Homily for Commemoration of St. Polycarp

Homily for the Commemoration 
of St. Polycarp

Feb. 23, 2024
Collect
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

We prayed in the collect that we might share in the chalice of Christ with St. Polycarp.  That echoes Jesus’ question to his apostles James and John about their capacity to drink of his cup when they’d come looking for the highest places at his side (Mark 10:38).  We know what cup Jesus meant:  the one he pleaded with his Father in Gethsemane to take away from him (Mark 14:36).

Martyrdom of St. Polycarp
(Foxe's Book of Martyrs)

No one’s eager to drink that cup.  I don’t imagine that Polycarp, the venerable, longtime bishop of Smyrna was, when he was arrested during an anti-Christian riot.  He was about 86 years old, had been a disciple of that same John the Apostle, and had as his disciple the great St. Irenaeus of Lyons.  He had corresponded with Ignatius of Antioch, written supportive letters to the Church at Philippi and to others, and was revered by his flock.

Yet, offered the opportunity to renounce Christ and put aside the cup—to take, instead, the path condemned today by Ezekiel, the path of the virtuous man who goes off the path into sin (18:24)—Polycarp refused to turn aside.

Instead, according to the eyewitness record of his martyrdom (LOH 2:1695), he blessed God for finding him worthy of sharing the cup of Christ and joining the company of martyrs—“the white-robed army of martyrs,” the Te Deum calls it.  Perhaps at 86 he thought that glorious opportunity had passed him by.  He was willing even to bear witness to Christ by being burned alive.  Miraculously spared the flames, he was executed by the sword, sharing the Lord’s cup in the same way as James the Apostle (Acts 12:2).

Millions of our fellow Christians are compelled to drink Christ’s cup every year.  Those who track such matters state that over 300,000,000 Christians live in places with very high levels of persecution—countries like Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and China, among many others.  We must be mindful of them and pray for them.

While we aren’t likely to suffer so for Christ, he still holds out his cup to us daily in the opportunities we have to deny ourselves and serve our brothers and sisters, and to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, as St. Paul says (Rom 12:1), if only by offering to Christ our unavoidable pains of body and heart and the stresses of our apostolates.