HistoricalChristian.Faith
HistoricalChristian.Faith
Dates: c. 392 · Wikipedia
Summary: Chrysostom (c. 347–407) holds the two halves apart cleanly. He commends
prayer, alms, and the Eucharistic offering for the dead, urging that "some refreshment may thereby ensue to them"
— the apostolic custom of remembering the departed "in the dreadful Mysteries." Yet he reads 1 Corinthians
3:13–15 as the fire of judgment, not a purging cleansing: "he shall be saved" he glosses as a
dark hint that the man "shall remain forever in punishment." So Chrysostom is for prayer for the dead and
against the later Latin satisfactory fire.
…nor do we in vain make mention of the departed in the course of the divine mysteries, and approach God in their behalf, beseeching the Lamb Who is before us, Who taketh away the sin of the world;—not in vain, but that some refreshment may thereby ensue to them. Not in vain cloth he that standeth by the altar cry out when the tremendous mysteries are celebrated, "For all that have fallen asleep in Christ, and for those who perform commemorations in their behalf."
— Homilies on First Corinthians 41 §8, historicalchristian.faith. Chrysostom urges the living to aid the dead "not by tears, but by prayers and supplications and alms and offerings," insisting the commemoration at the altar is "not in vain… but that some refreshment may thereby ensue to them." Prayer for the departed is, for him, settled apostolic practice with real benefit.
In the same passage he grounds the practice in a scriptural syllogism drawn from the patriarch Job, who offered sacrifice for his children (Job 1:5):
For if the children of Job were purged by the sacrifice of their father, why dost thou doubt that when we too offer for the departed, some consolation arises to them? since God is wont to grant the petitions of those who ask for others.
— Homilies on First Corinthians 41 §8, historicalchristian.faith. The offering for the dead works, on his reasoning, the way intercessory sacrifice always works: not by transferring a penalty but by God's granting the petition of those who ask on another's behalf.
His most expansive statement of the practice comes in the homily on Philippians 1:24, where he presses the living to "think of some assistance" for the departed:
Let us weep for these; let us assist them according to our power; let us think of some assistance for them, small though it be, yet still let us assist them. How and in what way? By praying and entreating others to make prayers for them, by continually giving to the poor on their behalf… Not in vain did the Apostles order that remembrance should be made of the dead in the dreadful Mysteries. They know that great gain resulteth to them, great benefit; for when the whole people stands with uplifted hands, a priestly assembly, and that awful Sacrifice lies displayed, how shall we not prevail with God by our entreaties for them? And this we do for those who have departed in faith, whilst the catechumens are not thought worthy even of this consolation, but are deprived of all means of help save one. And what is this? We may give to the poor on their behalf. This deed in a certain way refreshes them.
— Homilies on Philippians 3 §3 (on Phil 1:24), historicalchristian.faith. This is among the strongest patristic statements of the custom: prayer, the Eucharistic "Sacrifice," and alms all "prevail with God" for those who died in faith, on apostolic order. Strikingly, Chrysostom holds that even catechumens who died unbaptized are not wholly beyond help — deprived of the oblation, they can still be "refreshed" by alms given on their behalf. Yet note the limit of his soteriology here: the aid brings "consolation," "refreshment," "benefit" — never the remission of a temporal satisfaction owed in a purging fire. The mechanism is intercession, not the discharge of a penalty.
And so here in saying, "he shall be saved," he hath but darkly hinted at the intensity of the penalty: as if he had said, "But himself shall remain forever in punishment."
— Homily on First Corinthians 9, historicalchristian.faith. Where the Latin tradition would read "saved, yet so as by fire" as a soul cleansed and brought through, Chrysostom reads "saved" as bitter understatement: the fire is the penalty of the day of judgment, and "shall be saved" hints "darkly" that the man "shall remain forever in punishment." He spells out the two-fold loss explicitly: "lo, here is one punishment… lo, again, here is a second. And his meaning is, 'He himself shall not perish in the same way as his works… but he shall abide' "— abide, that is, in the fire. The verse is for him eschatological judgment, not an intermediate purgation.