From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Contrary Workings of Nature and Grace  [VII]   
      
   Nature takes pleasure in a host of friends and relations; she boasts   
   of noble rank and high birth; makes herself agreeable to the powerful,   
   flatters the rich, and acclaims those who are like herself. But Grace   
   loves even her enemies, (Matt.5:44; Luke 6:27) takes no pride in the   
   number of her friends, and thinks little of high birth unless it be   
   allied to the greater virtue. She favours the poor rather than the   
   rich, and has more in common with the honourable than with the   
   powerful. She takes pleasure in an honest man, not in a deceiver ; she   
   constantly encourages good men to labour earnestly for the better   
   gifts, (1 Cor.12:31) and by means of these virtues to become like the   
   Son of God.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 54   
      
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   February 23rd - Polycarp of Smyrna BM (RM)   
      
   The earliest record of Christian martyrdom outside the Bible is that   
   of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. It speaks of the sufferings of the   
   Christians: "Who can fail to admire their nobleness of mind, and their   
   patience, with that love towards their Lord which they displayed?— who   
   when they were so torn with scourges, that the frame of their bodies,   
   even to the very inward veins and arteries, was laid open, still   
   patiently endured, while even those that stood by pitied and bewailed   
   them." Polycarp had known those who had known Jesus and was a disciple   
   of the beloved Apostle John the Divine, who had converted him about 80   
   AD. He taught, says his own pupil Irenaeus of Lyons, the things that   
   he learned from the Apostles, which the Church hands down, which are   
   true. Irenaeus, who as a young boy knew Polycarp, praised his gravity,   
   holiness, and majesty of countenance.   
      
   He kissed the chains of Saint Ignatius of Antioch on his way to   
   martyrdom in Rome. Saint Ignatius wrote a special letter to encourage   
   Polycarp when he was a young bishop and asked him to watch over his   
   church at Antioch and to write in his name to the churches of Asia   
   that he could not attend himself. Polycarp was probably the leading   
   Christian in Roman Asia in the second century and an important link   
   between the apostolic age and the great Christian writers of the   
   second century.   
      
   He had lived near Jerusalem and was proud of his early associations   
   with the Apostles. "I can tell," he wrote, "the very place in which   
   the blessed Saint Paul used to sit when he discoursed, and his goings   
   out and his comings in, and the stamp of his life, and his bodily   
   appearance, and the discourses which he held towards the congregation,   
   and how he would describe his intercourse with those who had seen the   
   Lord, and how he would relate their words."   
      
   Polycarp became bishop of Smyrna c. 96 and ruled the see for 70 years.   
   He was a staunch defender of orthodoxy and an energetic opponent of   
   heresy, especially Marcionism and Valentinianism (the most influential   
   of the Gnostic sects). A letter to him from Saint John has survived,   
   as has his Epistle to the Philippians, in which he quotes from 1 John   
   4:3 and warns the Philippians against the false teachings of Marcion,   
   whom he once called "the first-born of Satan," and which was so   
   esteemed that it was widely read in Asian churches even during Saint   
   Jerome's lifetime, but was not included in the canon of Scripture.   
      
   Toward the end of his life he visited Pope Saint Anicetus in Rome, and   
   when they could not agree on a date for Easter decided each would   
   observe his own date. To testify his respect and ensure that the bonds   
   of charity were unbroken, Anicetus invited Polycarp to celebrate the   
   Eucharist in the papal chapel on this occasion.   
      
   Soon after he returned to Smyrna, a youth called Germanicus was killed   
   at a pagan festival. The crowd cried out: "Away with the atheists   
   [meaning the Christians who refused to worship the state gods]. Fetch   
   Polycarp." And so, at age 90 (or 80 according to Eusebius), when the   
   persecution under Marcus Aurelius was at its height and men marveled   
   at the incredible resistance of the Christians, he suffered   
   grievously, despite his great age and feebleness, at the hands of the   
   mob. He had refused to sacrifice to the gods and acknowledge the   
   emperor's divinity.   
      
   He had been warned that they would arrest him, and had been persuaded   
   to retire to a farm outside the city, where he was betrayed by one of   
   his own household, who had been threatened with torture. The police   
   came armed as against a robber, and when they saw him marveled at his   
   age and calmness. "Was so much effort needed," they said, "to capture   
   such a venerable man?" It was the evening and Polycarp had retired to   
   rest, but he came down and, with great courtesy and hospitality,   
   offered them food and wine. He then asked leave that he might pray,   
   and stood and prayed for all whom he had known and for the whole   
   Church throughout the world.   
      
   Seating him on an ass, they brought him to Smyrna, where the governor,   
   on meeting him, took him into his own chariot, begging him to recant,   
   and on his refusal cast him out upon the road so that he dislocated   
   his leg. Lame and exhausted, he was dragged to the crowded arena and   
   was met by the deafening tumult of the spectators, who, seeing before   
   them the most eminent of the Christians, called upon him to blaspheme.   
      
   To this he replied: "For eighty and six years I have served Christ and   
   he has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and my   
   Savior now! If you require of me to swear by the genius of Caesar, as   
   you call it, hear my free confession: I am a Christian; if you wish to   
   learn the Christian doctrine, choose a day and hear me." The proconsul   
   said, "Persuade the people." To which Polycarp joyfully and   
   confidently answered, "I address myself to you; for we are taught to   
   give due honor to princes, so far as it is consistent with religion.   
   But before these people I cannot justify myself."   
      
   The proconsul admired his courage, but already the herald had thrice   
   proclaimed in the stadium: "Polycarp has confessed that he is a   
   Christian," and the crowd called for him to be thrown to the lions,   
   but the time of the games was already over. The Roman proconsul   
   threatened to throw him into a fire. To which Polycarp responded, "You   
   threaten me with a fire that will certainly die out. You know nothing   
   of the eternal fire that is reserved for the wicked." So, as he had   
   already foretold, Polycarp was ordered to be burned alive. He uttered   
   a prayer of praise and glory to God, and offered up himself.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)