October
17th, Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch
On December 20th, in
the Roman Martyrology, we read: “At Rome, the passion of St. Ignatius, Bishop
and Martyr; he was the third after St. Peter the Apostle to rule the Church of
Antioch, and in the persecution of Trajan was condemned to the beasts and sent
to Rome in fetters. There he was afflicted and tortured by the most cruel
torments in the very presence of the Senate. Finally he was cast to the lions
and, ground by their teeth, became a sacrifice for Christ.”
St. Ignatius of Antioch has rightly been
called the “Doctor of Unity” – both insofar as he brilliantly set forth the
doctrine of the unity of the person of Christ in two natures, and as he
defended the unity of the Christian people within the hierarchy of the Church.
As the unity of the single person of Christ cannot be properly defended without
admitting the diversity of his two natures, so too (we say by analogy) the
unity of the Church cannot be maintained without the diversity of hierarchical
vocations within the mystical body.
Today, in honor of our saintly Bishop
and Martyr, we consider the role of the bishops of the Church – specifically,
we do well to call to mind the special relation between the priests and the
bishops. [This is particularly important in our days, when many so-called “conservative”
priests rebel against the authority of their bishops.]
