It is remarkable to me the saints that we celebrate in the month of October, especially during this week. They are a wonderful cross-section of the community of saints that have influenced our faith. Wednesday we celebrated Teresa of Avila, a mystic and reformer and Doctor of the Church who lived in Spain in the 16th century in the middle of the Protestant Reformation and Spanish Inquisition. Tomorrow we celebrate Luke the Evangelist and manner in which his Gospel and his book of Acts of the Apostles are part of Sacred Scripture. Sunday is the feast day of Jean de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues, and their companions, a group of Jesuit priests who were martyred in 17th century Canada while bringing the Gospel to the native people of that land. Today we celebrate an important bishop of the early Church, St Ignatius of Antioch from Syria. Ignatius was a protégé of St John the Evangelist who was chosen as Bishop of Antioch in middle of the First Century. He was martyred during the prosecutions during the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan in the year 108.
In our Gospel today, after rebuking the Pharisees, Jesus turns to his disciples, issuing a stern warning, telling them that they should not be led astray by the Pharisees, who live by double standards. The Pharisees are concerned with the outward appearance of being holy, but they neglect their inner spiritual lives and they judge others harshly by these same outward standards. The Pharisees may look holy through their outward practices and their elegant robes, but the appearance of things can be deceiving according to Jesus. The disciples may have been confused by these comments; they had not seen the Pharisees for who they really were.
Ignatius was well-known by the purity of his faith and the example that he showed the people of his day. He stands in great contrast to the Pharisees of his day. Here is a quote from him, showing his humility and honesty: “Please pray for me, that I may have both spiritual and physical strength to perform my duties; that I may not only speak the truth but become the truth; that I may not only be called a Christian, but also live like a Christian…. Christianity is not a matter of persuading people of particular ideas, but of inviting them to share in the greatness of Christ. So pray that I may never fall into the trap of impressing people with clever speech, but instead I may learn to speak with humility, desiring only to impress people with Christ himself.”
May we thank the Lord for the examples of St Ignatius of Antioch and the other early Church fathers and mothers who passed down the faith to us. May we always practice the one true faith, and not be trapped by empty rituals and superficialities.
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