31st Week in Ordinary Time 2024 - Friday - Imitators of the holy ones or Enemies of the Cross

Throughout the Scriptures, the Word of God helps us to understand the difference between good and bad. In the first pages of Scripture, we see God imposing order over the forces of chaos, separating light from darkness. In the Garden, Adam and Eve have a choice between trust and disobedience. Deuteronomy speaks of the way of life and the way of death. Jesus speaks of two gates, one that leads to destruction, the other that leads to life. Jesus teaches how at the Judgement God will separate the sheep from the goats. 

In today’s passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, the Apostle differentiates between two types of people: Brothers and Sisters in Christ who Imitate Paul's Example, and the Enemies of the Cross of Christ.

The enemies of the Cross live in ways that are contrary to the message and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Their lifestyle negates the principles of self-denial and sacrificial love that the cross represents. They are driven by earthly appetites and sensual desires. Their focus is entirely on worldly matters—material possessions, status, and temporal pleasures. And Paul explains, their end is destruction. 

The Brothers and Sisters of Christ, on the other hand, align their lives with the teachings and example of Christ. They are not focused soley on the world, because they believe their ultimate citizenship is in heaven, and this earthly life isn’t simply for satisfying bodily urges and appetites, but preparing for eternity. 

Paul urges the brothers and sisters in Christ to remain steadfast in their faith because we live in the midst of a lot of bad examples who engaging in behaviors contrary to Christ’s teaching, promoting immorality, selfishness, and rebellion against God's commands. 

So Paul says, look to the holy ones in order become not earthly minded, but heavenly minded, focusing on eternal truths, spiritual growth, and the coming of Christ.

At the beginning of the month of November, we celebrated the feast of the Saints, those holy ones whose examples we need to keep every in focus. These citizens of heaven teach us how to live with God’s kingdom as our primary allegiance rather than allegiance to worldly systems and values---those opposing the message of the Gospel.

Paul’s exhortation encourages us to examine our lives to ensure that we are not conforming ourselves to this age, as he writes to the Romans, but we are seeking the renewal of our minds and hearts and souls to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness. 

May the Holy Spirit help us to imitate the saints in following Jesus Christ for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Trusting in God's mercy and guided by His Word, let us bring our prayers before Him, seeking the grace to live as faithful disciples.

For the Church: That all members may imitate the example of Christ and the saints, standing firm in faith and resisting the allure of worldly values.

For our leaders: That those in positions of authority may promote justice and moral integrity, helping to build a truly righteous society.

For our community: That we may support one another and set good example for each other in seeking the renewal of our minds and hearts, focusing on eternal truths over temporal pleasures.

For the youth: That they may be inspired by the lives of the saints to choose the path of righteousness and self-denial.

For those facing heavy crosses of illness, loneliness, or hardship, that they may experience God's sustaining presence and our compassionate care.

We pray in a special way during this Month of November for all of the faithful departed; for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom, that they may experience the fullness of God's grace in eternal life. 

Heavenly Father, hear the prayers of Your people. Grant us the grace to turn away from earthly distractions and to embrace the path that leads to eternal life. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

October 15-16, 2022 (Sunday Masses) - Patronal Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch

 On this feast of our parish Patron, the bishop and martyr St. Ignatius of Antioch, our first reading and Gospel are taken not from the normal Sunday lectionary readings, but from the readings proper to the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch. And these readings are chosen by the Church because they have some relevance to the life and lessons of St. Ignatius. And so, I’d like to reflect on these readings a bit.

“Be imitators of me” says St. Paul. A command that certainly sounds a bit strange to our modern ears, but in the ancient Greco-Roman world, it was a common and acceptable practice for teachers to point to themselves as examples. And if anyone could say this, it was Paul, for he had so taken the Gospel to heart, had so centered his life on Christ. Christianity wasn't just part of his life; Christianity was his life. And, remember, Paul wasn’t just giving God lip service: he is writing this letter from prison. We do well to imitate Paul in taking the Gospel so seriously that the world wants to lock us up for it. And like Paul to seek such a seek to imitate Jesus Christ to such a degree that our identity and personality is merged with His so much so that people detect and see Christ in us. 

Paul then says, don’t just imitate me but “observe those who conduct themselves according to this model.” Paul humbly recognizes that he is not the only model, and instructs all Christians to look to the sains.

Protestants are sometimes perturbed, as they often are by us Catholics, because of our great devotion to studying the lives of the saints. Why go to the saints, they say, when you can just go to Jesus. But we do so because the Word of God, Sacred Scripture, tells us to. “Observe those who conduct themselves according to this model”. 

From the earliest centuries, Christians have looked to the saints—to learn from them and also simply to glorify God who shines his light through them. God transforms ordinary people, like you and me, to become powerful instruments of His goodness. And we’re to study them; study their prayer lives, study how they put the gifts of the Spirit into use; how they use their time, how they turn away from the world in order to turn to Christ.

But, remember, the saints weren’t just born super Christians. Sometimes we are tempted to think, “Oh, I’m too insignificant to do much for God”, “I don’t have what it takes to convert non-believers, I can barely balance my checkbook and remain patient with my kids”. But, over and over throughout history, God chooses the weak and insignificant to accomplish mighty deeds. 

With so many of the saints, we know nothing about where they were born, who their parents were, what their education looked like. And that’s fitting because most of them were nobodies. No one was chronicling their lives because they were unimportant in the eyes of the world. And it’s not until maybe even their final days do we have the details of their heroic works of charity or martyrdoms or words of preaching.

