JOHN OF ANTIOCH was born about the year 347, of a noble family. His
father, Secundus, held a high rank in the imperial army; he died
early, and left a very young widow, in the bloom of age and beauty,
and amply endowed with wealth. Many suitors sought to obtain the
hand of St. Anthusa. She remained faithful to the memory of her
husband. and devoted to the education of her only son. She brought
him up in all the knowledge of the age and in strict piety, which
she enforced by her example. St. Anthusa, amid all the perils of
Antioch, guarded her son John with the same care which her
Contemporary, St. Monica, bestowed in the small circle of an
African town 0f her Augustine. She was happier in one thing. The
heathen charms of Antioch exerted no such power over her son John
as the like seductive beauty of Carthage exerted over the young
Augustine. The prayers and the care of St. Monica and St. Anthusa
were equally zealous. In the one case, after. the most terrible
fall, lasting over a period of at least fourteen years, the African
mother had the unspeakable joy of seeing her son's mind delivered
from the most dangerous heresy of the day, and was allowed to die
in the arms of the new-born Christian, who could share all her
hopes of eternal life, which are recorded in the beautiful dialogue
between mother and son preserved for us by that son, who was to be
the greatest doctor of the Church. In the other case, the
Antiochene parent to whom was applied that expression of the
admiring heathen, 'See what mothers these Christians have, ' had
the still rarer gift of rearing a son who never fell, who pursued
from beginning to end a holy life, who was crowned with a
confessorship exceeding the glory of many martyrs, and whose least
merit is that he was the greatest preacher of the Eastern Church,
and gave to the language of Plato, eight hundred years after him,
in its decline, a glory equal to that which the Athenian gave to it
in its prime. Let us consider one of these leaves from Saint John
Chrysostom: "Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called
Cephas. Since thou hast proclaimed My Father, He says, so will I
name thy father to thee: which was almost saying, 'As thou art the
son of Jona, so am I the Son of My Father'. For it was superfluous
to say, 'Thou art the son of Jona'; but as He had spoken of the Son
of God, in order to show that as Peter is the son of J ona so He is
the Son of God, of the same substance as the Begetter, He added
further: And I say to thee thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build My Church-that is, on the faith of this confession. Then
He shows him many men who are ready to believe, and He strengthens
Peter's will and makes him pastor. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. ' If they shall not prevail against it, how
much less against Me. So be not troubled, for thou art soon to hear
that I am to be betrayed and crucified.' He goes on to speak of
another honour: And I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of
heaven. What does And I will give thee signify? As the Father gave
thee to know Me, so do I also give it to thee. He did not say: 'I
will invoke the Father, ' although the power shown forth was so
great and the gift was so unutterably magnificent, but I will give
thee. Tell me what hast Thou given? The keys of the kingdom of
heaven, that whatsoever thou dost bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven, and whatsoever thou dost loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven. How, then, was it not His to give to sit on His right and
on His left Who said, I will give? Do you see how He leads Peter up
to the most ineffable knowledge, how He reveals Himself, and shows
Himself to be the Son of God, through that double promise?
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