REGISTER SUMMARY Pope Benedict XVI met with 25,000 people in St. Peter’s Square during his general audience on March 14. He continued his cycle of teachings on the early Fathers of the Church by offering his reflections on St. Ignatius of Antioch. He said, “Clearly, Ignatius’ realism invites the faithful of yesterday and today — invites us all — to a progressive synthesis between being configured to Christ and being dedicated to his Church.”

Dear brothers and sisters,

Today, like last Wednesday, we will speak about a prominent figure from the early Church. Last week we spoke about Pope Clement I, the third successor to St. Peter. Today we will speak about St. Ignatius, who was the third bishop of Antioch from the year 70 until the year 107, when he was martyred.

At that time, Rome, Alexandria and Antioch were the three leading cities of the Roman Empire. The Council of Nicaea speaks about three “primacies.” There is the primacy of Rome, but Alexandria and Antioch form, in a certain sense, another “primacy.”

St. Ignatius was the bishop of Antioch, which is now located in Turkey. As we know from the Acts of the Apostles, a Christian community began to flourish in Antioch. According to tradition, the apostle Peter was its first bishop and it is there that “the disciples were first called Christians” (Acts 11:26).

Ignatius’ Letters

Eusebius of Caesarea, a fourth-century historian, dedicates an entire chapter of his Church History to Ignatius’ life and works (3:36). “From Syria,” he writes, “Ignatius was sent to Rome to be thrown to the wild beasts because of his witness to Christ. Traveling through Asia, under the close watch of the guards” — whom he refers to as “ten leopards” in his Letter to the Romans 5:1 — “in every city where he stopped he strengthened the churches with his preaching and his admonitions. Above all, he wholeheartedly exhorted people to be on guard against heresies that were beginning to spread and recommended that they not stray from the apostolic tradition.”

Ignatius’ first stop on his journey to martyrdom was the city of Smyrna, where St. Polycarp (ca. 69-ca. 155), a disciple of St. John, was bishop. There, Ignatius wrote four letters to the churches in Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles and Rome respectively. “Having left Smyrna,” Eusebius goes on to say, “Ignatius arrived in Troas and sent out some new letters from there.” Two of the letters were to the churches in Philadelphia and Smyrna and one was to Bishop Polycarp.

Thus, Eusebius gives us a complete list of his letters, which have been handed down to us from the first-century Church as a precious treasure. Reading these texts, we can feel the freshness of the faith of that generation that was personally acquainted with the apostles. We can also experience in these letters the ardent love of a saint. In the end, this martyr journeyed from Troas to Rome, where he was thrown to the lions in the Flavian Amphitheater.

Union With Christ

No other Church Father has expressed the desire for union with Christ and life with him as intensely as Ignatius. For this reason, we have read the passage from the Gospel regarding the vine, which according to the Gospel of St. John is Jesus. Two spiritual “currents” flow together in Ignatius: that of St. Paul, which is totally focused on union with Christ, and that of St. John, which concentrates on life in him. These two currents lead, in turn, to the imitation of Christ, whom Ignatius proclaimed on many occasions as “mine” or as “our God.”

Therefore, Ignatius begs the Christians of Rome not to put any obstacles in the way of his martyrdom, because he was impatient “to meet up with Jesus Christ.” As he explains, “It is beautiful for me to die walking towards (eis) Jesus Christ rather than reigning to the ends of the earth. I am looking for him who died for me and I want him who rose for us. … Let me imitate the passion of my God!” (Letter to the Romans 5-6). We can see in these expressions of burning love an unmistakably Christ-centered “realism” that was typical of the church of Antioch, which was always attentive to the incarnation of the Son of God and his true and concrete humanity.

Jesus Christ, Ignatius wrote to the Smyrnaeans, “was truly of the line of David, was truly born of a virgin, and was truly nailed to the cross for us” (Letter to the Romans 1:1).

Ignatius’ irresistible desire for union with Christ lays the foundation for what can truly be called a “mysticism of unity.” He describes himself as “a man to whom the task of unity has been entrusted” (Letter to the Philadelphians 8:1).

