13th August. Wednesday, Week 19

Saints Pontian and Hippolytus, martyrs; also of St Fachtna, bishop.

Pontian and Hippolytus (2nd-3rd century) both suffered martyrdom through being sent to hard labour in the mines of Sardinia, in the persecution under emperor Maximian in the year 235. One had been pope for five years, the other an antipope for 18. They died reconciled. Their bodies were brought back to Rome and buried as martyrs. Hippolytus had been a rigorist who fought for an ideal Church composed only of pure souls separated from the world. He and his group remained in schism through the term of three popes. His writings are our main source for knowledge of the Roman liturgy and the structure of the Church around 200 A.D.

Fachtna of Tulachteann, Co. Cork (6th century), established the monastic school of Rosscarberry. Before that was one of the pupils of Saint Ita, and founded a monastery (Molana) on an island in the Blackwater, near Youghal. He is patron saint of the diocese of Ross

1) Ezekiel 9:1-7; 10:18-22

(The wrath of God is poured out on Jerusalem: an interpretation of the Babylonian invasion.)

Then he cried in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, “Draw near, you executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand. ” And six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand; among them was a man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house.

The Lord called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his side; and said to him, “Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of those who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” To the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and kill; your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. Cut down old men, young men and young women, little children and women, but touch no one who has the mar. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were in front of the house. Then he said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go!” So they went out and killed in the city.

Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house and stopped above the cherubim. The cherubim lifted up their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight as they went out with the wheels beside them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord; and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim. Each had four faces, each four wings, and underneath their wings something like human hands. As for what their faces were like, they were the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the river Chebar. Each one moved straight ahead.

Gospel: Matthew 18:15-20

“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. ”

We Are Never Alone

Each of the readings witnesses to God’s goodwill towards his people. Ezekiel sees that in spite of disasters looming ahead for Jerusalem, the life of his people will go on, through the Lord’s accompanying his people into exile; then Saint Matthew affirms the presence of Jesus with the church community, even of “two or three gathered in my name.”

The death of some in battle is part of Ezekiel’s vision of what lies ahead. After the angel of life has gone through the temple and city of Jerusalem to mark with an “X” the foreheads of those who love God, then the angels of death will do their grim work, beginning with the elders out in front of the temple. Temple and city are strewn with corpses and desolation reigns. The glory of the Lord departs from the Holy of Holies and moves out of the city eastward, till it rests on the Mount of Olives.

Ezekiel paints a portrait of God’s people in which evil and virtue, death and life, loss and hope co-exist. Just as a purist disdain cannot be fully at home within this people of God, neither can a person without ideals and hopes. A community arrives at its best moments when the goodness and virtue of its members challenge the evil and selfishness that are also there. Individually and collectively we are a blend of the good and the bad. We need one another, so that goodness in one challenges the need in another, and each acts as a purifying agent on the community.

Jesus makes clear that we need to interact with other believers in the church. Some disputes are easily settled between the individuals concerned; others require mediation by someone outside the immediate circle. The judgment of the church takes place in a communitarian style, not on the word of a single person but on the word of two or three witnesses. Jesus also wants us to pray within the communion of the church. Otherwise even the best of our moments can degenerate into mere individualism. In contrast, “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst.”