Such is the case for our patron, St. Ignatius of Antioch. We don’t really know where he was born. We don’t know the names of his parents or if he had siblings. There is a legend that he was the young boy who Jesus called over to sit on his lap in the Gospels, but that is just a legend. He may or may not have been Jewish prior to his conversion to Christ. We just don’t know these details…he kind of emerges out of the mist of history when he is ordained a bishop by St. John the Apostle in the year 66. 

We can surmise that Ignatius was pretty trustworthy—as he was placed by one of the original twelve apostles as bishop of Antioch—which was the largest city in the empire outside of Rome. Antioch had a population of a million people two thousand years ago—that’s three times the size of modern day Cleveland.  Ignatius not only trustworthy, but he was deeply orthodox—meaning—he took very seriously a bishop’s duty to teach the Gospel without error--the duty of “guarding the deposit of faith—as St. Paul describes it to the bishop St. Timothy. 

Like St. Paul, bishop Ignatius was arrested; he was marched to his death in Rome. But while he made his death march to Rome, Ignatius, like Paul, wrote letters exhorting and instructing the Church. Seven of those letters have survived the centuries. We have Ignatius’ letter to the Ephesians and Romans, to whom Paul also wrote, and also Ignatius’ letters to the Magnesians, Trallians Philadelphians and Smyrnaeans. And he wrote a letter to his brother bishop St. Polycarp, who was also consecrated bishop by St. John the Apostle. In fact, both Ignatius and Polycarp are depicted together in the stained glass window in the east nave, depicted at the feet of the Apostle John. Under that window, Ignatius is depicted in his pastoral care for his flock at Antioch, his arrest by the emperor, and finally, his martyrdom.

In his letter to the Romans, Ignatius writes: “I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God…Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ’s pure bread.”

And that is why, dear brethren, we hear the Gospel today--St John’s Gospel, of Our Lord’s teaching about the grain of wheat: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” St. Ignatius, took this teaching to heart, imparted to him by the Apostle who ordained him. 

St. Ignatius died a martyrs death, devoured by lions in the Roman coliseum. But Ignatius, like Paul, believed that imprisonment and martyrdom is not a failure for a Christian, but a victory. Martyrdom is the ultimate witness. The martyrs embrace suffering and death for Christ, and their witness helps us believe with greater faith that the Gospel is the Good News. Witnessing that Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again, is more important than anything else. 

“Come fire and cross, gashes and rending, breaking of bones and mangling of limbs, the shattering in pieces of my whole body; come all the wicked torments of the Devil upon me,” writes Ignatius, “if I may but attain unto Jesus Christ.”

If the grain of wheat dies it produces much fruit. Well, St. Ignatius of Antioch, and the saints and martyrs, continue to bear fruit in our lives when we allow ourselves to become like the grain of wheat: imitate him in courageously putting to death worldly pleasures in order to attain Christian perfection, embracing hardship and suffering to help others know and love Jesus.

Upon the small table in the middle of the sanctuary, is a relic of St. Ignatius of Antioch, a piece of bone. And I invite you to direct your prayers to St. Ignatius today, asking him to help you to love Jesus today, to obtain blessings for your family and for this parish, to assist you in bearing witness, despite all of your weaknesses, to become wheat for Christ—for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

31st Week in OT 2020 - Friday - Imitate the holy ones

Paul’s exhortation might sound strange to our ears. “Be imitators of me”, he says. We are certainly reluctant to present ourselves as moral or religious examples for others. But in the ancient Greco-Roman world it was a common and acceptable practice for teachers to point to themselves as examples.

And really, it is human nature, to look for examples to imitate; and teachers know that their role inevitably makes them examples…for better or for worse.

Moreover, our own culture holds up examples all the time: a recovered alcoholic will tell their story to encourage other alcoholics toward sobriety. Exercise enthusiasts will speak of the new energy they’ve gained from a particular exercise program in order to prompt their sluggish friends to join a gym. Or upon finding a successful diet, we’re very quick to tell others about it.

Christians, like Paul, need to set good example for others and need to be enthusiastic about telling people about the difference believing in Christ means in our life. We don’t just tell people they need to go to Church, but why they need to go to Church, what we get out of going to Church. We don’t just tell people they need to pray the rosary, but why they should pray the rosary, what we’ve personally gotten out of praying the rosary. Why should we read the Bible? Because there are many misconceptions floating around in our culture about the Bible, and the Bible gives us deep insight into the mystery of God and how to conduct one’s life with wisdom and how to bear the fruits of the Spirit!

Having reminded the Philippian Christians whom they should take as their models, Paul warns them of those they should not imitate—do not imitate those who “conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ.” Our culture holds up some pretty vile people as role models—people who have made earthly fame, earthly power, earthly riches, the god of their lives. And we must be very careful, that we are not envying these people, or allowing our minds to become occupied with earthly things as they are. 

Because in the end, and Paul is very clear about this, earthly life will end in one of two ways: salvation or damnation. If we have spent our life pursuing earthly things, it will end in destruction. But modeling our lives after the saints, spending our lives seeking to be models of faith for others, we show that our eternal citizenship is in heaven. 

May we repent of all earthly thinking and earthly pursuit, and recommit to imitating the holy ones, conforming ourselves to Christ in this life, that we may be conformed to him forever in heaven, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all Christians may grow in their imitation of the saints. Let us pray to the Lord.

That our young people may be blessed to be raised in faith filled homes, that they may be protected from the evils of our culture, and be granted a firm knowledge of their vocation to holiness. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our nation, beset with such vast corruption, might look to the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the life that only he can offer. Let us pray to the Lord. 

That Christ the Good Shepherd will draw close to all who suffer, the sick, the needy, victims of injustice, and the dying.

We pray in a special way during this month of November for all the faithful departed, all deceased members of St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish, our deceased family members and friends, deceased clergy and religious, those who fought and died for our freedom and for X. for whom this mass is offered.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.