📜St. Polycarp, venerated Bishop of Smyrna and one of the Apostolic Fathers, was a direct disciple of the Apostle St. John and teacher of St. Irenaeus of Lyon, constituting a vital and sacred link between the apostolic era and the early Church. His epistle to the Philippians breathes ardent faith and Christian orthodoxy, exhorting the faithful to perseverance and evangelical virtue. At 86 years of age, during a violent persecution, he was summoned to curse Christ, to which he replied with the famous declaration of fidelity to the One who had done him no wrong in so many years of service. Condemned to the stake, the flames miraculously did not consume him, forming a vault around him like the sails of a ship filled by the wind, and he was finally martyred by the stroke of a sword around the year 155 AD.
🎼Introit (Ecclus 45:30 | Ps 131:1)
Sacerdótes Dei, benedícite Dóminum: sancti et húmiles corde, laudáte Deum. Ps. Benedícite, ómnia ópera Dómini, Dómino: laudáte et superexaltáte eum in sǽcula.
Priests of God, bless the Lord; holy and humble of heart, praise God. ℣. All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord; praise and exalt Him above all for ever.
✉️Epistle (I John 3:10-16)
Caríssimi: Omnis qui non est justus, non est ex Deo, et qui non díligit fratrem suum: quóniam hæc est annuntiátio, quam audístis ab inítio, ut diligátis altérutrum. Non sicut Cain, qui ex malígno erat, et occídit fratrem suum. Et propter quid occídit eum? Quóniam ópera ejus malígna erant: fratris autem ejus justa. Nolíte mirári fratres, si odit vos mundus. Nos scimus quóniam transláti sumus de morte ad vitam, quóniam dilígimus fratres. Qui non díligit, manet in morte: omnis qui odit fratrem suum, homicída est. Et scitis, quóniam omnis homicída non habet vitam ætérnam in semetípso manéntem. In hoc cognóvimus caritátem Dei, quóniam ille ánimam suam pro nobis pósuit: et nos debémus pro frátribus ánimas pónere.
Dearly beloved: Whosoever is not just, is not of God, nor is he that loveth not his brother. For this is the declaration, which you have heard from the beginning, that you should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one, and killed his brother. And wherefore did he kill him? Because his own works were wicked: and his brother's just. Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in himself. In this we have known the charity of God, because He hath laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
✠Gospel (Mt 10:26-32)
In illo témpore: Dixit Jesus discípulis suis: Nihil est opértum, quod non revelábitur; et occultum, quod non sciétur. Quod dico vobis in tenebris, dícite in lúmine: et quod in aure audítis, prædicáte super tecta. Et nolíte timére eos, qui occídunt corpus, ánimam autem non possunt occídere; sed potius timéte eum, qui potest et ánimam et corpus pérdere in gehénnam. Nonne duo pásseres asse véneunt: et unus ex illis non cadet super terram sine Patre vestro? Vestri autem capílli cápitis omnes numeráti sunt. Nolíte ergo timére: multis passéribus melióres estis vos. Omnis ergo, qui confitébitur me coram homínibus, confitébor et ego eum coram Patre meo, qui in cœlis est.
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: Nothing is covered that shall not be revealed: nor hid, that shall not be known. That which I tell you in the dark, speak ye in the light: and that which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops. And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: better are you than many sparrows. Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
🩸Perfect love casts out fear
🔥Today's liturgy sublimely unites the doctrine of fraternal charity, expounded by St. John in the Epistle, with the exhortation to courage in the Gospel of St. Matthew, finding in St. Polycarp the living synthesis of these teachings. The Beloved Apostle teaches that the irrefutable proof of having passed from death to life is love for the brethren, a love that imitates Christ to the point of "laying down one's life" for them. This is not a fleeting feeling, but a disposition of the will rooted in Truth. St. Augustine, reflecting on the nature of martyrdom and fear, clarifies that "the martyr is not he who feels no fear, but he who, loving God more than his own life, conquers the terror of bodily death by the desire for eternal life; for he who fears God need not fear men, since men can only wound the vessel of clay, but God has the power to save or condemn the treasure that dwells therein" (St. Augustine, Tractate on the Gospel of John). Jesus reinforces this hierarchy of values by ordering us not to fear "those who kill the body," revealing that the true security of the Christian lies in Divine Providence, which numbers even the hairs of our head. Polycarp, by refusing apostasy before the flames, demonstrated that the confession of faith before men is the external reflection of an internal charity that has already overcome the world. As the Catechism and the tradition of the Church teach, martyrdom is the supreme witness to the truth of the faith, an act of fortitude that ratifies the disciple's total union with the Master, guaranteeing the evangelical promise: "everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father."
See English version of the critical articles here.
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