Thursday – 1st Week of Advent A – Saint John of Damascus, Priest and Doctor of the Church

Today we celebrate the beautiful memorial of Saint John of Damascus, who was born in 675 and died in 749. He spent his entire life under Muslim rule in the Umayyad Caliphate before becoming a monk. He served as a high-ranking financial administrator, something like a chief accountant for the caliph in Damascus. This placed him in a politically sensitive position where overt Christian polemic could have cost him his life. Yet he still defended Christian doctrine unapologetically.

His courage was not abstract or theoretical. It involved real, personal, and political risk, which directly echoes Saint Paul’s encouragement and motivation to Saint Timothy in the first reading: “Bear your share of hardship like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” And so the first thing that Saint John of Damascus inspires in us is to suffer gladly for the sake of the honour and glory of Jesus Christ.

How many opportunities are we given throughout life to choose what Jesus would ask us to choose, the decisions He would inspire within us through the Holy Spirit? John did not see himself as inventing anything new. He constantly insisted that he was handing on what the Fathers taught, not expressing personal opinion. And this posture directly mirrors Paul’s language in today’s reading: “Guard this rich trust. Entrust it to faithful people who will have the ability to teach others as well.”

The key themes connected to Saint John through these scriptural passages are reflected in several phrases. “Take as your norm the sound words.” John explicitly resisted theological novelty, especially during iconoclasm, by grounding his teaching in Scripture and the Fathers. “Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit.” The trust is the faith itself, which John felt was under threat when sacred images were destroyed. And again, “Entrust this to faithful people who will be able to teach others.” His writings became standard references for centuries, precisely fulfilling this generational transmission.

Earlier, Saint Paul also exhorts us to “bear hardship like a good soldier of Christ.” John’s loss of status, his exile from public life, and his entrance into monastic poverty at Mar Saba show theological courage expressed through concrete sacrifice. John is celebrated not simply for doctrinal brilliance, but for faithful custodianship of what he received.

The Gospel is especially fitting and often underappreciated in relation to Saint John of Damascus. John was enormously gifted intellectually, linguistically, and poetically. Many Eastern hymns, in fact, are his. And theologically, he multiplied his talents rather than burying them for safety. During the iconoclast crisis, many bishops remained silent out of fear—the equivalent of burying the talent. John, who technically did not even belong to the empire causing the crisis, risked everything to speak.

The wicked servant in the Gospel is not condemned for doing something evil, but for doing nothing with what was entrusted to him. John of Damascus shows us that orthodoxy is not passive preservation, but active and courageous engagement with the truth entrusted to us.

How does this connect to Advent? Christ entrusts Himself to the Church before He comes again. What we do with Him is up to us. How we defend the faith will have a bearing on our relationship with Him and with others. Waiting is not inactivity. We do not simply twiddle our thumbs. We are called to evangelize by the way we live, and when the opportunity arises, to speak the Good News.

Fidelity during the Master’s absence is proven by fruitfulness, not fear. Saint John lived as one who believed the Master would return and who wished to return what he had received with interest. In the end, Saint John of Damascus teaches us that the faith is not something to be hidden for safety, but guarded, lived, defended, and handed on—even at great cost—until the Master returns.

Through his intercession, may Almighty God continue to bless you all. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Lady, Queen of Theologians, pray for us.