Readings – Rom. 4:1-8; Ps. 32:1-2, 5, 11; Lk. 12:1-7.
Some Notes on St. Ignatius of Antioch:
1. St. Ignatius referred to himself as Theophorus (“God-bearer”). He was born around the year 50 and died in Rome around 110. Apparently of Syrian origin and a convert from paganism, he was the 3rd Bishop of Antioch, Syria (now in Turkey), after St. Peter the 1st and Evodius the 2nd.
2. He was an ideal pastor. During the Domitian persecution of the Christians in Antioch, he was tireless in his efforts to inspire hope and strengthen the faith of his flock. He himself desired to be a martyr.
3. He is known almost entirely from the 7 Letters that he wrote during his trip to Rome, as a prisoner condemned to be executed for his beliefs. There is no record of his life prior to his arrest. Ignatius represented Christianity as it transitioned from its Jewish origins to its assimilation in the Greco-Roman world.
4. His arrest in Antioch occurred during the reign of Emperor Trajan (98-117). He was put in chains and, along with others, escorted by soldiers to Troas in northwestern Asia Minor for embarkation to Rome. All along his way, delegations of churches accompanied him. In Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey), he was warmly received by the local Christians and their Bishop, St. Polycarp, who was to become his beloved friend. Representatives of Ephesus, Magnesia and Tralles also met him.
5. After the delegations left Smyrna, he wrote letters to their communities, thanking them and offering guidelines for their lives as Christians. He also wrote to Rome, urging his fellow Christians not to prevent his martyrdom and also to entrust to them Syrian Christians who went there ahead of him. In Troas, he wrote letters to the congregations at Smyrna and Philadelphia.
6. He wrote a personal letter to Bishop Polycarp, asking him to write letters to other churches in his name. He collected Ignatius’s letters and sent them to the church in Philippi, as requested by the Philippians. His martyrdom in Rome was recorded by Polycarp’s disciple, St. Irenaeus, who died about 200-203.
7. Ignatius fought two groups: the Judaizers, who did not accept the authority of the New Testament and clung to such Jewish practices as observing the Sabbath; and the Docetists (from the Greek “dokein,” to seem), who held that the sufferings and the death of Christ were merely apparent and not real.
8. Against them, Ignatius firmly affirmed that the New Testament was the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He insisted upon the reality of Christ’s human nature. Ignatius believed that had not Christ died, his own sufferings and readiness to die for Christ would be meaningless. To be a perfect disciple of Christ means to imitate Christ in his Passion, to share in it, to be united with Christ in suffering.
9. Also against the Docetists, who did not believe that the Eucharist is the Flesh of Christ, he firmly affirmed the Real Presence in the Eucharist.
10. For Ignatius, the bishop represents to the Church the true bishop, Christ. “Wherever the Bishop is, there let the people be, for there is the Catholic Church.” Hence, union with the bishop in belief and worship means union with Christ. Those who break away from the bishop destroy this union.
He held deacons with great regard. If the bishop represents Christ as shepherd, deacons are images of Christ as “the servant of all.”
11. For the first time in Christian literature, Ignatius used the expression “catholic church” to mean the whole church that is one and the same wherever there is a Christian congregation. For him, the Church in Rome holds pre-eminence in the whole Christian “community of love” (“agape”).
12. Gospel, Lk. 12: 1-7 — Jesus says, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more” (v. 4.). “Do not be afraid.” In times of persecution, God assured protection for his followers (vv. 5-7). The life and death of St. Ignatius of Antioch exemplify the words of Jesus.
13. Prayer --- Almighty ever-living God, you adorn the sacred body of your Church with the confessions of holy Martyrs. Grant, we pray, that, just as the glorious passion of St. Ignatius of Antioch brought him eternal splendor, so it may be for us unending protection, through Christ our Lord. Amen.