For Ignatius, unity is, above all, a prerogative of God, who, existing within three persons, is one in absolute unity. He often states that God is unity and only in God can unity be found in its pure and original state. The unity that Christians here on earth are to achieve is no more than an imitation that conforms as near as possible to this divine archetype. Thus, Ignatius elaborates a vision of the Church that closely resembles that found in Clement of Rome’s Letter to the Corinthians.

For example, he writes to the Christians of Ephesus: “It is fitting that you should proceed in accordance with the will of your bishop, something that you have already done. Indeed, your college of presbyters, which is rightly famous and worthy of God, is harmoniously united with the bishop like the strings of a harp. Therefore, through your unity and your harmonious love, Jesus Christ is praised. In this way, one by one you become a choir, so that through the harmony of your unity and by imitating God’s song in unity, you sing with one voice” (4:1-2).

Furthermore, after having advised the Smyrnaeans to not “undertake anything regarding the Church without your bishop” (8:1), he opens his heart to Polycarp: “I offer my life for those who are submitted to their bishop, priests and deacons. May I, together with them, be with God! Work together with each other, fight together, run together, suffer together, sleep and keep watch together as God’s administrators, assessors and servants. Seek to please him under whom you fight and from whom you receive your reward. May none of you be a deserter! May your baptism be always like a shield, your faith like a helmet, your love like a lance, and your patience like a suit of armor!” (6:1-2).

Christian Unity

On the whole, we can perceive in Ignatius’ letters something akin to a constant yet fruitful dialectic between the two characteristic aspects of the Christian life — the hierarchical structure of the church community on one hand and, on the other hand, the fundamental union that binds the faithful together in Christ. Consequently, there is no opposition between these roles. On the contrary, his insistence on the communion of believers among themselves and with their shepherds is constantly being formulated through eloquent images and analogies: the harp, the strings, the chanting, the concert, the symphony.

The specific responsibility of bishops, priests and deacons in building up the community is obvious. The invitation to love and unity is especially valid for them. “May you be one,” Ignatius writes to the Magnesians repeating Jesus’ prayer during the Last Supper, “as one prayer, one mind, and one hope in love. … Let all approach Jesus Christ as God’s one temple, as the one altar: He is one, and proceeding from the one Father, he remained united with him and returned to him in unity” (7:1-2).

Ignatius was the first person in Christian literature to attribute the adjective “catholic,” that is, “universal” to the Church. “Where Jesus Christ is,” he said, “there too is the Catholic Church” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8:2). It is precisely in this service of unity to the Catholic Church that the Christian community of Rome exercises a sort of primacy in love: “It presides in Rome, worthy of God, venerable, and worthy of being called blessed. … It presides over charity, which bears the law of Christ and the name of Father” (Letter to the Romans, prologue).

Doctor of Unity

As we can see, Ignatius is truly the “doctor of unity” — the unity of God and the unity of Christ (despite the various heresies that were beginning to spread and were dividing Christ’s humanity and divinity), the unity of the Church, the unity of the faithful “in faith and charity, of which there is nothing more excellent” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6:1). Clearly, Ignatius’ realism invites the faithful of yesterday and today — invites us all — to a progressive synthesis between being configured to Christ (union with him and life in him) and being dedicated to his Church (union with the bishop and generous service to the community and the world).

In other words, we need to achieve a synthesis between the communion of the Church within itself and the mission of proclaiming the Gospel to others until one dimension speaks through the other and believers are evermore “in possession of that indivisible spirit that is Jesus Christ himself” (Letter to the Magnesians 15).

Beseeching the Lord for this “grace of unity” and with the conviction of presiding in charity over the Church (see Letter to the Romans, prologue), my wish for you is that same desire found at the conclusion of Ignatius’ Letter to the Trallians: “Love one another with an undivided heart. My spirit is being offered in sacrifice for you, not only now, but also when you have reached God. … May you be found in Christ without sin” (13). We pray that the Lord may help us to achieve this unity and, in the end, to find ourselves without sin, because love purifies the spirit.

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