For just as God made all that He made by the energy of the Holy Spirit, so also now the energy of the Spirit performs those things that are supernatural and which it is not possible to comprehend unless by faith alone.[1]
Yuhanna ibn Sarjun ibn Mansur[2] was born into a prominent Christian family of Damascus in 675. Arabic records make reference to his grandfather and his father since they served in the civil administration of the city when the Muslim Caliphate was established there in 661, the city having been conquered by Arab Muslim forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid in 634.[3] Both continued to be employed in the public service of the new regime given that Christian civil servants were retained at the Umayyad court. Some have even asserted that John himself followed in their footsteps and took employment as well, although this cannot be verified. Apparently, the initial aftermath of the conquest was relatively benign. Christians continued to worship in the Byzantine basilica for the first seventy years, though sharing it with the Muslims who worshipped in a separate area within the precinct on Fridays.
To this day one can see the remains of the Christian basilica that forms the basis of the much extended and decorated Umayyad Mosque, as much a tourist attraction as a place of worship.[4] However, as has happened in recent years in Turkey, the next caliph was determined to install a more doctrinaire practice of Islam so Christianity and for that matter Zoroastrianism were suppressed.
John became a monk at the historic Palestinian monastery of Mar Saba near the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem. The monastery had been founded by St Sabas, celebrated in the Christian East as “The Sanctified” in 483, and it remains one of the oldest monasteries in the world. It is believed that John entered the monastery around 716, was ordained a priest in 735 and served within the monastic community until his death in 749. His theological and spiritual writings as well as his hymnody have earned him a place among the Doctors of the Church. Significantly, because he lived at a momentous time in the history of the Church, he was prominent in assessing and combatting the advance of Islam within the Byzantine Christian lands and at the same time taking a stand against the Iconoclastic heresy that raged during those years. Yet John’s primary task was to outline a comprehensive theological programme, a veritable Summa of the Catholic faith that would shore up orthodox belief and combat simultaneously the variety of heretical ideas that were undermining the stability and catholicity of believers, once Syria, Palestine and Egypt had fallen to Muslim invaders. The problem for John was that Islam, then viewed generally as another Christian heresy having Arian or Monophysite elements, did not force conversions or confiscate property after the initial takeover. He wrote:
“… A false prophet named Mohammed has appeared in their midst. This man, after having chanced upon the Old and New Testaments and likewise, it seems, having conversed with an Arian monk devised his own heresy. Then, having insinuated himself into the good graces of the people by a show of seeming piety, he gave out that a certain book had been sent down to him from heaven. He had set down some ridiculous compositions in this book of his and he gave it to them as an object of veneration. He says there is one God, creator of all things, who has neither been begotten nor has begotten (Quran, Sura 112).
He says that the Christ is the Word of God and His Spirit, but a creature and a servant, and that he was begotten without seed, of Mary the sister of Moses and Aaron (Sura 19: 4.169.). For, he says, the Word and God and the Spirit entered into Mary and she brought forth Jesus, who was a prophet and servant of God. And he says that the Jews wanted to crucify Him in violation of the law, and that they seized His shadow and crucified this. But the Christ Himself was not crucified, he says, nor did He die, for God out of His love for Him took Him to Himself into heaven. (Sura 4.156.)
