Saint John Chrysostom on Homosexuality (A Contribution to the Contemporary Relevance of the Subject)

Saint John Chrysostom on Homosexuality

(A Contribution to the Contemporary Relevance of the Subject)

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

It is worthwhile, concerning the subject of homosexuality, to hear what the wise and God-bearing Holy Fathers of the Church say and to read what they write. This is because the Fathers do not constitute a dead legacy, nor are they outside reality. They are, above all, interpreters of the spirit of the divine Scriptures, but also important students of the human being. Indeed, as those knowledgeable in secular learning and Christian literature, they concerned themselves with man, virtue, and vice; they literally felt pain over human affairs, labored for them, and struggled for the perfection of human life, with eternity as their ultimate aim.

Thus, among the great Greek Fathers, the wise and God-bearing Father of the Church, John Chrysostom, could not remain silent on the question of homosexuality, since he was both an excellent interpreter of Holy Scripture and a model of virtue and moral character, as he demonstrated in his time. He was a great man, remarkable, “most wondrous in his manner of life and formidable in speech.” But we must also point out that although he lived in the fourth century, nevertheless, his speech and his writings are distinguished by their timelessness, precisely because they concern the human being in his entirety and his life, his relationship with God and with himself. Specifically, John Chrysostom devoted thirty-three homilies to the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, the most theological of the Epistles, which were delivered in Antioch. In particular, in his Third, Fourth, and Fifth Homilies, he refers to the wrath of God against the impious idolaters.

More specifically, in his Third Homily, he interprets verses 8–17 from Chapter 1 of the Apostle’s Epistle to the Romans and emphasizes that we ought to accept the things of God with faith and not demand an explanation for the divine commandments.

The commandment of God is a commandment. That is how it is. The created thing will not say to the Creator, “Why did You create me this way?” As the Apostle Paul says: “O man, who are you to argue and contradict God? ‘Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me this way?’ Or has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?” (Rom. 9:20–21). Saint Chrysostom says that we must not examine the command of the Lord, “the commandment of the Master” (Homilies on Romans, Homily III, EPE 16B, p. 360), but that we ought “to yield to the incomprehensibility of His providence and never to demand accountability from God for the things that happen, even if these things appear to trouble many” (ibid., pp. 361–363). The Holy Father again emphasizes this position, saying: “Never demand an explanation for the commandments of God, but only yield and obey” (ibid., p. 378).

In his Fourth and Fifth Homilies, in which he interprets verses 18–27 of Chapter 1 of the Epistle to the Romans, he turns against the idolaters and speaks about forbearance, urging restraint from the passions. More specifically, in interpreting verses 26–27, he refers to the unnatural bodily relations of men and women, that is, to homosexuality.

Specifically, in his Fifth Homily, he interprets the Apostle’s verses: “For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions. For even their females exchanged the natural use for that which is against nature: and likewise also the males, leaving the natural use of the female, burned in their desire toward one another, males with males working that which is shameful, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due for their error” (Rom. 1:26–27).

The Apostle Paul says, therefore, concerning the idolaters, that precisely because they worshipped false and worthless gods, God permitted them to be given over and enslaved to degrading passions. For their women, too, without feeling shame or respecting even themselves, exchanged the natural use of their sex for that which is against nature and turned to unspeakable acts. In a similar manner, the males abandoned the natural relationship and use of the woman and were inflamed by passionate desires for one another, so that men performed shameless and degrading acts with men and received from themselves the recompense that was due to them for their error.

Interpreting these verses (26 and 27), Saint Chrysostom emphasizes that the exchange of the natural use of the sex for that which is against nature is a “passion of dishonor,” as the Apostle Paul writes. Those who commit these “dishonorable passions,” the Holy Father continues, have reached a strange frenzy: “they have gone astray into this strange frenzy,” since they abandoned natural enjoyment and turned to that which is against nature, thereby also offending nature itself. The Apostle Paul goes even further and uses particular words for this passion, as Saint Chrysostom points out. He says: “They burned in their desire toward one another” (v. 27). Chrysostom comments: “But observe how emphatically he also uses the words. For he did not say that they loved and desired one another, but, ‘They burned with desire for one another.’ Do you see that the whole of desire proceeds from greed, because it does not tolerate remaining within its own boundaries? For everything that goes beyond the laws established by God desires strange things and not what is lawful. Just as many people, when they are exceedingly thirsty, often desire even muddy water, so they too fell into this unlawful eros. But if you ask where this power of desire comes from, the answer is: From the abandonment of God. And from where does the abandonment of God come? From the lawlessness of those who abandoned Him, ‘working shamefulness, men with men.’”

