Homily for Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Ignatius of Antioch

October 17, 2018

Collect
Our Lady of Lourdes, Bethesda, Md.

Our 1st reading ended with these words from St. Paul:  “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit” (Gal 5:25).

The saint whom we honor today lived those words.  The Collect spoke of “the confessions of holy martyrs.”  Confessions here doesn’t mean the sacrament of Reconciliation but “testimony” or “praise of God.”  In the case of the martyrs—like Ignatius of Antioch—it’s the public testimony of their love of God even to the point of giving up their lives rather than deny Jesus Christ or worship an idol or the Roman State.

The Collect refers specifically to “the glorious passion of St. Ignatius,” i.e., his suffering and death, which “brought him eternal splendor,” i.e., a share in the eternal glory of the risen Lord Jesus—and even a commemoration among the saints named in the 1st Eucharistic Prayer.

Ignatius gives a twofold public testimony to Christ, thru his writings and thru his martyrdom.  He is one of those early Christian authors whom we call Fathers of the Church because of the doctrine and inspiration they put into writing—one of the very 1st of those Fathers, and likely one who knew personally some of the apostles.  He was bishop of Antioch, the ancient Syrian city often mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, perhaps the most important city in the Empire after Rome.  (It’s now located in southernmost Turkey.)  He was arrested as a Christian leader and transported to Rome for trial and execution by being thrown to wild beasts in the Coliseum in 107 A.D.

On his way to Rome, his ship made port calls along the coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and he was able to visit with the bishops and other faithful of the ancient churches there such as Ephesus and Smyrna, and subsequently he penned letters to them, 6 of which have survived, plus one that he wrote to the Christians of Rome in advance of his arrival.  In them he expresses his longing to be completely united with Jesus Christ thru his death, echoing those words of St. Paul that I cited.  He calls himself wheat that’s waiting to be ground by the teeth of the beasts “so that I may become Christ’s pure bread”—words that will be quoted in the Communion Antiphon.  He continues, “I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth.”  He pleads with the Christians of Rome “not to stand in the way of my birth to real life….  My desire is to belong to God.  Only [so] can I be fully a human being.”

Thus his desire for a complete union with God thru Jesus Christ.  Union or unity is the other main topic of his letters.  Bishops must maintain a union with God the Father and with Christ his Son thru the sound doctrine they teach, most particularly that the Son truly took on our human flesh, died, and rose in that flesh for our salvation.  Priests, deacons, and faithful must maintain union with the bishop in what he teaches and in public worship.  There’s only one Church of Christ—Ignatius is the 1st author to call it the Catholic Church, the universal Church.  There’s one faith handed on from Christ, and one altar around which the local Church worships with its bishop.

Our Collect prayed that “the glorious passion of St. Ignatius of Antioch, which we celebrate today … may be for us unending protection.”  His passion for Christ in life and in death is a message for us:  for adherence to true doctrine in Christ’s Catholic Church, for unity around our bishop (which doesn’t mean ignoring a bishop’s failings), for regular, faithful worship in communion with our bishop (no longer possible in a regular physical presence in our large dioceses), and finally, for putting Christ in the 1st place in our lives, above any earthly passions and desires.