Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
Again and again in these last words of woe to the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus brings up blood: the blood of the prophets, the blood of Abel, the blood of Zechariah, and of every just person in between who had suffered death at the hands of others. It is not enough to honor the prophets merely with outward decoration of tombs if one’s actions are the opposite of what the prophets called for. Rather than allow blindness to the injustice of the shedding of the blood of the prophets, a blindness born anew when one follows the same attitudes and actions of those that murdered the innocent, Our Lord instead calls for a sobering look at one’s heart and deeds so as to realize the need to change.
Saint Paul in writing to the church in Ephesus also brings up blood. Yet, this time it is to contemplate the effect of that blood which brings about forgiveness, which works conversion and gives new life. It was out of love for Christ who allowed His most precious blood to be shed that Saint Ignatius of Antioch desired so ardently that He should bear witness in the second century to the power of Our Lord’s sacrifice by laying down his own life for being a Christian. We can ask Saint Ignatius to pray for us that instead of allowing rivalry and hatred and pride to rule in our hearts (as they did in the hearts of those who took the lives of the prophets), we may instead seek to follow Christ meek, humble, loving, and desire to bear faithful witness to Him, particularly in what we suffer for His sake.