And he says this, that when the Christ had ascended into heaven God asked Him: ‘O Jesus did you say: “I am the Son of God and God”?’ And Jesus, he says, answered: ‘Be merciful to me, Lord. You know that I did not say this and that I did not scorn to be your servant. But sinful men have written that I made this statement, and they have lied about me and have fallen into error’.” (Sura 5.116).[5]
It is easy to see how Christians in the seventh and eight centuries would either regard the teachings of Mohammed as heretical versions of Christianity or else adopt them (albeit in due course, under pressure) as the true understanding of the revelation from God, with Mohammed as the genuine prophet. No wonder, then, that modern-day Muslims defend their beliefs so fiercely in contrast with, for example, the present pontiff who assures his followers that Islam is one of many paths that lead to salvation and that Christians are not to proselytize.[6]
One wonders how St Paul might have interpreted these ideas, for Jesus declared of Himself: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father unless by Me; if you had known me you would also have known my Father; henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.”[7] Moreover St Paul declared: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, they shall be saved. How then will they call upon him in whom they have not believed? How shall they now believe in Him of whom they have not heard? How then are they to hear without preaching? And how can they preach if they are not sent? … so faith is from hearing, and what is heard, from the sayings of Christ.[8] To conclude, John continues to exhort orthodox faith through liturgy and prayer: Come you faithful, raise the strain of triumphant gladness;
God has brought his Israel into joy from sadness;
‘Tis the Spring of souls today; Christ has burst his prison
And from three days sleep in death, as a sun has risen.
All the Winter of our sins, long and dark is flying
From his Light, to whom we give laud and praise undying.[9]
Reflection for the feast of St John Damascene. 27 March ( 4 December novus ordo)
[1] John Damascene, De Fide Orthodoxa, Bk 4, Ch. 13, Concerning the holy and immaculate Mysteries of the Lord. [2] يوحنا الدمشقي, [3] Damascus was besieged for six months as it waited in vain for relief from the Roman (Byzantine) forces under Heraclius stationed in Antioch. John’s grandfather took part in the negotiations before capitulation. For their surrender Khalid offered these terms: “In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful. This is what Khalid would grant to the inhabitants of Damascus if he enters therein: he promises to give them security for their lives, property and churches. Their city wall shall not be demolished; neither shall any Muslim be quartered in their houses. Thereunto we give them the pact of Allah and the protection of his Prophet, the caliphs and the “believers”. So long as they pay the poll tax, nothing but good shall befall them.” Quoted in Al Baladhuri, Kitab Futuh Al-Buldan (The Origins of the Islamic State) 1916, Columbia. [4] The Umayyad Grand Mosque contains a shrine where the tomb of John the Baptist is venerated, a remnant of the Basilica dedicated to St John the Baptist (Yahya). Adjoining the mosque is a mausoleum containing the tomb of Saladin. Pope John Paul II visited this mosque in 2001 to pray at the tomb of John the Baptist. It was the first time a pope had visited a mosque. [5] Quoted in St John of Damascus, Writings, vol. 37 The Fathers of the Church, 1958, CUA Press: Washington. [6] Pope Francis, Abu Dhabi Document of Human Fraternity 4 Feb. 2019; Speech to Religious, Morocco, 31 March 2019: “… Being a Christian is not about adhering to a doctrine, or a temple or an ethnic group …We are Christians because we have been loved and encountered and not as the result of proselytism.” [7] Jn 14: 6-7. Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή οὐδεὶς ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸν πατέρα εἰ μὴ δι’ ἐμοῦ. εἰ ἐγνώκειτέ με, καὶ τὸν πατέρα μου ἂν ᾔδειτε ἀπ’ ἄρτι γινώσκετε αὐτὸν καὶ ἑωράκατε αὐτόν. [8] Rom. 10: 13-15; 17. Πᾶς γὰρ ὃς ἂν ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου σωθήσεται. Πῶς οὖν ἐπικαλέσωνται εἰς ὃν οὐκ ἐπίστευσαν; πῶς δὲ πιστεύσωσιν οὗ οὐκ ἤκουσαν; πῶς δὲ ἀκούσωσιν χωρὶς κηρύσσοντος; πῶς δὲ κηρύξωσιν ἐὰν μὴ ἀποσταλῶσιν; καθὼς γέγραπται. Ὡς ὡραῖοι οἱ πόδες τῶν εὐαγγελιζομένων τὰ ἀγαθά … ἄρα ἡ πίστις ἐξ ἀκοῆς, ἡ δὲ ἀκοὴ διὰ ῥήματος Χριστοῦ. [9] Excerpt from an Easter Hymn of St John Damascene, Trans, J.M. Neale.
