December 3 John of Damascus b. 645 d. 749

John and Thommy

Good morning
I love you

I’m playing hooky today. Not the model of excellence I’d imagined? Snow coming softly and very coldly and, for the roads, very slickly …. Beautiful when looking from inside; ok beautiful from the outside too but the cold puts an edge on it and my snow suit is snugger than it was last year [not a good thing]….

As the year ends, I’m reconnecting with places past. State government. Vanderbilt [that’d be a great gig]. Hospital friends not scattered around the country.

And I’m writing more, avoidance writing mingled with insight efforts. It’s still trashy and fantastical (mostly).

And you? Where oh where…? What oh what…? With whom? Why?
And all the dad question….

Remember the secret of a father’s love….

I love you….


St. John of Damascus
December 3 b. 645 d. 749
Eighth century – how do we know about a person from so long ago and so far away; though Damascus then was at the crossroads of east and west. How do we know about ourselves; our parents; our grandparents; even people of great public accomplishments and, thus, attention and the accompanying media coverage, thus records…. What do you want to know about your parents? What should you know? [that’d be hinted at by what you’re avoiding.]

As with our Irish saints, what we Know about John Damascene is truth and myth; the story of his life; more importantly, the effects of his life on others, including how that comes to us, his meaning for us, our, thus, duty to him….

John Damascene’s lineage remained Christian within the Arab/Muslim conquering of this early Christian center. Under the Sultan, his family had the responsibility to administer the Christian law to the Christians. Imagine if we had such an arrangement today. A truer separation of church and state than what we have, do you not think? Imagine a mechanism for administering the Catholic Law in a divorce petition? In which the priority of faith, family, and church preceded the individual and the ‘best interest of the child’ which would be read as the best interest of the family, faith, church, community. Maybe?

John Damascene’s father used his family’s wealth to buy and free the Christian slaves. What actions of your father would you put into your biography? You are your father’s son and…. What would you embrace of your grandfather’s life giving to you? [grandfathers’]

John Damascene was baptized as an infant by the bishop. There are some privileges of wealth. I was baptized by the parish priest, whose name I’ve never known, probably never told. [I have a birth certificate somewhere, it should be on there.] I was an infant baptized while my mother was still recouping in the hospital – back then a week for a birth was not uncommon. Uncle Frank and Aunt Putsie – my father’s older brother and my mother’s older sister – are my Godparents. You could have been baptized by the bishop of Nashville. Not because we were wealthy – tho a not unrich family. My contributions to the church don’t even show up in my tax returns (mostly). I was a writer for the diocesan newspaper and not uncommonly hung out at the diocese’s administrative offices and chatted with his eminence. If I’d asked I’m confident he’d have said yes, even though we were not members of his cathedral parish. But we, your mother and I, had agreed to have you baptized in the same city, in the same church, as it turns out, at the same font, as I was. And your parents’ brother and sister [a no show for the ceremonies tho] are your Godparents. Elizabeth of Hungary is the national church in America. Today, and in 1987 and 1989, it is administered by the Jesuits – a turn of events that makes is closer to my heart and experience. I asked my friend Kevin O’Connell, S.J. to preside over the baptisms – the same man who presided over the wedding [it was not his fault that the wedding was a fraud and the marriage annulled; although I’ve wished he had taken the time to ask the questions instead of assuming that the Newman center priest had done all that should have been done.] I met Kevin when I was a novice and he was studying theology. His biography is typically Jesuitical. His friendship remains to this day.

John Damascene’s father fortuitously came upon a Christian slave who was a learned monk, purchased his freedom, and asked him to tutor his son. Cosmas was his name. [Cosmas became the bishop of Majuma.]

John Damascene’s learnedness and stature caught the eye of the Saracens who compelled him to follow into his father’s high office. The Christian [and thus secular] controversy of the era was Icons – to use or not to use that was the question; and the side you took religiously imperiled your life because it also put you in one lord’s camp or another’s. John Damascene wrote three treatises on the Veneration due to Images in response to Leo the Isaurian’s decrees against them: about 730. John Damascene’s platform was protected by his position at court.

John Damascene was also ordained a priest sometime during this period. Priest and officer of the royal court. Our Catholic history is replete with men who held both church and state offices – some assumed the other, if a bishop, then also a lord of some sort; Henry VIII turned that formula around and imitated Caesar, if King then ruler of the Church [aka god?]; if loyal lord, then appointed bishop. Paul VI decreed that our priests not do both. Our Jesuits pushed the envelope, especially in South America’s liberation theology. I knew Bob Drinan, the Jesuit priest who became a congressman from chestnut hill in Boston; the Pope had to nudge him hard to get him out of office; obedience did finally assert itself.

John Damascene retired to the monastery of St. Sabas to finally devote himself to a life of prayer. And, more lastingly for us, devoted himself to religious poetry [even though it took a vision for his abbot to release him to fulfill his talents. Maybe those restraining you will have a vision to release you to fulfill your talents, to maximize your resources.]

We have honored John of Damascus with the title of Doctor of Christian Art, especially for his eloquent defense of iconoclasty.


I love you
dad