Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 121; Matthew 8:5-11
Today we keep the memorial of St John of Damascus. He was a monk and a scholar; regarded by both the Western and Eastern Churches as the last of the Greek Fathers, and declared a doctor of the Church in 1890. He was also a famous hymnodist - in the West he is familiar as the author of two well-known Easter hymns (‘Come ye faithful, raise the strain’ and ‘The day of Resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad!’).
All very well, but what has this to do with Advent? In the excerpt from his Statement of Faith used in Matins today we hear the following:
“Through the blessing of the Holy Spirit you brought it about that I was created and came into being not by the will of man or lust of the flesh but by your grace…by adopting me as your son”
This, of course, recalls the prologue of John’s gospel:
“But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God” (John 1: 12-13).
John of Damascus reminds us of our dignity as children of God, called to “go up to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways” (Isaiah 2: 2-5). Let’s use this season to listen more attentively to God’s teaching, in the icon of his Word.
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