10/16/2012 – St Ignatius of Antioch – Wednesday of the 28th week in ordinary time – Luke 11:42-48

       It is remarkable to me the saints that we celebrate this week.  They are a wonderful cross-section of the community of saints that have influenced our faith.  Monday we celebrated Teresa of Avila, a mystic and reformer and Doctor of the Church who lived in Spain in the 16^th century in the middle of the Protestant Reformation and Spanish Inquisition.  Tomorrow we celebrate Luke the Evangelist, how his Gospel and how his book of Acts of the Apostles are part of Sacred Scripture.  Friday we celebrate Jean de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues, two Jesuit priests who were martyred in 17^th century Canada while bringing the Gospel to the native people of that land.  Today we celebrate an important bishop of the early Church, St Ignatius of Antioch from Syria.  Ignatius was a protégé of St John the Evangelist who was chosen as Bishop of Antioch in middle of the First Century.  He was martyred during the prosecutions during the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan in the year 108.

         Jesus is harsh with the Pharisees because of the superficialities that they cling to in their lives of faith.  They lead others astray in the faith, not recognizing Jesus for who He is and concentrating on empty rituals.  The martyrs in the early Church were recognized for the sacrifices they made and for their willingness to give their lives for the faith, for the risks they undertook in passing down the faith to the people of their day and to future generations.  Ignatius wanted to stay away from the traps that ensnared the Pharisees, as evidenced by the following quote: “Please pray for me, that I may have both spiritual and physical strength to perform my duties; that I may not only speak the truth but become the truth; that I may not only be called a Christian, but also live like a Christian…. Christianity is not a matter of persuading people of particular ideas, but of inviting them to share in the greatness of Christ. So pray that I may never fall into the trap of impressing people with clever speech, but instead I may learn to speak with humility, desiring only to impress people with Christ himself.”

         May we thank the Lord for the examples of early Church fathers and mothers who passed down the faith to us.  May we always practice the one true faith, and not be trapped by empty rituals and superficialities.