Homily for Memorial of St. Callistus I

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Callistus I

Collect
Oct. 14, 2021
Rom 3: 21-30                                                
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Home, New Rochelle, N.Y.

The Collect for St. Callistus notes his devout attention “to Christ’s faithful departed” and “his witness to the faith,” and it alludes to “the slavery of corruption.”

Callistus was, in fact, a slave, and early in his career he was charged with some kind of financial irregularity—“corruption,” if you will.  Our only historical source for his life is the highly suspect writing of his ecclesiastical and theological opponent, who eventually became the martyr St. Hippolytus.  So we don’t really know the details that got Callistus into legal trouble.

But eventually he was freed from both his condition as a slave and the taint of corruption, became a deacon and advisor to Pope Zephyrinus, and was charged with care of one of the Christian cemeteries outside Rome’s walls—the one on the Via Appia that now bears his name.  Thus he’s the patron saint of cemetery workers.  Those cemeteries—the famous catacombs—have long since been disused and the bodies removed, but they remain places of veneration and tourism, as you know.  Since 1930 the Salesians have been proud caretakers and tour guides of the catacombs of St. Callistus.

As for Callistus himself, he succeeded Zephyrinus as Pope in 219, and he bore witness to the faith possibly by martyrdom around 222—it’s uncertain—but certainly by his orthodox teaching, his equal treatment of all classes of people within the Church, and especially by his merciful treatment of repentant sinners—which was the main point of contention between him and Hippolytus, as well as the great African theologian Tertullian.

Stressing God’s mercy puts into practice Paul’s theoretical teaching that “the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law” (Rom 3:21).  All human beings are sinners “deprived of the glory of God” (3:23), even the “righteous” like Hippolytus, Tertullian, and the critics of Pope Francis, and all of us “are justified freely by God’s grace thru redemption in Christ Jesus” (3:24) when we put our faith in him.

St. Callistus realized that Baptism doesn’t render us immediately perfect; we’re still liable to sin, even the grave sins that horrified Hippolytus and Tertullian.  So he held that divine grace may still restore someone to righteousness thru faith in Christ.  There is our hope—for ourselves and for the many people for whom we pray.