We need Courageous Bishops: Ignatius of Antioch is a Model

Oct. 21, 2014

We need Courageous Bishops: Ignatius of Antioch is a Model

Ignatius of Antioch - I know what is to my advantage. At last I am becom¬ing his disciple. May nothing entice me till I happily make my way to Jesus Christ! Fire, cross, struggles with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, mangling of limbs-let them come to me, provided only I make my way to Jesus Christ. I would rather die and come to Jesus Christ than be king over the entire earth. Him I seek who died for us; him I love who rose again because of us.

اقتباس :: CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online): On October 17th in the liturgical calendar of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, we commemorated one of the great heroes of the faith, a holy and courageous Bishop named Ignatius.

He was the second Bishop of Antioch, Syria, this disciple of the beloved Disciple John was consecrated Bishop around the year 69 by the Apostle Peter, the first Pope.

He was deeply loved by the Christian faithful and made it his special care to defend "orthodoxy" (right teaching) and "orthopraxy" (right practice) among the early Christians.

Along with all of the early fathers of the Christian Church, he took seriously the charge from the Apostle Paul to Timothy to "guard the deposit of faith". (2 Tim. 1:4) Even a little bad teaching on what it means to live for Jesus Christ, allowed to be consumed in the Body of Christ, the Church, is like a little poison in the human body.

We need Bishops like Ignatius in this new missionary age of the Church. There is a literal assault on marriage and the family in much of the West. Yet, what the Church has to offer on the truth about marriage and the family paves the path to a future of true freedom and human flourishing for all men and women and every culture. The Lord Knows that - and the deposit of faith is in His hands. It must be defended so that it can be given to an age so desperately in need of true freedom.

The Church is the seed of a new culture, the seed of the coming Kingdom. In the wake of the first session of this Synod on Marriage and the family, pray for our Bishops!

May the Lord Jesus give them the grace to be men of courage, fidelity and heroic virtue. How desperately we need contemporary Bishops like this great hero of the faith named Ignatius. That is why we should know his story. The saints put legs on the gospel, they encourage us all to live what we profess - and walk the Way of fidelity to Jesus Christ in our own time.

In 107, during the reign of the brutal Emperor Trajan, this holy Bishop was wrongfully sentenced to death because he refused to renounce the Christian faith. The culture into which these early Christians were sent as missionaries were sent into was not unlike our own.

The task they had from the Lord was the same as our own, to set men and women free by presenting the full Gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, we are the ones who bear the message of true progress, the message of the full Gospel.

He was taken under armed guard to Rome where he was to be brutally devoured by wild beasts in a public spectacle. During his journey, his travels took him through Asia Minor and Greece. It was an arduous and exhausting trip.

He could have turned inward, given over to despair and let the fire of faith dim. Instead, he made good use of the time by writing seven letters of encouragement, instruction and inspiration to the Christians in those communities. These letters were circulated among the faithful and brought them tremendous encouragement to live their Christian faith with heroism.

We still have these letters as a great treasure of the Church today. They were treasured by the early Christians and should be read by those of us who continue their work in this urgent hour.

As a young man, my own discovery of these beautiful letters opened my own eyes to the historic roots of the teachings of the Catholic Church. They had a significant role in helping me on my journey home to the Church of my childhood.

The content of the letters addressed the hierarchy and structure of the Church as well as the content of the orthodox Christian faith. It was Bishop Ignatius who first used the term "catholic" to describe the whole Church.

These letters connect us to the early Church and the unbroken, clear teaching of the Apostles which was given to them directly by Jesus Christ. They also reveal the holiness of a man of God who became himself a living letter of Christ.

The shedding his blood in the witness of holy martyrdom was the culmination of a life lived conformed to Jesus Christ. The word martyr means witness. The Bishop of Antioch was a witness his entire life. He offered himself, in Jesus Christ, for the sake of the Church which he loved. His holy martyrdom occurred in the year 107.

In his pastoral letters he regularly thanked his brother and sister Christians for their concern for his well being but insisted on following through in his final witness of fidelity:

"I know what is to my advantage. At last I am becoming his disciple. May nothing entice me till I happily make my way to Jesus Christ! Fire, cross, struggles with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, mangling of limbs-let them come to me, provided only I make my way to Jesus Christ. I would rather die and come to Jesus Christ than be king over the entire earth. Him I seek who died for us; him I love who rose again because of us."

Bishop Ignatius was not afraid of mortal death. He knew that death had been defeated by the Master. In the words of an ancient liturgical refrain, Jesus had "trampled on death by death"! Ignatius followed the Lord Jesus into his Passion, knowing that he would rise with Him in his Resurrection.

He wrote to the disciples in Rome: "Permit me to imitate my suffering God ... I am God's wheat and I shall be ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may become the pure bread of Christ." The beauty of this Eucharistic symbolism in these words reflects the deep theology of a mystic.

He was dedicated to defending the true teaching handed down by the Apostles so that the brothers and sisters in the early Christian communities, and we who stand on their shoulders, would never be led astray by false teaching.

He urged them to always listen to their Bishops because they were the successors of the Apostles. He died a Martyrs death in Rome, devoured by two lions in one of the cruel demonstrations of Roman excess and animosity toward the true faith. Anticipating this event he wrote these inspired words:

A letter to the Romans by St Ignatius of Antioch "I am God's wheat and shall be ground by the teeth of wild animals. I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God's wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ's pure bread.

"Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God. No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire.

"The time for my birth is close at hand. Forgive me, my brothers. Do not stand in the way of my birth to real life; do not wish me stillborn. My desire is to belong to God. Do not, then, hand me back to the world. Do not try to tempt me with material things. Let me attain pure light. Only on my arrival there can I be fully a human being. Give me the privilege of imitating the passion of my God. If you have him in your heart, you will understand what I wish. You will sympathize with me because you will know what urges me on.

"The prince of this world is determined to lay hold of me and to undermine my will which is intent on God. Let none of you here help him; instead show yourselves on my side, which is also God's side. Do not talk about Jesus Christ as long as you love this world. Do not harbor envious thoughts. And supposing I should see you, if then I should beg you to intervene on my behalf, do not believe what I say.

"Believe instead what I am now writing to you. For though I am alive as I write to you - still - my real desire is to die. My love of this life has been crucified, and there is no yearning in me for any earthly thing. Rather within me is the living water which says deep inside me: "Come to the Father." I no longer take pleasure in perishable food or in the delights of this world. I want only God's bread, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, formed of the seed of David, and for drink I crave his blood, which is love that cannot perish.

"I am no longer willing to live a merely human life, and you can bring about my wish if you will. Please, then, do me this favor, so that you in turn may meet with equal kindness. Put briefly, this is my request: believe what I am saying to you. Jesus Christ himself will make it clear to you that I am saying the truth. Only truth can come from that mouth by which the Father has truly spoken.

"Pray for me that I may obtain my desire. I have not written to you as a mere man would, but as one who knows the mind of God. If I am condemned to suffer, I will take it that you wish me well. If my case is postponed, I can only think that you wish me harm."