On priests and martyrs

From the blog Frontier Orthodoxy, a post entitled 'The Sacerdotal Office and Martyrdom.' The first patristics course I ever had the pleasure of taking involved reading the story he recounts below of St. Ignatius telling the people not to interfere with his trip back to Rome where he was to face martyrdom in the arena. It was one of my first encounters with the apparent contradiction with reason that the believer has when he suffers for the Church. On the face of it a person would be expected to try and escape so that he could continue his ministry, or he might be expected to rail against his captors (instead he treated them with respect, for which they abused him all the more), or he might even be expected to beg for his life, but instead he gladly went to his death. Red martyrdom, like much of the Way, makes little sense outside of the Church, but is a spiritual light to the believer.

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St. Ignatius the God-Bearer

I thought I’d build this reflection off Monday’s post concerning the article on St. Ignatios of Antioch and the Ebionites. I forget the exact quote at the moment, but on his way to Rome, St. Ignatios of Antioch implores the Roman Christians not to intercede for him. For, if he was not martyred, he claimed he would be a mere sound but if he were martyred, he’d be a word of God. We Orthodox talk a lot about the Ignatian model of the episcopacy. Talk, of course, is cheap, and seems to be running at an all time low amongst we Orthodox. Really, there’s a reason some people revert back to their previous faith (or non-faith) and it’s not just that they have trouble realizing that being in the Ark means putting up with the stench within. Although there are many reasons for this, one central reason is a lack of hearing words of God speak of the Word of God.

Those of us ordained to the sacerdotal office would do well to acknowledge this. How often don’t we witness clergy upset over some pet peeve but silent in the face of a real problem, even a real local problem within their own parishes? Or, too often we give the impression that we care only about problems that seem to threaten our “authority.” What is truly missing from all of our posturing and chest-beating over the “Ignatian model” is a model of sacerdotal martyrdom. Perhaps this is why clergy that are martyred are almost always canonized. It is a miracle when one sees it. Indeed, it is a miracle when when we witness it in small ways, it seems.

I am sure I am not above the very failing I note here. I try to be but can I say, definitively, and with absolute 100% certainty that I am? No, I cannot. Only God can actually say it. I have to strive for it and pray for it. I hope I have aspired to it.

The Stoning of St. Stephen

All of us who are Christians but especially those of us who are ordained are called to aspire to this. Our bishops ought to be the foremost examples of this. It should influence all of their decisions. Do we need expensive conventions and convocations? No. Why impress Caesar? We cannot outdo the wealth of mammon anyhow. If we impress, it should be with our martyriological love. All of us play a role in helping our parish and diocesan and jurisdictional leaders in this endeavor. For instance, if we are involved with planning something, let’s make sure it may not give the impression that we’re out to impress materialistically. Let us also make sure the message is consistently the Gospel, with no other agenda acting as a candle-snuffer.

Let us live the kind of parish, diocesan, archdiocesan, and jurisdictional life that will naturally lead people to speak as St. Ignatios. If we get all the comforts of the world and sacrifice nothing, we are a mere whisper. If we give away what we have and seek to make the Gospel the center of what we Orthodox proclaim, we begin to utter the Gospel. May we be led by example.