St Peter and St John heal a crippled man in the temple
The First Reading comes today from Chapter 4 of the Acts of the Apostles. What happened just before this was that St. Peter and St. John both had passed a cripled man who had begged them for some money, instead Peter shared his faith in Christ and the man was healed. Peter and John went on to share with the crowd that was gathering that it was in the name of Jesus Christ that this man had been healed and so he and John were thrown into prison. In today’s reading we hear of his testimony before the Sanhedrin - the ruling council.
Peter and John installed Ignatius of Antioch and his friend Polycarp
St. Peter and St. John installed St. Ignatius as the Bishop of Antioch. St. Polycarp was a close friend of St. Ignatius. St. Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna which is a town in Western Turkey. Both Ignatius and Polycarp were disciples of St. John - who installed Polycarp as Bishop of Smyrna. St. Irenaeus (a disciple of St. Polycarp) tells us that St. Polycarp was a disciple of St. John.
“I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
One of the characteristics of a Good Shepherd is that he brings peace to the sheep. Without a shepherd the sheep are anxious and skittish. With him they are at peace and unified - because they know his voice and his presence.
How well do you know the Good Shepherd?
One of the side-effects of knowing the Good Shepherd is that He takes away worry and anxiety from our lives. We do not worry and we are not anxious because we are able to trust in the providence of God.
Think back on your life this past week - what are you worrying about?
Divorce / Marriage / Relationship?
Work / Finding Employment?
Sickness / Chronic Problem?
A Test or problem at School?
To know Christ - to know the Father means that we understand that everything happens according to God’s will - so when we are able to listen to the Shepherd - especially in the disasters of our lives then we can see that God has a hand in everything.
The capture of St. Polycarp
When St. Polycarp was 86 years old, the Proconsul Irenarch Herod gave an order that any Atheists (that is those who denied that Caesar was God) be rounded up and forced to take an oath that Caesar was God. Polycarp heard that they were looking for him so he started moving from house to house and hiding to stay alive. Eventually, some horsemen found him in a farm outside of Smyrna - and when caught Polycarp, he first asked that they be given food and drink to be refreshed and then asked them to let him pray for an hour before taking him prisoner.
How often do we turn to prayer when we are caught in a moment of Crisis?
How often do we turn to prayer to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd to know the voice of the one who loves us - to ask Him what His will is?
Peter and John - A night in Jail and in Prayer
Peter and John turned to prayer and relied on the prayer, and as the first reading begins today they are on trial. St. Luke tells us that Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak about what God was doing through them - because Jesus had laid down his life and taken it up again.
Like Peter and John - St. Polycarp was called to witness
When the Proconsul Irenarch Herod endeavored to persuade him, saying, “What harm is there in saying, Lord Cæsar, and in sacrificing, with the other ceremonies observed on such occasions, and so make sure of safety? Swear by the fortune of Cæsar; repent, and say, Away with the Atheists and I will set you free! Reproach Christ.”
Polycarp replied - “Eighty Six years have I served Christ, and He never did me any injury: How then can I blaspheme my King and My savior?” Since you think I should swear by the fortune of Caesar, and pretend not to know who and what I am, hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian.
Ask for the grace to be a witness this week
I want to invite you in your prayer life this week to ask the Lord to make clear to you when you are being called to witness to the love of God that is made so clear at Easter time. When you pray in the morning lay your plans before the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to make clear to you when and where you are called to give witness to Christ.
The world today asks us to swear by fortunes like Caesar
Just as in the time of St. Polycarp, the world today calls us to depend on things that are not God, and then ridicules us for being men and women of faith. Our culture has made a straw puppet out of people of faith as unreasonable, ignorant and superstitious. Nothing can be further from the truth -
To know Christ is to know the truth,
To know Christ is to live an abundant life.
To know Christ is to know the blessings that he showers on us, and to be willing to publicly give Him credit for the grace He has given to us.
Martyr is the Greek word for Witness
Irenarch Herod then threatened to throw Polycarp to wild beasts - Polycarp responded “Call them then, for we are not accustomed to repent of what is good in order to adopt that which is evil; and it is well for me to be changed from what is evil to what is righteous.”
When that did not work Irenarch threatened him with fire but Polycarp was unfazed. St. Polycarp was burned at the stake and pierced with a spear in the stadium in Smyrna for refusing to burn incense to the Roman emperor. As he died he said “I bless you, Father, for judging me worthy of this hour, so that in the company of the martyrs I may share in the cup of Christ.”
Polycarp grew up listening to the preaching of St. John the Apostle - who wrote the 2nd reading today. St. John said… “Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.”
Polycarp let the words of St. John permeate his very being - it was why he said to the proconsul - “Since you think I should swear by the fortune of Caesar, and pretend not to know who and what I am, hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian.” Polycarp understood that his baptism as a Christian was the foundation of his life and he would not trade it for anything. He spent his entire life seeking to become more completely a child of God - he wanted to be a saint.
True faith is rooted in our relationship with Christ
That is what will happen to us if we understand our vocation as a Christian seriously - it is not something that happened to us when we were babies it is meant to be a way of life - that we have a relationship with God, with the Good Shepherd that is so deep and so profound that it permeates our entire lives and we begin to take on the image of Christ in our lives. As we grow in holiness our responses become more and more infused with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
“Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
St. John calls us to become saints
The more we open our hearts to the grace of God, the more we listen to the voice of the Lord, the more we begin to imitate the Good Shepherd in our lives the more we know and understand His will, and the more we are able to cooperate with it.
Saints subordinate their will to Gods
Ultimately this means that we surrender our will to the will of God - because in that way we imitate the son-ship of Christ - who reminds us in the Gospel - This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.
Surrender is an active cooperation with the Holy Spirit
Surrender to God’s will is not a fatalistic abandonment to the fate of the world, but an active cooperation with the love of God working in our lives. It takes work - a life of prayer and a life of conversion. That surrender to God transforms us into the image of Christ - in the same way that Polycarp was transformed - he imitated Christ in a unique way that only St. Polycarp could.
Christ invites us to imitate Him this week
Christ invites you and I to imitate Him this week - each of us in a unique way that only we can do.
St. Polycarp - Pray for Us.
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