Today’s reading from the First Letter to Timothy is a very simple proposition – or is it.
We believe that Jesus came to call sinners. We believe that Jesus died to do just that. We also believe that God forgives anyone who repents of their sins.
However, today’s memorial brings us a rather sorry chapter in the history of the church that relates specifically to these tenets of our faith.
Not all Christians were courageous enough to stand firm in their faith when confronted with the tortures of the Roman persecutions. We don’t think about it much, but there were many cases of men and women renouncing their faith during the persecutions. When I read the story of the martyrdom of my own patron saint, St. Lawrence, I have to admit that I wonder if I could equal such courage.
The men and women who renounced their faith were called apostates. This group posed a great problem for the Church because after the immediate threat of persecution, some of them asked to be readmitted to the practice of the Christian faith. That’s where the story of the two men we remember today, Saint Cornelius and St. Cyprian, comes into the picture. Saint Cornelius was elected pope in 251 A.D. and St. Cyprian was the bishop of Carthage. They were friends and supported one another in their service to their brothers and sisters in the faith. They also insisted together that apostates who repented and did penance should be readmitted to the faith. The opposing view was held by not a few of his fellow bishops. They argued that apostates should never be forgiven for forsaking the faith. As Pope, St. Cornelius declared such thinking a heresy. St. Cyprian supported St. Cornelius. The heresy was named Novatianism, named for its chief proponent.
Discord grew because of this pronouncement. Pope St. Cornelius was exiled for his views and died of the hardships imposed upon him by that exile. He is considered a martyr by the Church. St. Cyprian, his supporter, was himself martyred during the persecution of Emperor Valerian. Their names are among the martyrs mentioned in the Roman Eucharistic Prayer (Eucharistic Prayer I).
God’s mercy has no limits. Our present Holy Father has been quoted as saying that God is simply waiting to forgive us if we approach and ask for pardon. Unfortunately, human beings are not so ready to forgive as we will hear in tomorrow’s Gospel. But that’s a homily for tomorrow. Today we give thanks for the forgiveness we receive each time we approach God’s altar.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator