St. Ignatius of Antioch

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Friday, 17 October 2014 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate together as we heard in the Scriptures being read this day, the love and mercy of our Lord and God, who had delivered us from the power of death, so that we may be freed from the bondage and slavery of sin which leads eventually to death. Through Christ and what He had done in this world in full obedience to the Lord, He had brought us safety and reassurance against the power of death.

That is because by His suffering and death, He willingly took upon Himself the scourge of death, and all the consequences of our sins, so that those who trust in Him and believe in the words of truth and the Good News He brought, may gain the fullness of salvation and new life just as He had promised to the people of God. Christ had broken the power of death and freed mankind from the tyranny of sin by the act of His ultimate love and obedience to God the Father.

As mentioned ll by Jesus, that we have nothing to fear from sin and death if we are faithful to the Lord through our devotion and faith in Jesus, the Lord and Messiah sent by the Father to be our beacon of hope in this darkened world. As long as we keep ourselves strongly attached and faithful to the teachings of God, we will be safe from all evils and difficulties related to sin and death. Yes, Satan will do all in his power to try and wrest us back from the Lord, and bring us back into damnation, but if we are vigilant, we will not easily fall again for his lies and tricks.

That was why Jesus warned the people to be vigilant and careful against the yeast of the Pharisees. What is this yeast of the Pharisees? It is namely the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the human soul and heart, which infect us all mankind, as the tools and leverages of Satan in trying to subvert us and turn us against the Lord our loving God and Father. It is pride, jealousy, hatred, lack of faith, and many other vulnerabilities that exist in our hearts.

The Pharisees were a group of social elites in the society of the people of God at the time, and they commanded great respect from the people and wielded great teaching authority in teaching the matters of the faith. They took great pride in their position and authority, and were jealous in guarding them against anyone they saw as threats and potential rivals to their power and authority, as well as prestige.

This is what brought them into direct conflict with the group of the Sadducees, the rational thinkers and the powerful nobilities in the society of the people of God, as the Pharisees acted as the extremely orthodox and zealous defenders of the laws of Moses, to the point that they pointed out the extremities in the application of those laws through their own actions, leading the people away from the true intention and meaning of those laws.

They violently rejected Christ, who they saw as a revolutionary preacher and a great threat to their teaching authority and influence. To this end, they always tried to disrupt His teachings and also to test Him wherever He went, asking many questions designed to trap Him, in which they failed, for the Lord knew all that were in their hearts and minds, and their evil desire to bring about His downfall.

This was why Jesus was so adamant in His warning to the people, that they need to guard themselves against the yeast of the Pharisees. Indeed, as I have mentioned, that through His own actions and act of supreme and ultimate love on the cross, Jesus had given us all new hope through our liberation from the tyranny of our sins and from the enslavement of evil, but this does not mean that we can just get this easily without effort.

In order for us to be saved, then in all of our actions we have to guard ourselves from the yeast of the Pharisees, that is hatred, jealousy, prejudice, greed and desire, violence, anger and wrath, pride and arrogance, and many other things which are indeed the main cause for all of us mankind in our committing of sins and evils. The many sins and evils of this world can be traced to these evils, the evils of our hearts, which we should indeed excise and remove from ourselves.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the successor of St. Peter who was the first Bishop of Antioch. He was a martyr of the faith, who was martyred in the defense of the Faith which he held so dearly. St. Ignatius of Antioch was a convert to the Faith in his youth, and he was also told to be among the children whom the Lord had called to His embrace as told in the Gospels.

St. Ignatius of Antioch succeeded St. Peter in the leadership of the faithful in the major city of Antioch, one of the first dioceses in the world, and the place where the faithful were first called by the appelation ‘Christianos’, which eventually became the name we are now known for, the Christians. St. Ignatius of Antioch led the faithful with love, and he devoted himself to them completely, leading them to live their faith truthfully and with zeal.

He wrote extensively, and in his many letters both to the other bishops and to his own faithful, he affirmed the many central teachings of the Faith, and urged all of his people and peers to adhere closely to the teachings of the Lord as revealed in the Good News the Apostles and disciples of Christ preached. And to the end, St. Ignatius of Antioch remained true to his faith, and even in suffering after he was arrested, he continued to attach himself strongly in faith to the Lord.

He suffered martyrdom in the Colosseum, being thrown to lions and other wild beasts, the fate which also awaited many other of his successors and contemporaries in faith, but indeed, he did not fear death nor he had any need to fear death. Why so? That is because he had been faithful in his life, and was completely devoted to the Lord, and in his righteousness, he was justified and made true in faith, and death no longer has any power over him and all the other faithful who kept their faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all also reaffirm our faith in God, following in the footsteps of St. Ignatius of Antioch and the other faithful saints and martyrs. Let us all not just have faith in mere words, but with real and true actions as well, so that our faith may be alive and living well, and so that we may be truly devoted and our Lord who sees our living and genuine faith, will justify us and bring us to His promised eternal life and reward, and free us forever from the threat of death. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 17 October 2014 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Luke 12 : 1-7

Meanwhile, such a numerous crowd had gathered that they crushed one another. Then Jesus spoke to His disciples in this way, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered that will not be uncovered, or hidden that will not be made known. Whatever you have said in darkness will be heard in daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places, will be proclaimed from housetops.”

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who put to death the body and, after that, can do no more. But I will tell you whom to fear : Fear the one who after killing you is able to throw you into hell. This one you must fear.”

“Do you not buy five sparrows for two pennies? Yet not one of them has been forgotten by God. Even the hairs of your head have been numbered. Do not be afraid! Are you less worthy in the eyes of God than many sparrows?”

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Friday, 17 October 2014 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 32 : 1-2, 4-5, 12-13

Rejoice in the Lord, you who are just, praise is fitting for the upright. Give thanks to Him on the harp and lyre, making melody and chanting praises.

For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.

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Friday, 17 October 2014 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Ephesians 1 : 11-14

By a decree of Him who disposes all things according to His own plan and decision, we, the Jews, have been chosen and called and we were awaiting the Messiah, for the praise of His glory.

You, on hearing the word of truth, the Gospel that saves you, have believed in Him. And, as promised, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit, the first pledge of what we shall receive, on the way to our deliverance as a people of God, for the praise of His glory.

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Thursday, 17 October 2013 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

Romans 3 : 21-30

But, now it has been revealed altogether apart from the Law, as it was already foretold in the Law and the Prophets : God makes us righteous by means of faith in Jesus Christ, and this is applied to all who believe, without distinction of persons.

Because all have sinned and all fall short of the Glory of God; and all are graciously forgiven and made righteous through the redemption effected in Christ Jesus.

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Thursday, 17 October 2013 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are reminded of God’s saving power, which He had made truly manifest, through the coming, the life, the ministry, and the death of Himself through Jesus crucified on the cross. That was truly the culmination of God’s long planned salvation for mankind, which He had promised to mankind even as they fell into sin, and even as they were enslaved by Satan through sin and death.

The Lord hates sin and all things evil, and yet at the same time, He loves all, particularly all of us, who are the greatest and most beloved of all His creations. And also especially so because we had fallen away from Him and were cast away from His presence because of our rebellion and our sinfulness, our disobedience. In fact, brethren, if we feel the loss of our Lord and desire to return back to

His loving embrace, even greater is the feeling He has for us, and the greater is the desire that He has to see us reunited completely with Him once again.

The Lord our God desires noone to be lost from Him forever through death. He desires that we do not fall into hell, but arise to meet Him in heaven. Yet, it is often we ourselves who spurned His love and rejected His forgiveness, preferring the false promises of Satan and the pleasures of the world, to the true and everlasting happiness with God in heaven.

That is precisely what the ancestors of Israel of the time of Jesus had done, those ancestors whose stories were told to us through the prophets of the Old Testament. These are the people who slaughtered God’s prophets and messengers, because they turned deaf ears to their warnings, advices, and heeding, preferring to remain in their state of sin, and continue in their life of debauchery.

That is why the Lord punished them and scattered them all over the nations, to be an example to all, as what would happen to those who stray from the path of righteousness and venture into the path of sin and evil. The Lord did this, however, not because He hates them, but in fact because He truly loves them, and yet, as a just and righteous Lord, He cannot just overlook their sins and stubbornness. He is just to all, even to those whom He loves.

