+ Irenaeus (b.130- d.200) was one of the greatest bishops and
theologians of the second century. Born in the East, perhaps in
Smyrna, he was a friend of Bishop St. Polycarp whom he had known as a boy;
later he studied in Rome and became a priest of Lyons (east-central France).
The city was a flourishing trade center and the principal diocese in all of
France. During a persecution of Christians, Irenaeus was sent to Rome with a
letter for the Pope urging leniency toward a heretical sect of Christians in
Asia Minor, for the sake a peace and unity. On his return, he was chosen to
succeed the bishop who had been killed during the persecution.
Bishop
Irenaeus was a strong and effective opponent of Gnosticism, the
first major Christian heresy, which denied the goodness of the flesh and held
that revelation (or saving knowledge)
was available only to an elite few. He appealed to the principle of apostolic
succession to show that saving revelation
is available to everyone and that its authenticity is guaranteed by a body of
public ministers, the bishops, whose pastoral authority is traceable back to
the apostles themselves. He also argued that the Incarnation and the
Resurrection of Jesus gave ultimate value to human flesh because Jesus
“recapitulated” (i.e. restated and summarized) God’s loving intentions in
creating the world, revealing its destiny, and providing the “first fruits” of
that destiny. Jesus was the climax and personification of the whole process.
Irenaeus died in Lyons in 200,
(considered a martyr, although there was no reliable evidence to support that
belief), and was buried in the crypt of the church of St. John (now called St.
Irenaeus), although most of his relics were destroyed by the Calvinists in
1562.
There is every evidence that
St. Irenaeus was a student of the first reading today, from the letter of St.
Paul to Timothy: being a slave of the
Lord he did not quarrel, but was gentle with everyone, able to teach, being
tolerant and correcting opponents with kindness. Even opposing heretics, he
demonstrated, could be done with conviction, yet with kindness and charity! And
just as Jesus in the gospel passage prayed that the descendants of the apostles
would be filled with a thirst for unity and peace among themselves and for the
good of the Church that would soon be established, so Irenaeus had that thirst
and found that the only way he could find peace was to work for justice, with
charity!
May all the legislators of our
governing bodies throughout our country, most especially those serving the
needs of the American people in Washington DC take to heart this mandate: to
work for justice, truth, freedom, safety, security, the American way, but
filtering it all through the sunlight of charity, peace and hope!
Remain
in my love, says the Lord; whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much
fruit.
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