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Office Of Readings | Week 17, Saturday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Letter Of Saint Ignatius Of Antioch To Polycarp | Avoid Evil Practices | Love Jesus Christ | The Christian Is Not His Own, His Time Belongs To God
‘The honour of God should be the aim in everything.’
Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was being transported to Rome under guard to face execution in the Coliseum, likely in the early second century. His letters, written on the way, reflect both his apostolic zeal and a deep concern for the life of the Church in its earliest decades. His correspondent, Saint Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, was himself a revered figure, a disciple of Saint John the Apostle, and later a martyr. Thus, this is a remarkable exchange: from one soon-to-be martyr to another, entrusted with the care of the flock in perilous times.
Ignatius’s guidance to Polycarp is deeply rooted in both Scripture and apostolic tradition. His primary concern is that all things be done ‘for God’s honour’. This is no mere platitude—it is a principle that governs marriage, ecclesial order, moral behaviour, and the structure of Christian life. His instruction is holistic: concerned equally with the personal virtue of individuals and the broader unity and harmony of the Church.
The Christian Household | Love, Chastity And Humility
Ignatius begins with practical ethical advice: exhorting Christian spouses to be faithful in both body and spirit, and urging those who choose celibacy not to boast in their state. This mirrors Saint Paul’s teachings in Ephesians 5, where marriage is seen as an image of Christ’s love for the Church. Chastity, whether in marriage or in celibacy, must be offered humbly and for God—not used to exalt oneself above others.
The emphasis on not boasting, especially over spiritual achievements, highlights an enduring Christian truth: virtue, when paraded, ceases to be virtuous. The warning against thinking oneself ‘better than the bishop’ reflects Ignatius’s high ecclesiology—his belief that the bishop is the visible sign of unity in the Church, and must be respected as Christ’s representative in the community.
Spirituality Of Unity And The Image Of The Church As An Army
A major theme of Ignatius’s entire body of letters is unity. Here, he calls for a harmony of purpose among Christians: ‘Work together in harmony: struggle together, run together, suffer together, rest together, rise together.’ This is a vision of the Church not as a collection of individuals but as a spiritual organism, bound in mutual love and obedience, walking the same path to God.
He employs military imagery—Christians are ‘soldiers’ who must not desert their post. Baptism is our armour, faith our helmet, love our spear, and patience our full protection. These metaphors recall Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (6:10–17) and were particularly apt in an era when Christians were harassed and persecuted by imperial authorities. Yet Ignatius is not urging violence or militancy; rather, he is calling for endurance, perseverance, and discipline—the hallmarks of true discipleship.
Apostolic Authority And Practical Church Life
Ignatius’s ecclesiology is strikingly mature for the early second century. He clearly affirms the hierarchical structure of bishop, presbyters, and deacons, and urges that nothing be done without the bishop’s approval. This early witness is a significant affirmation of the apostolic succession and the Church’s developing understanding of authority and governance.
Even practical matters—such as the appointment of messengers, correspondence between churches, and support for Christian slaves—are addressed with care. The request for Polycarp to convene a council and appoint a courier to Antioch reflects the embryonic but clear sense of Catholicity—that the Church, though geographically scattered, is united in love, doctrine, and mutual support.
Ignatius’s phrase ‘A Christian is not his own master: his time is God’s’ could serve as a spiritual motto. It reminds us that our lives, time, and choices belong to the Lord who redeemed us. The emphasis on using time well for the advancement of God’s glory calls to mind Paul’s exhortation in Ephesians 5:16 to ‘make the most of the time, because the days are evil’.
A Reading From The Letter Of Saint Ignatius Of Antioch To Polycarp | Avoid Evil Practices | Love Jesus Christ | The Christian Is Not His Own, His Time Belongs To God
Avoid evil practices: indeed, preach against them. Tell my sisters to love the Lord and be content with their husbands in the flesh and in the spirit, and in the same way bid my brothers in Christ’s name to love their wives as the Lord loves his Church. If anyone can remain chaste in honour of the Saviour’s flesh, then let him do so without boasting. For if he boasts of it, he is lost; and if he thinks himself for this reason better than the bishop, he is lost. Those who marry should be united with the bishop’s approval, so that the marriage may follow God’s will and not merely the prompting of the flesh. Let everything be done for God’s honour.