These people did not have God in their hearts, and they sold themselves and their souls to the pagan gods of their neighbours, that the worship of the Lord was replaced with the worship of Baal, Asherah, and other pagan gods and goddesses. They loved not God but silver and gold, and all the pleasures this world could give.

That is why Jesus rebuked the chief priests, the scribes and teachers of the Law, and the Pharisees, because of their hypocrisy. Outwardly, they look pious and perfect, and they seemed to have obeyed the Lord’s commandments even to its smallest details. And yet, the fact is that, despite all of those appearances, their hearts do not have the Lord in them. The Lord’s words did not take strong root in them, because the faith they have is an eventual faith, depending on the Lord and His words, which they forgot after their liberation from sin.

They put their own vanity above anything else, and rebuked those whom they considered to be inferior to them. They sought the glory of men, instead of praising the glory of God. They are bad shepherds who do not love those who had been entrusted to them, and led them into darkness instead of into the light.

In this way, they are even more sinful and irresponsible than before. They who had blocked the path to salvation for many, and even tried to prevent the very Messiah, from completing His missions in this world. That is why Christ cursed them, both for their sins, for their lack of repentance, and for their apathy towards the suffering of the people of God.

Today, brethren, we celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, one of the first bishops of Antioch, a great early Christian cities, as the place where Jews and Gentiles lived together, and where the faithful lived with the Jews and the Gentiles, and great evangelisation works were done.

St. Ignatius of Antioch was a faithful servant of the Lord, who devoutly helped to spread the words of the Lord and the works of salvation, converting many to the cause of the Lord. He lived during a time of difficulties and persecutions, when the Roman Emperor at the time was obsessed with the idea that he was divine, and ordered all the people and subjects of the Empire, including Christians, to worship him as a living god.

Obviously, St. Ignatius of Antioch and the faithful refused to do so, because to them, there is only one and only God, that is the Lord our Father, who had come upon this world as Jesus Christ, His Son. This is the only God that both St. Ignatius during his time and we today profess as the only one we will worship, and this brought about a great wrath of the Emperor, who arrested St. Ignatius and many Christians, bringing them to Rome to be martyred in the Colosseum.

Despite being captured and knowing of his fate of martyrdom in painful death, St. Ignatius continued to care for the sheep entrusted to his care, sending letters and encouragements to the people. St. Ignatius was brought to Rome, the capital of the Empire, and was tortured and then thrown into the arena of the Colosseum, to be fed to the lions and the beasts. Despite all the sufferings, St. Ignatius remained faithful and encourage all the fellow Christians being tortured to look towards God and keep their faith strong, even in the face of death.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, with the inspiration of the life of St. Ignatius of Antioch, let us commit ourselves to God with all of our hearts, that we will not go astray from the path He had prepared for all of us. That we will, like St. Ignatius of Antioch, be brave and courageous in standing up for his faith in God and be fully dedicated to the service of the Lord, never fearing any man nor any powers of the world, with God foremost in our heart. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 17 October 2013 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

Luke 11 : 47-54

Jesus said, “A curse is on you, for you build monuments to the prophets your ancestors killed. So you approve and agree with what your ancestors did. Is it not so? They got rid of the prophets, and you build monuments to them!”

“For that reason the Wisdom of God also said : ‘I will send prophets and apostles and this people will kill and persecute some of them. But the present generation will have to answer for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, the people of this time will have to answer for them all.'”

“A curse is on you, teachers of the Law, for you have taken the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you prevented others from entering.”

As Jesus left that place, the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to harass Him, asking Him endless questions, setting traps to catch Him in something He might say.

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Thursday, 17 October 2013 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 129 : 1-2, 3-4b, 4c-6

Out of the depths I cry to You, o Lord, o Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears pay attention to the voice of my supplication.

If You should mark our evil, o Lord, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness.

For that You are revered. I waited for the Lord, my soul waits, and I put my hope in His word. My soul expects the Lord more than watchmen the dawn.