So this is the reason for our disorder, my dear: by remaining outwardly with Christ, we inwardly forget about Him, we do not follow Him, but lead Him. "Look, Lord, admire my labors, my feats, I will do this and that."

"I"! "I"! "I"! And now the "I" has already shielded Christ from us, but it – our "I" – is exhausted from its own weakness, from powerlessness. And Christ only looks upon us with a certain reproach as at His foolish children, allowing us to fully enjoy our own powerlessness, so that we may come to Him again, this time on our own.

St. John Chrysostom, together with the Apostle James, affirms for us the only way of salvation: "Leave what is yours," "submit to God," and by this obedience to God you will resist the devil. And only then will this terrible dark force run away from us. "Do not be troubled, but always and for all things thank God, glorify, call, pray, prostrate yourself before Him; Do not be alarmed, even though a thousand alarms and confusions arise before you. In troubled circumstances, we cannot warn the Lord, even if everything comes to a terrible death. He alone is able to raise up the fallen, and convert the lost, and correct those who have been offended, and change sinners who have committed thousands of transgressions, and make them righteous. If He creates the bearer to being, to which He never appears, He bestows existence on Him, the easier it is to correct for Him that which is and which has long been."

And all of us, who are weak, but undoubtedly believe in Christ, should not lower our hands and heads, but we should recall and recall in our hearts the words spoken by the Lord to the Apostle Paul: "... My grace is sufficient for you; for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

And, my friends, is it not evident to us now that much of the present has already happened before? Even if we do not see signs and wonders now, we still find deeds that are not inferior to miracles, clear traces of God's Providence, of God's help.

Thus, each of us is destined to do the works of his own personal salvation. Each of us has been given the cross of our personal life, the path has been shown, and only on it will you be useful, it is on it that you will do your work according to the will of God, and not according to your own or, even worse, according to the enemy's will; it is for this that we are given the necessary strength and understanding from God.

This is how the examples of the lives of the righteous of God and their teaching answer our questions. And here is the wish of St. Chrysostom through his letters to every Christian: "... I wish you such consolation that you would not be embarrassed at all, would not cry, but would live cheerfully and peacefully... faith in God and hope in Him."

And it remains only for you and me, our friends, to be confirmed by the death of John Chrysostom in the conviction that God has no dead, but all are alive, that the righteous follow in the wake of their beloved Christ by their way of the cross, by their own free will. For when, thirty years after the death of the saint, the emperor Theodosius deigned to return his coffin from the place of exile to the capital, the saint did not wish to fulfill the will of the emperor. The messengers could not move the coffin, so it became heavy.

And the governor felt his transgression before the righteous man. And he wept before the departed, as before the living, both his own sin and the sin of his mother – the persecution and death of Chrysostom from her malice.

And Theodosius wrote a letter of repentance and sent a letter to the grave of the saint, beseeching Chrysostom to return: "Forgive me my audacious undertaking, cover me with the abyss of thy wisdom; Thou who didst teach repentance to all, forgive me who repent; and as to the children of the Father who love, give thyself unto us, and make them that love thee rejoice at thy coming... Oh, most honorable father, come in peace to yours, and your own will receive you with love."

They placed this letter of repentance in the grave of the saint, and served an all-night vigil. And the tomb became light. Thus Chrysostom responded to repentance. And the holy relics returned by the will of the saint to Constantinople. Many miracles, like the radiance of the divine glory of Chrysostom, flowed from his grave.

One of them cannot be kept silent. Let us remember that the grave of the Empress Eudoxia, the culprit of the saint's sufferings, punished by God during her lifetime with a grave and terrible illness, her coffin, which knew no rest, but was constantly shaking, fell silent. The mother, through the prayer of her son, received the forgiveness of the saint.

And so, our friends, we have come to the essence of today's holiday "... but he who endures to the end will be saved" (Matt. 10:22) himself and will save many, we will add, not without reason.

Thirty years after his martyrdom in exile, St. John Chrysostom returned to the patriarchal throne with his relics. The reliquary with his coffin was placed in the church, and when the serving Patriarch opened the coffin, it turned out that the body of Saint John Chrysostom remained incorrupt.