Hear your bishop, that God may hear you. My life is a sacrifice for those who are obedient to the bishop, the presbyters and the deacons; and may it be my lot to share with them in God. Work together in harmony: struggle together, run together, suffer together, rest together, rise together, as stewards, advisors and servants of God. Seek to please him whose soldiers you are and from whom you draw your pay; let none of you prove a deserter. Let your baptism be your armour, your faith your helmet, your charity your spear, your patience your panoply. Let your good works be your deposits, so that you may draw out well-earned savings. So be patient and gentle with one another, as God is with you. May I have joy in you for ever!
Since I have heard that the church of Antioch in Syria is in peace through your prayers, I too am more tranquil in my reliance upon God. If only I may find my way to God through my passion and at the resurrection prove to be your disciple! My most blessed Polycarp, you should convene a godly council and appoint someone whom you consider dear and especially diligent to be called God’s courier and to have the honour of going into Syria and advancing God’s glory by speaking of your untiring charity. A Christian is not his own master: his time is God’s. This is God’s work, and it will be yours as well when you have performed it. I have trust in the grace of God that you are ready to act generously when it comes to God’s work. Since I knew so well your zeal for truth, I have limited my appeal to these few words.
I could not write to all the churches because I am sailing at once from Troas to Neapolis, as is required of me. I want you, therefore, as one who knows God’s purpose, to write to the churches of the East and bid them to follow the same procedure. Those who can should send representatives, while the rest should send letters through the messengers you have sent. Thus your community will be honoured for a good work of eternal value, as you yourself deserve.
I wish all of you well for ever in Jesus Christ; through him may you all remain in God’s unity and in his care. Farewell in the Lord!
Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ
Lord God,
You called your servant Ignatius of Antioch to bear witness to Christ even unto death, and to shepherd your people with wisdom and courage.
Grant that we, inspired by his words and his martyrdom, may live not for ourselves but for your glory.
Teach us to honour one another in humility, to serve your Church in unity, and to use the time given to us for the work of your Kingdom.
Clothe us with the armour of light:
With faith as our shield, love as our spear, patience as our strength,
That we may, like Ignatius, run the race of endurance and win the crown of eternal life.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Antioch – An ancient city in modern-day Turkey and an early centre of Christianity. Ignatius was its bishop and a key link between the apostles and the next generation of Church leaders.
Bishop – A successor of the apostles, entrusted with overseeing the spiritual and pastoral care of a diocese or Church. Ignatius strongly emphasised the importance of unity under the bishop.
Celibacy – A commitment to abstain from marriage and sexual relationships for the sake of the Kingdom. Ignatius valued celibacy when done humbly and not as a cause for pride.
Ecclesiology – The theological study of the Church’s nature, structure, and mission. Ignatius’s letters are an early and important source for the development of Catholic ecclesiology.
Faith, Charity, Patience (as armour) – Imagery drawn from Saint Paul’s letters, especially Ephesians 6. Ignatius uses the metaphor of a Christian soldier spiritually armed for endurance and unity.
Heresy – A belief or teaching contrary to the orthodox faith of the Church. Ignatius warns against those who seem trustworthy but distort the true doctrine of Christ.
Martyr – From the Greek martys, meaning ‘witness.’ A martyr is someone who suffers death for their faith. Ignatius anticipated and embraced martyrdom as a way to follow Christ completely.
Polycarp – Bishop of Smyrna, friend and correspondent of Ignatius, and himself a martyr. He represents the continuity of the apostolic tradition.
Presbyter – An elder or priest in the early Church, subordinate to the bishop. Alongside deacons, presbyters helped to govern and minister to local Christian communities.
Unity – A central theme in Ignatius’s writings. He saw unity in faith, worship, and obedience to the bishop as vital signs of the Church’s health and holiness.
