Imagine with me for a second that we are in North Korea. Catholicism is illegal. We are forced to celebrate Mass in secret because to do so publicly would put all of us at grave risk. So we are gathered with the bishop for a secret Mass. At the end of the liturgy, a couple of policemen barge into the room and drag the bishop away. You know that there is a chance he might be sentenced either to prison or to death. What would you do? Would you beg the officers to let him go? Would you take the risk of advocating for him before the court? Would you write an anonymous letter to the judge to beg for clemency?
Now imagine that from his jail cell the bishop writes these words to you:
I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. 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. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.
No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire.
The time for my birth is close at hand. Forgive me, my brothers. Do not stand in the way of my birth to real life; do not wish me stillborn. My desire is to belong to God. Do not, then, hand me back to the world. Do not try to tempt me with material things. Let me attain pure light. Only on my arrival there can I be fully a human being. Give me the privilege of imitating the passion of my God. If you have him in your heart, you will understand what I wish. You will sympathize with me because you will know what urges me on.
Impressive words, right? You might even look at them and be a little worried about the bishop. But his reminder about God’s grace urging him from within are the decisive words. They remind all of us that he is not suicidal, but rather is confident in the Lord’s protection, should he be called to martyrdom for Jesus’ sake. I pray that the Lord would inspire such courage in me if I found myself in that situation. Those words were actually penned by St. Ignatius of Antioch, an early bishop and martyr of the Church.
We recently talked about St. Ignatius in our Thursday Church History course and I was once again blown away by his example of having a heart set on Heaven and aflame with love for Jesus. St. Ignatius was a disciple of the Apostle John. He wrote the letter that I just quoted to the Churches in Rome around the year 107. Just a little over sixty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, there was already a visible structure to the Church with bishops, priests, deacons and lay people. These early Christians faced a hostile culture which often found glee in blaming the Christians for problems, persecuting and even killing them. St. Ignatius, the bishop of the Church in Antioch, was arrested and eventually martyred under the persecutions inflicted by the emperor Trajan, going bravely to his death by the jaws of wild beasts in Rome.
We are blessed to live in a part of the world where we aren’t directly persecuted for practicing our faith, but there are certainly still many ways in which living our faith entails suffering, ridicule and even sometimes imprisonment. We are called by Jesus to have steadfast hearts in following Him, realizing that this might lead to persecution, imprisonment, and even sometimes death. What is it that has fired the hearts of Christians down through the ages to live such a risky faith? Listen again to those powerful words of St. Ignatius: “He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire.”
Brothers and sisters, Jesus invites us to that kind of faith, a faith which burns in our hearts, a faith which leads us to desire Jesus above all else and prefer nothing to Him.
This burning desire for union with Jesus is the core of what He teaches us this Sunday in the Beatitudes. These powerful words of Jesus have guided the Church for almost two thousand years, showing countless people the way to live a life which is truly free by being rooted and founded in Christ and not ruled by the passing things of this life. That first statement of Jesus should constantly challenge us: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” This poverty which Jesus calls blessed is poverty of spirit, having a heart which is detached from all passing things so that it can find its good in the one lasting thing: Jesus. At the end of our time here on earth, the only thing which will remain is how well we’ve loved Jesus and our neighbor. Jesus wants to center our hearts on that reality: His everlasting Kingdom where love will be everything. That’s why Jesus calls us blessed when we’re hungry, weeping, and persecuted. He’s saying that there is more to life than food, emotional highs and lows, and our reputation.
Jesus points us to the level of the heart where there is hunger to love and be loved, where we mourn and weep for our sins, where we endure persecution because our hearts are set on the One whose judgement is true. As Christians, Jesus invites us to a life of deep love, love which penetrates our hearts and sets them aflame so that no mere earthly things can distract them. He calls us to that fire of love which will burn to be taken up into the love of God at the end of this life and thus find the fullness of life.
St. Paul warns us in the second reading: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.” We hope in something and in Someone more as Christians. We endure the sufferings of this life and praise God in its joys because our hearts are set on the Goal, not the journey. We hope for a share in what the Apostles and others saw on the day of Jesus’ resurrection: that glorious new life where love has conquered death. The hope for that life burned in the heart of St. Ignatius of Antioch.
The Lord invites you to let Him stoke your heart into a burning fire. Do you make time for Jesus every day so that He can draw you to your goal of everlasting love with Him? How is He inviting you deeper today? I pray that through the intercession of St. Ignatius of Antioch, and all those who have gone before us with hearts ablaze, that we would all be drawn deeper into the love of Jesus above all else.
+ Heavenly Father, thank you for the example of faith, hope and love that you give us in St. Ignatius and all the saints. Lord Jesus, help our hearts to be more set on you through the example of St. Ignatius and all the saints. Holy Spirit, stir into flame Your gifts in our hearts so that we can strive together for Heaven and bring others along with us. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +