Homily for the
Memorial of
St. Ignatius of
Antioch
Oct. 17, 2024
Collect
Christian Brothers, St.
Joseph’s Residence, N.R.
“The
glorious passion of St. Ignatius of Antioch … brought him eternal splendor” (Collect).
The splendor that Christ bestowed upon Ignatius follows from his total self-giving to Christ. Why he had to be transported to Rome instead of being executed in Antioch, I don’t know. But being in Rome meant his faith received greater exposure, greater splendor.
Ignatius
feared that some Christians in the capital might use their influence to obtain
his release. He pleaded with them not to
do so: “show me no untimely kindness,”
he wrote. He saw his passage to God thru
his coming martyrdom in the arena. He
saw that by being devoured by wild beasts he would become Christ’s pure bread;
he was wheat to be ground by their teeth.
He asked Roman believers, “Pray to Christ for me that the animals will
be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.”[1]
We
also are Christ’s wheat being ground into fine flour for pure bread—not by
lions or tigers but by daily life. Have
you ever thought of your life as a grind?
In
days past, lesson plans, papers to be graded, department meetings, and parent
conferences were a grind. Now we may be
ground down by pain, depression, people who complain, someone who tells the
same stories over and over, thoughts of mortality, or guilt for our sins.
Ignatius
embraced his beasts, so to say. May his
example and his prayers help us to embrace our daily lives and offer them as
sacrifices to Christ.
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