Hell is paved with the skulls of priests

So said St John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, a Father of the Church, and one of the greatest preachers who ever lived. Indeed his name, Chrysostom, means "golden mouthed" in Greek.

St John Chrysostom, who is a familiar figure to Christians of the East, and to a slightly lesser extent to those of the West, died sixteen hundred and two years ago.

Even in those far off days priests did not always behave as we might wish. And the reason for this is simple to comprehend, priests like all mortal men live in a fallen world and have to negotiate its snares and pitfalls just like everybody else.

St John Chrysostom understood this only too well when he said

"And all men are ready to pass judgment on the priest as if he was not a being clothed with flesh, or one who inherited a human nature."

But make no mistake about it, the world has always been at war with the Church - the antipathy many the secular have toward the Church is palpable today and there is an almost undisguised glee when one of those who represents her fail and much encouragement for them to do so. It was no different in St John Chrysostom's day, back in the 4^th century.

And in the 4^th century the Church taught things the secular didn't want to hear just as it does today. But the Truth remains true, whatever century you may live in and no matter how unpopular or unfashionable it may be. The issues may have been slightly different but the hostile response from the worldly much the same.

It isn't hard to identify the wedge issue the secular are using to divide the Church in our time, a thinly disguised attack on the integrity of the Church but promoted as 'tolerance'. And that is the issue of homosexuality. Just last week the Church of Scotland voted to allow an "openly gay" man serve as a minister. A man who left his wife and child to establish a relationship with another man and live with him as a man might live with his wife.

Those who know scripture will see instantly how this violates many of the principles Christians are supposed to live by - starting with the commandment against adultery and moving on from there. Never the less the secular press have for the most part reported this development approvingly and as a necessary advance for the Church. But all it really advances is division and unhappiness within the Church and a weakening of its influence outside of it, which is the real goal I'd posit.

But what of St John Chrysostom, well the secular elite didn't like him and his preaching and so he was deposed as Archbishop of Constantinople, twice as it happens. The first time the people rose in tumult and an earthquake shook Constantinople on the night he was arrested. This caused the Empress Aelia Eudoxia to take fright and so he was re-instated - but not for long. Aelia Eudoxia was again offended by his objection to her raising a statue to glorify herself outside the Cathedral where he preached and so he was banished once more.

This time he died on his way into exile.

But the Church, founded by Jesus Christ who St John Chrysostom served, is still here with us now and will be forever and to the ages of ages.

Amen