Therefore, he says, do not think, because you heard that they burned with desire, that the disease is due only to desire, for, in reality, the greater part of it is due to their indifference, which also kindled the desire. For this reason, he did not say “being led astray” or “being overcome,” which he says elsewhere, but what? “Working” (that is, doing). They regarded sin as a deed, and not merely a deed, but one that was deliberately carried out (Homily V, p. 413). He also comments on the word “shamefulness,” saying: “And he (Paul) did not say ‘desire,’ but ‘shamefulness’ in its literal meaning. For they truly brought shame upon nature and transgressed the laws. He says emphatically: ‘And they brought shame upon nature and trampled upon the laws.’” That is, he speaks of shame and transgression. According to the divine Paul, homosexuality constitutes a disgrace to nature and a transgression of the law of God. Saint Chrysostom says that it also constitutes the most extreme and most abominable form of fornication. He emphasizes: “Worse than so many forms of fornication” (Homily V, p. 416). For, he says, in fornication, “although the union is unlawful, it is nevertheless according to nature,” whereas in homosexuality it is “both unlawful and against nature” (ibid., p. 414).

Saint Chrysostom also becomes more severe. He characterizes homosexuality as “murder of soul and body,” “outrage,” “madness,” and “betrayal.” More specifically, he writes: “Alas, what madness! Alas, what insanity! From where did this desire come, which brought upon human nature the evils of its enemies, or rather, evils even worse than theirs, to the same extent that the soul is superior to the body? How much more senseless you are than irrational animals, and more shameless than dogs! For nowhere is there such a relationship among them, but nature knows well its own laws. But you, by behaving outrageously, have made your own sex more dishonorable even than the animals” (ibid., p. 421).

Indeed, Saint Chrysostom, interpreting the passage of the Apostle Paul, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18), admirably urges us to pay attention to the Apostle’s prudence. He says that, after speaking about the more beneficial blessings, the Apostle then turns his discourse to the more fearful things. He spoke about the salvation of men, but continues also with punishment. He writes specifically that “because most people are often drawn toward virtue not so much by the promise of good things as by the fear of unpleasant things, he draws them by both. For this reason, God not only promised the Kingdom, but also threatened Gehenna” (Homilies on Romans, Homily IV, p. 383). Continuing, he says that the impiety of the idolaters also became the cause of the perversion of the laws of nature. “For they devised a strange manner of lawlessness and strange and unlawful laws for their unions.” That is, they devised a strange manner of lawlessness and invented strange and impermissible laws for their bodily relations. He continues, saying: “And such was the course of wickedness that all became molded by every form of corruption and could no longer receive any correction, but required complete destruction” (ibid., p. 20). Here is the just punishment.

But Saint Chrysostom, in order to help his fellow human beings refrain from committing homosexuality, also comes forward and reminds them of the punishment. He writes about the destruction of Sodom and the moral debauchery of its inhabitants, noting that their sin was so great that God allowed Gehenna of fire to appear before its time (ibid., pp. 417–418). “These lawless men who dwell in the land of Sodom shall all be destroyed. For just as virtue becomes the basis of salvation—that is, becomes the occasion for salvation—for those who pursue it, so wickedness becomes the cause of destruction” (On Genesis, Homily XLII, 18).

