Tess Koning, member of our Parish Pastoral Council and Principal of St Peter’s Primary School, presents our Gospel Reflections this week and today reads from the Gospel of John (12: 24-26), in which Jesus says, ‘If a person serves me, they must follow me, wherever I am, my servant will be there too. If anyone serves me, my Father will honour them’. Afterwards, Tess shares a little about the life of St Ignatius of Antioch, whose memorial we celebrate today.

Tess says, Ignatius was born in about the year 35 AD in Syria and became the third Bishop of Antioch in Syria about the year 69 (only about 40 years after the death of Jesus). He is believed to have been a student of the Apostle John and it has been suggested that Peter himself appointed Ignatius bishop.

Ignatius’ final journey from Antioch to Rome was made as a prisoner, condemned to death for being a Christian, during the persecution of the Emperor Trajan. On this journey, he wrote seven letters, revealing and affirming strongly his devotion to Christ and his belief in the Divinity and Resurrection from the dead. Ignatius urged unity in the communities through the celebration of the Eucharist. He spoke of the Church at Rome as being founded by Peter and Paul and deserving of special reverence.

In Rome, he was sentenced to die in the Colosseum. The Roman authorities hoped to make an example of him and discourage Christianity from spreading. Instead, his journey to Rome gave him the opportunity to meet with and instruct Christians along the way through his letters.

Ignatius described himself as the “wheat of Christ”. He was thrown to the lions in the Roman Colosseum and died almost at once. This happened between the years 107-110.

His most famous saying is contained in the letter he wrote to the Church at Rome:

I am writing to all the Churches and I enjoin all that I am dying willingly for God’s sake, if only you do not prevent it. I beg you, do not do me an untimely kindness. Allow me to be eaten by the beasts, which are my way of reaching to God. I am God’s wheat, and I am to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts, so that I may become the pure bread of Christ.

Today, Tess invites us to ask St Ignatius, who was devoted to Christ, who believed in the resurrection and the unity of communities through the Eucharist, to pray for us.