Memorial of Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Scripture:
Reflection:
Although St. Athanasius lived in the fourth century, he experienced persecution much like the earliest disciples. In today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we see the Apostles facing possible death, and through the intervention of Gamaliel, they escape with only a flogging.
St. Athanasius, like the Apostles, was misunderstood and persecuted because he preached the Incarnation. He emphasized that Jesus Christ is both fully divine and fully human, a concept that was defended against various heresies that denied either His full divinity or His full humanity. In fact, St. John Henry Newman describes Athanasius as a “principal instrument, after the Apostles, by which the sacred truths of Christianity have been conveyed and secured to the world”.
As bishop of Alexandria in North Africa, St. Athanasius stood up to the Arian heresy, which taught that Jesus was not fully divine. Roman emperors and some of his fellow bishops with Arian views called Bishop Athanasius a troublemaker. He was isolated and threatened; and banished from his people in Alexandria five times. He spent seventeen of the forty-six years of his episcopate in exile.
St. Athanasius risked his life and his reputation to continue to preach the truth of Jesus’ Incarnation because he believed it so deeply. He challenges us to do the same: to really believe that God loves our world, demonstrated by Jesus the Eternal Word entering our world in human form and sharing our planetary reality, loving us and everything else. We see that love in today’s Gospel, where Jesus feeds thousands of stranded and hungry people.
Following the example of Jesus and St. Athanasius, how do we love our world in the 21st century?
We cherish life on our planet: the species of animals and plants that have evolved over millennia; as well as the diverse cultures, which are the result of human genius to survive and thrive in various places around the world.
And so, we pray for courage to respond:
—when ecosystems are destroyed and indigenous people are removed from their lands,
—when people struggle to hold on to their cultural ways after they are displaced by climate change, war, or persecution,
—when we fail to see the face of Jesus in someone of a different ethnicity, nationality, or religion.
In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Patty Gillis is a retired Pastoral Minister. She serves on the Board of Directors at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit, Michigan. Patty is currently a member of the Laudato Si’ Vision Fulfillment Team and the Passionist Solidarity Network.