive journey began. The beginning of your true lineage is not in the flesh, but in Baptism. Man is created henceforth not of water or earth, but “in righteousness and holiness of truth.” This is the reality. The old righteousness was a figure, a shadow. The truth is the creation of a son. This is your ancestry now. All that came before, all the weight of a sinful or troubled past, is severed. The Evangelists proclaimed their own shame and the humble, ignoble trades of the disciples with exact care, to show they made much account of truth. They did not hide reproaches. How then can we suspect them in the glorious parts? Believe them, then, when they declare that your true beginning is in Christ, not in the sins of those who went before.
You feel the weight of affliction as something destructive. Yet see how God deals with His own. He does not always promise deliverance from death or sorrow, but permits them, granting something far greater: the power to despise them. The affliction is not the parent of grief, but can become an occasion of gladness, even when it is great. Why? Because of the hope laid up for you, a hope secure and certain. The good things to come are the focus, lest we seek our rest here. When God comforts, though sorrows come upon you by the thousands, you will be above them all. The mourning you feel, the cry of “help!”, this is the very state the Lord calls blessed. For those who mourn for misdoings receive not only forgiveness but abundant consolation, a comfort that surpasses the removal of punishment.
You seek a proof, a vindication. Here is the proof: not a discovery about your earthly father or mother, but the truth found in a better resurrection. Others in the Scripture were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain this better resurrection. They looked for a better life. This is the truth of your situation. The destructive journey, the false and punishable lies, these can be the very instruments by which you despise the world and cling to the truth. Christ gave thanks at the institution of the sacrament, teaching us to bear whatever we suffer with thankfulness, suggesting good hopes. If the type was a deliverance from bondage, how much more will the truth set you free? The very chief of the old feasts is brought to an end and removed to another, most awful table, where Christ says, “Take, eat, This is my body, Which is broken for many.”
Therefore, let the proof you seek be this: your deliverance is not in the vindication of your DNA before men, but in being given a nature that despises such things. Christ is able to save you, not from the mention of the past, but from its power. The truth of your lineage is your creation in righteousness and holiness. If you lay hold on the things which are to come, you will obtain the things here also. The mockery and destruction are swallowed up in that hope. The very request you make, offered in the names of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is already heard. The honor that accrues to God is twofold: in your progress and in the proof that His word is truth. The affection of Christ is more abundant toward you when you stand firm in these trials. For when God comforts, those who mourn are above all sorrows, blessed not after the value of what they do, but after His own love toward man. This is the divine proof, the true and unshakeable response to the cry of your heart.
Hear then the truth that cuts through every entanglement of ancestry. The Apostle places no difference between nation, rank, or family tree. The true man in Christ has nothing of these externals, and needs them not. Circumcision, uncircumcision, bondman, freeman, Jew from his ancestors, all these are external things. If you have this new man, you obtain the same things as all others who have him. Your cry about your DNA, your lineage, your mother’s plea, these are the very things the Gospel tramples underfoot as worthless for salvation.
You ask from where this destructive journey began. The beginning of your true lineage is not in the flesh, but in Baptism. Man is created henceforth not of water or earth, but “in righteousness and holiness of truth.” This is the reality. The old righteousness was a figure, a shadow. The truth is the creation of a son. This is your ancestry now. All that came before, all the weight of a sinful or troubled past, is severed. The Evangelists proclaimed their own shame and the humble, ignoble trades of the disciples with exact care, to show they made much account of truth. They did not hide reproaches. How then can we suspect them in the glorious parts? Believe them, then, when they declare that your true beginning is in Christ, not in the sins of those who went before.
You feel the weight of affliction as something destructive. Yet see how God deals with His own. He does not always promise deliverance from death or sorrow, but permits them, granting something far greater: the power to despise them. The affliction is not the parent of grief, but can become an occasion of gladness, even when it is great. Why? Because of the hope laid up for you, a hope secure and certain. The good things to come are the focus, lest we seek our rest here. When God comforts, though sorrows come upon you by the thousands, you will be above them all. The mourning you feel, the cry of “help!”, this is the very state the Lord calls blessed. For those who mourn for misdoings receive not only forgiveness but abundant consolation, a comfort that surpasses the removal of punishment.
You seek a proof, a vindication. Here is the proof: not a discovery about your earthly father or mother, but the truth found in a better resurrection. Others in the Scripture were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain this better resurrection. They looked for a better life. This is the truth of your situation. The destructive journey, the false and punishable lies, these can be the very instruments by which you despise the world and cling to the truth. Christ gave thanks at the institution of the sacrament, teaching us to bear whatever we suffer with thankfulness, suggesting good hopes. If the type was a deliverance from bondage, how much more will the truth set you free? The very chief of the old feasts is brought to an end and removed to another, most awful table, where Christ says, “Take, eat, This is my body, Which is broken for many.”
Therefore, let the proof you seek be this: your deliverance is not in the vindication of your DNA before men, but in being given a nature that despises such things. Christ is able to save you, not from the mention of the past, but from its power. The truth of your lineage is your creation in righteousness and holiness. If you lay hold on the things which are to come, you will obtain the things here also. The mockery and destruction are swallowed up in that hope. The very request you make, offered in the names of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is already heard. The honor that accrues to God is twofold: in your progress and in the proof that His word is truth. The affection of Christ is more abundant toward you when you stand firm in these trials. For when God comforts, those who mourn are above all sorrows, blessed not after the value of what they do, but after His own love toward man. This is the divine proof, the true and unshakeable response to the cry of your heart.
