October 24, at noon, a small detachment that was deporting a few arrested Christians to Rome entered the city of Smyrna. The soldiers' armor was dusty; their faces were tanned by the hot sun of Asia Minor. They shouted angrily at the prisoners so that they shouldn't tarry: the military men wanted so much to throw off their heavy equipment and to have some fresh water. The job was obviously annoying. They had nothing against fighting hand to hand with hordes of barbarians, but dragging those crazy people through half an Empire... Well, we're supposed to carry out orders, they thought. The point was to bring them to the Eternal City alive: lions wanted blood, and thousands of good Roman citizens wanted their entertainment.
The detachment did not come unexpected. Polycarp, a young bishop of Smyrna, knew that Ignatius, who had been arrested in Antioch, was coming. On the same day Polycarp came to see him together with a group of brethren, who bowed their heads in front of the great confessor. Ignatius smiled quietly. He said that he was all right, mentioned the constant pain in his feet, and assured them that fellow Christians provided him with all necessary things in each city they had been passing through. Polycarp kept silent and tried to drive away from his mind the terrible vision of a huge arena, the mad roar of the crowd and the bloody jaws of wild beasts. The bishop of Antioch looked at him with concern and asked: "Are you uneasy about Rome?" Polycarp nodded. "Don't be. I am God's wheat. When I am milled with the beasts' teeth, I will be the pure bread of Christ". The young man dropped his eyes. Ignatius touched his arm and said: "Bring me a papyrus and some ink. I have to write to the Church in Rome".
On his way to a martyr's crown this incredible man wrote seven epistles, and those letters - which are among the greatest documents of Christianity - are the only source on Ignatius of Antioch. We know nothing about his biography: he wrote for others, not for himself, and therefore always about others. It is in this precisely that his whole personality is clearly seen.
Ignatius' letters are permeated with Pauline thought. The Bishop of Antioch quotes St Paul word for word rarely, but his writings breathe with the apostolic teaching. On the other hand Ignatius' deep mysticism revives that of St John. Something prompts us to believe that he knew personally the Evangelist who passed away later than the other disciples of the Lord.
At the beginning of the second century the Church experienced a crucial moment of its history: the apostles who had planted and nurtured local communities had left this earth. The first heresies were emerging, and nobody was able to say at that time: "Our Savior did not teach these things. You are wrong". Any impostor could say arrogantly in response: "You were not there. How can you know?" Oral accounts still had more authority than the written Gospels: Christ's earthly ministry had not turned into history for those people. They preferred to speak about it rather than to read about it. Moreover, the core of the Christian community was no longer composed of those who shared Jewish cultural background. Most of the newly converted gentiles understood many things with difficulty or even wrongly. Interpretations multiplied and everyone reckoned his or her own opinion as a final truth. Bishops, who tried to bring more order into all of it, often could not restrain discontented people who are always present in any given group or community. Grumbling grew more intense, often resulting in acute conflicts.
In Antioch, where Ignatius labored, the situation was the same as everywhere else. Yet, this city had a kind of distinguished prominence. It was from here that St Paul had gone to bring the Good News to Asia Minor and Greece. It was here that the center of Christian faith had been transferred after Jerusalem had been ransacked and destroyed by Romans. It is known that Antiochene liturgical practices had the greatest impact on the divine service in the early Church in general.
Ignatius was among the first Christian authors converted from paganism. Greek was his native tongue, and the Hellenistic world was a cultural environment where he felt at home. Everything that was written in Christian tradition during the period between the New Testament books and Ignatius' writings bears the impression of the Judaism. On the other hand, in all that Ignatius says, we clearly see the subtle but important differences between Judaizing and biblical thought.
By the time of the persecution unleashed by the emperor Trajan, Ignatius of Antioch was undoubtedly an eminent figure among Christians. When he was arrested and sent to Troas, so that later to be brought to Rome, whole delegations not only welcomed him in each city but also accompanied him on the road. We do not know why, but the detachment stayed for a long time in Smyrna, and the bishop Polycarp, who cared so much about Ignatius and his companions, became not only his interlocutor, but also his personal friend. Later it was Polycarp who united all the epistles written by the bishop of Antioch into a single manuscript.
