Today, we commemorate two martyrs from the Early Church from the third century: Cyprian and Cornelius. Both of them have very interesting stories. Cyprian spent most of his adult life as a professor of rhetoric in the city of Carthage. He was not baptized until the age of 45, but he later became the Bishop of Carthage in the year 248. Under the persecutions of the Roman Emperor Decius, many priests and bishops were martyred. Cyprian went into hiding, which did not go unnoticed by Church officials in Rome. Cyprian’s writings emphasized unity and solidarity for believers in Christ, unified under the leadership of the Bishops and the Pope, a message that still rings true in our modern world today. Cyprian was martyred in another wave of persecutions under the Emperor Valerian in 257. Cornelius was Pope at the time that Cyprian was writing about unity and solidarity under the leadership of the papacy. Many who had denied the faith during the persecutions wanted to return to the faith, which was a big issue in the early Church. Cornelius called for forgiveness, mercy, and moderation. Cornelius himself was sent into exile under the persecutions of the Emperor Gallus, where he died a martyr. Perhaps as we hear more and more about persecutions against Christians in our world today, we can identity closely with martyrs like Cornelius and Cyprian. May we find strength and courage in our faith from these examples from the Early Church.
We continue to hear from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. In that letter, St Paul describes the different gifts that believers receive from the Holy Spirit. Today, in a famous passage that we often hear at weddings, St Paul talks about love. All the gifts of the Holy Spirit are special gifts from God, but those gifts are nothing if we do not have the gift of love. Love is one of the most evident signs that Christ’s Spirit is truly present in the community and in its members. The love St Paul talks about here is agape love, the love of reaching out to a person with concern for his well-being. Agape love reaches out in unconditional compassion and caring. It does not demand or expect love in return. St Paul asserts that love goes beyond everything else, because love is a part of God’s nature. It is not just something that God himself does, for God himself is love.Gifts like prophecy and knowledge are important, but they too will pass away. Love is eternal. God calls us to faith, hope, and love. But according to St Paul, the greatest of these is love.
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