Saint Chrysostom also considers the loss of the fear of God and the abandonment of the divine commandments to be causes of homosexuality. Specifically, he writes: “Therefore, so that this may not happen—that is, so that we do not become shameless—let us properly keep the fear of God before us. For nothing, truly nothing, destroys man in such a way as losing this anchor, just as nothing saves him so much as continually looking there. If, when we have another human being before us, we become more hesitant to commit sins, and many times have blushed with shame even before servants who are more lenient in their judgment, and do nothing unreasonable, consider how much security we shall enjoy when we have God before us. For the devil will attack us nowhere when we behave in this way, because he will labor in vain. But if he sees us wandering outside and roaming about without restraint, taking authority away from us, he will then be able to lead us astray everywhere. And what happens in the marketplace to careless servants who abandon the necessary duties for which their masters sent them, and devote themselves aimlessly and without reason to passersby, wasting their free time there, happens to us as well when we distance ourselves from the commandments of God” (Homilies on Romans, Homily V, pp. 421–423).

Indeed, Saint Chrysostom points out that this passion is the work of the devil, who opens a war against man and woman and the perpetuation of the human race. He writes: “And observe how great confusion arises on both sides. For not only did the head go downward, but the feet also went upward, and they became enemies of themselves and of one another, waging a terrible battle, more unlawful than any civil war, and manifold and varied... The two ought to have been one, I mean the woman and the man. ‘For the two,’ He says, ‘shall be one flesh.’ The desire for intercourse brought this about and united the sexes with one another. But the devil, destroying this desire and transferring it to another manner, thus separated the sexes from one another and caused the one to become two parts, contrary to the law of God. For He (that is, God) says, ‘The two shall be one flesh,’ whereas the devil divided the one into two” (ibid., p. 411 ff.).

Furthermore, Saint Chrysostom is not unaware that this phenomenon of homosexuality existed in ancient Greece, and he writes the following specifically about this situation: “Nevertheless, they did not consider this matter to be shameful, but because they admired it as something respectable and superior to the status of slaves, they permitted it among free citizens. And one could find many books of the philosophers filled with this disease. Yet we do not say that the matter is lawful for this reason, but rather that those who accepted this law are also wretched and worthy of many tears” (ibid., p. 415 ff.). Saint Chrysostom speaks not only of disease and lawlessness, but also of the misery of those people who engage in this passion, saying that they are “worthy of many tears” (ibid., p. 417).

Nevertheless, Saint Chrysostom does not show malice toward those who sin through this passion. He says that they are spiritually weak, wounded by the devil, captives of the evil one, and in need of salvation. He cites the example of Lot, who behaved with gentleness and prudence toward the Sodomites who wished to commit the sin. He said to them: “By no means, brothers, do not act wickedly” (Gen. 19:7). In this regard, Saint Chrysostom comments: “O, the patience of the righteous man! O, the excess of humility! This is truly virtue: to approach such people with gentleness. For no one who wishes to heal a sick person and bring a madman to his senses does so with anger and severity” (On Genesis, Homily XLIII, p. 66). Saint Chrysostom continues his commentary, saying: “For observe how he calls brothers those who wish to commit transgressions of this kind, wishing to make them feel shame, to approach their conscience, and to turn them away from their impious undertaking” (ibid., p. 67).

Clearly, therefore, Saint John Chrysostom speaks of sin, of a passion of dishonor, and of the overturning of the laws of nature, but also of a “reminder,” a kind of testament, as a reminder to subsequent generations of the destruction, so that they too might not suffer the punishment. He writes very characteristically: “For because they overturned the laws of nature and devised strange and unlawful unions, for this reason He brought upon them an unusual form of punishment (God imposed a new form of punishment, different from that of the Flood), because of their lawlessness, and having rendered the womb of the earth barren, He left behind an everlasting reminder for the generations that followed, so that they might not undertake the same things, lest they also fall into the same things” (ibid., pp. 30–32).

For this reason, Saint Chrysostom then exhorts and advises: “Therefore, I beseech you, let us be corrected by the things for which others have suffered punishment” (ibid., p. 32). 

Thus does the Holy Father interpret this sin, he who was called the “Ecumenical Teacher” by Emperor Theodosius II and the “thrice-blessed man” by Photios the Great; and certainly, “let him who has understanding understand.”

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.