Messengers from Ephesus, Magnesia, Trallae came to Smyrna, and Ignatius, in irons, wrote letters to their respective communities, so as to leave his word of instruction to them. He also wrote to the Church in Rome, asking them to undertake nothing to prevent his martyrdom. When the group of arrested Christians was transferred to Troas, Ignatius wrote to the communities in Philadelphia and Smyrna, as well as to bishop Polycarp personally. He asked him to write to other Churches in his name, which attests to both their friendship and deep conformity of theological opinions.
A central theme of Ignatius' theology is unity. This word occurs in his writings more often than any other word. He treats this concept in several aspects: first of all in his teaching about God, for He is the supreme unity that is represented in the Persons of the Holy Trinity. This aspect is closely connected with Ignatius' teaching about Christ where he distinguished between the two natures of our Savior. Christ is physical and spiritual; He is born and not born; He is God, but He came in flesh; He underwent death, but He is the true Life. Still He is perfectly whole and represents the supreme unity.
Unity as a theme finds its fullest expression in Ignatius' teaching about the Church. Lay people need to be in unity with clerics. They are to merge with a bishop's will. Elders must be "consonant" with a bishop as strings of a cither are with each other. Ignatius says that in such "consonance of love" Christ is glorified. Thus, musical harmony is also one of the leading themes in the letters of the bishop of Antioch. He wrote: "You need to be like a chorus in order that, being tuned in like-mindedness according to the tone of unity, given by God, you should sing as a one voice to the Father through Jesus Christ, so that He might hear us and acknowledge us, according to our good works, as members of His Son. Therefore it is useful for you to be in perfect unity so as to be in communion with God". Reading these words we cannot but help thinking about the importance of liturgical and musical values in Church life.
Moreover, Ignatius' ecclesiology, or teaching about Church, is closely connected with his teaching about Christ (Christology). The Church represents the unity of our Savior's two natures. That is the believers' unity must be both physical and spiritual. Besides, Ignatius was the first to speak about the "Catholic Church", that is Church Universal. The context where we find this expression, is of utmost importance: "Only such a Eucharist may be reckoned as genuine, which is performed by a bishop or by the one whom he commissioned with it. Where the bishop is, there also people must be, for where Jesus Christ is, there also the Catholic Church is". The greatness of Ignatius' teaching about Holy Communion is overwhelming in its sincere simplicity. He does not philosophize about how exactly the Lord is present in the bread and wine nor exactly how it is possible. Christ is just there. Ignatius says: "I need God's bread, heaven's bread, life's bread, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born in the last time from the seed of David and Abraham. I also need God's drink, His blood, which is the imperishable love and life eternal".
It is very important that Ignatius teaches not only about the Church on earth, but also about the Church in heaven. According to what he says, the heavenly Church is a "type" of the earthly Church. It is composed of the saints and the apostles who live in perpetual communion with God. Yet the Church in heaven is closely united with the Church on earth, for the Head of the Church in its both forms is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ignatius' striving for unity urged him to rebuke those who sowed discord and bred strife. At that time two groups were most dangerous. The first one, so-called Judaizers, did not accept the authority of the New Testament and wanted Christians to observe the Sabbath and other Jewish rites (in other words they toiled to transform Christianity into a kind of a sect inside Judaism). The other group was called Docetists (from a Greek verb dokein, "seem"). They taught that it only seemed that Christ suffered and died, that it was an illusion. They believed that God could not suffer and die. On the contrary, Ignatius put a constant emphasis on the fact that the New Testament is a fulfillment of the Old Testament, that the Lord was not a dream, but a real Man, as you and me, and that He was still God.
For Ingatius, both Jesus Christ's death and the glorious resurrection are a pledge of our eternal life in our resurrected Lord.
Ignatius of Antioch both showed new aspects of and beautifully formulated many Christian doctrines that are a cornerstone of the true teaching of the Christian faith. It is amazing how simply and tersely he states them. But there is no secret in it. At that time, people who had known the apostles, were still alive. The person of Ignatius caused hot debates, which we will not mention here. This great man of God must be regarded simply and clearly, for such was his life that ended in a martyr's crown and a meeting with our Lord and Savior, to whom be the glory forever and ever.
Hail the Designers Finding and Building Upon Our Sense-Of-Self Love Is an Act of the Will, Not a Burst of Emotions Corrie ten Boom - The Roots of the Jerusalem Prayer Team Unspectacularly Supernatural
