The world seems to be in a mess.  There is a continuing escalation of hostilities in the Middle East; Europe is dealing with a massive refugee crisis; here in America, we are being terrorized by mass shootings.  Closer to home, this month of December brings its conflicting messages of “peace on earth” and increased stress.  Not to mention the weather is terrible.  One could go on with mention of global climate change and the strangest political scene in this country that I have ever seen in my lifetime.

It’s enough to make one join a monastery.

But the world has always been in a mess.  In my lifetime alone, there have been 4 – maybe 5 major wars involving our military.  Further back in history, we can mention world-wide epidemics, world-wide economic collapse, and the rise and fall of world-wide empires.

This is the context of today’s saint, John of Damascus.  Not one of the currently well-known saints, but a man who had an enormous influence on Christian theology and worship.

John was born in Damascus, Syria in the year 657, five years after the death of Mohammed.  Syria had already been conquered by the Muslim armies.  In another 800 years, all of the Middle East, including the capital of what remained of the Roman Empire, would be Muslim.

Although Mohammed had preached tolerance of Christians and Jews, not every Muslim leader followed his teachings.  (We might point out that not every Christian leader follows the teachings of Jesus.)

St. John of Damascus came from a family of Christian leaders in Damascus who rose to the high position of Grand Vizier, or second only to the Caliph.  John himself held that office until a new Caliph came to power and was hostile to Christians.  So, John left all the turmoil of his time and went to a remote monastery called Mar Saba, some 15 miles east of Jerusalem.  It was about as remote a place as possible.

I’ve been to Mar Saba and it is a strange, isolated place.  Hard to get to and even harder to get in.  I knew somebody who knew somebody and got inside.  There happened to be a monk living there who was an American and he once hitchhiked across Idaho.  He was a bit weird and there were places I wasn’t allowed to see.  What I wanted to see was their ancient library and especially their incredible collection of icons.  But I could only see the chapel and alongside one wall in the chapel was the glass-enclosed body of St. John.  It was, to put it mildly, a bit gruesome.

But it was the icons I saw and the ones I was forbidden to see that tell the story of John of Damascus.

At the time, there was a strong movement in the Church against any statues, or paintings of any human figure.  (The Muslims today forbid such things).  These iconoclasts – breakers of icons – went around destroying churches with statues or paintings, similar to what Al-Qaida does today.

But Mar Saba was spared because it is so remote and also well-fortified.

John wrote vigorously defending the religious importance of statues and paintings of icons – especially for a population which mostly could not read.

He did all this by withdrawing from the world and living for long periods of time, alone in a cave at the lowest spot on earth – near the Dead Sea.

I am by no means suggesting that the solution to today’s problems is isolation in a remote area.  It takes a very strong faith to live like that and not go crazy.

But the idea of prayer, quiet contemplation, and simple basic lifestyle is needed in our increasingly dangerous world.  And one can slow down, take a deep breath, and rely on God’s ultimate care for the world that may very well tip the balance toward sanity.  To contradict one of the candidates for POTUS, we need more philosophers than engineers.  No use building things without religious faith and moral living.  Empires have fallen for lack of such philosophers.

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