- Daily Bible Verses | On Scandal, Sin and Hell | Divine Mercy | Jesus’ Teachings | Casting Out Devils
John tells Jesus that he and other disciples have forbidden a man from casting out devils in Jesus’ name, and Jesus tells him that he was wrong to do this. The man was doing good, irrespective of his not belonging to the community of disciples following Jesus. There is no call for exclusivity, so long as people are working faithfully for and toward the good. Jesus displays an ecumenical attitude here. Different faiths, different churches, can peacefully co-exist and work alongside each other for the greater good [ … ]
‘Death,’ says His Grace, ‘throws it all apart. For we are not as we should be. Faith requires our adjustment to God’s truth. God’s triumph in a very real sense requires in us the loss of our everything. Which, as with Mary at the other end of Jesus’s life, is God’s truth.’ The Gospel reading is of John 11: 1-45, which is a long passage, and His Grace’s homiletic theme commences in textual wilderness. Our brokenness – in this place – a family home. Our faith, our doubt, our death… The irruption – death, doubt, fear – within our precious scenes and our most intimate places. Our domesticity. His Grace speaks from the chair, as is a bishop’s prerogative, and says: ‘So much is obscure in the Gospels. We’re always reaching through them. We’re never there. Really, we never are. Our knowledge, our understanding, of the Gospels is never complete, and with each reading comes a new revelation. There are always new riches there. Just as there are between all of us, between myself and you. The Gospels are living texts. This is a part of the conversation we have with our own Christianity. It is a part of who we are in our relationship with Jesus. We are in this sense always on the brink. ‘So yes, there is plenty that doesn’t seem to make sense. As one of the order of bishops, we would be lying if we said that weren’t the case. They are not easy texts to encounter, if by that word we may signify something more than a superficial glancing off against, but rather a profound search for the word of God. The Gospels are written by people who had their own ideas, and often didn’t know what had really happened. Luke is quite explicit on this point. His is an investigation, from the explicitly claimed point of view of an historian, rather than that of a first-hand witness, who attempts, so he says, to set out an orderly account, out of the chaos, the sheer muddle, that has been handed down to him. It is possible to imagine Luke researching and composing his account after many years, when there has arisen a desire to know what exactly happened, and this implies a certain call to faith and certain demands of historicity, to historical exactitude. So in these different ways, the people of the first years of Christian faith are in the dark. There is also a decisive need to define the life of Jesus. And people didn’t get Jesus. The whole meaning of Christianity is only now beginning to take root throughout the composition. So much needs to be evangelized. The light shines almost in tentative fashion like that first star, which drew the wise men from the east to our Lord’s cradle. ‘John’s is widely held to be a very late Gospel. There are others who say that John’s Gospel might have been the first to acquire its true shape, because it most fully expresses Jesus, as we know him to be, as members of the Catholic Church. We don’t really know when any of this is being written, but we get a feel in John of a Gospel refined over many years, through a community. So there’s a lot going on there that I’d like you to think about. ‘What I would like to suggest to you is that, while within the Gospels we are often confronted with clues, guesswork, stories that have been handed down through so many people, and so in this sense we might find ourselves to be in the wilderness, this is the very desolate space itself to which we must give ourselves in order to experience Christ’s full redemption in our lives. I suggest it is for God’s glory that we do so. ‘As we become aware of ourselves, in this seminary, we find ourselves in a very secure, comfortable setting, and there are signs of Easter everywhere. Within the very fabric of these buildings, our Lord is risen; our Lord lives. But now this is our Lenten journey, where death enters, where death breaks us. We are to ride into Jerusalem in triumph, and then we are to be utterly broken, all hope gone, our hope extinguished. And really, I suggest to you, it is only by inhabiting this thought, as if we don’t know Easter is there, that our new life can follow, just when we have given up all hope, when every promise that Jesus made to us seems to have been cancelled. ‘And here now we have the story of Lazarus. I should like to suggest to you that we have a very powerful call now. In our very comfortable space, our domesticity, with all this comfort, where so very little might seem to happen each day, so it might seem to you, there is a disturbance within all of this comfort, and that is a disturbance within ourselves, and that is our call to Jesus. I think it is correct to say that our most comfortable places break in the light of Jesus from the inside, in order that we may take the necessary steps to be with Jesus. ‘Faith is not comfortable. I think that we can all receive the message of the rolling away of the rock from the tomb of Lazarus to say something of vital importance to ourselves concerning our openness to God’s love. The rock we roll away can come in all sorts of guises, but we know when we are blocked, and I firmly believe if we are truthful then we know where those blocks might be. ‘Next Sunday, which will be Palm Sunday, we process as it were to Jerusalem, to begin our Holy Week. Now as I speak to you we are on the brink. Even now, I suggest it might be very good for all of us to lay aside what we think we know, to fall apart a little, and so […]
Psalm 46 is a testament to God’s unwavering protection, strength, and sovereignty in the midst of life’s challenges. It is a source of solace, reminding readers of the enduring refuge found in God’s presence. This psalm is an enduring declaration of trust in God’s ultimate control over the world’s affairs, even in times of turmoil and uncertainty [ … ]
