Monday, October 17, 2022
Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Ignatius of Antioch in the lion’s mouth
God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we dead in our sins, brought us to life with Christ and raised us up with him.
We should not put words in the mouths of martyrs; that is disrespectful. But we can read their own words, and glory in them. Ignatius wrote seven letters as he was carried by ten Roman soldiers to the coliseum in Rome, to the hungry lions, to his death, because he refused to renounce Jesus Christ.
The only thing I ask of you (Christians of Rome) is to allow me to offer the libation of my blood to God. I am the wheat of the Lord; may I be ground by the teeth of the beasts to become the immaculate bread of Christ.”
This was his final letter. Soon after he was killed. And never forgotten.
Richard Rohr remembers his own life.
By my late 50s I had plenty of opportunities to see my own failures, shadow and sin. The first gaze at myself was critical, negative, demanding, and not at all helpful to me or to others. But I am convinced that such guilt and shame are never from God. They are merely protestations of the false self when shocked by its own poverty.
And that’s the thing about martyrdom. Surely, like Rohr, like St. Augustine and so many, Ignatius of Antioch too looked at his own life and found it wanting. He might have fallen into that same foolish pit Richard fell into for awhile, felt worthless, deserving only temporal and eternal punishment from God. But when the Romans required that he turn away from Jesus, renounce his faith, something in Ignatius rose up like a mama bear protecting her cubs, and he roared his refusal, indignation flaring in his eyes, fire breathing from his nostrils. NO! He proclaimed his faith without fear.
Paul too, of course, felt the breath of the murdering hungry lions on his face. He knew how close his own martyrdom was, chased day after day and surrounded by people who wanted him dead. And he rose too, to the occasion, his words to the Ephesians profoundly and joyfully proclaiming his faith and ours:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, lest any man should boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Christ himself is our peace.
Jesus gave his followers confidence when the dogs of persecution breathed into their face. He knew, and lived it to – that this world is not our home, that what we accomplish and gather here is not important – and that conversely heaven is our home, rich with eternal treasures given to us by our God of love.
He spoke of a rich farmer tearing down his barns and building bigger ones.
And he shall say to himself, “Now with so many good things stored up, I can rest. I can eat, drink, and be merry!
For tomorrow you die, said the Lord.
You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you, and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong? Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasures for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.
(Ephesians 2, Psalm 100, Matthew 5, Luke 12)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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