7th Week of Holy Cross Readings Thursday

1 Corinthians 12:12-27
As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. Now the body is not a single part, but many. If a foot should say, “Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. Or if an ear should say, “Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended. If they were all one part, where would the body be? But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I do not need you.” Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety, whereas our more presentable parts do not need this. But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another. If (one) part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.

Matthew 22:15-22
Then the Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap him in speech. They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what
belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” When they heard this they were amazed, and leaving him they went away.

Prayer of the Faithful, vol. III
OPENING PRAYER
O loving One,
you make your sun to rise on the good and the bad,
and your rain to fall upon the just and the unjust;
let the light of your divine gifts shine in the hearts of those who adore you.
Illumine us by the light of your feast,
so that resplendent with these lights we may give you glory,
now and forever.
Amen.

Saint of the Day: All Souls Day (Roman/Latin Rite)
Artemius (d. in Antioch, 362), known as Challita in the Maronite tradition, was a general of the Roman Empire, dux Aegypti (imperial prefect of Roman Egypt). He is considered a saint by the Orthodox Church, with the name of Artemius of Antioch.
Artemius was an Egyptian by birth and a chief commander under Emperor Constantine the Great. Constantius II ordered Artemius to go in the lands beyond the Danube and to bring back to Constantinople the relics of Andrew the Apostle, Luke the Evangelist and Saint Timothy. Artemius accomplished his task and was rewarded with the appointment to the rank of dux Aegypti (360).
One year later Constantius was succeeded by his cousin Julian, who was a Pagan. The people of Alexandria accused Artemius of having demolished their temples, and broken down their idols, and Julian condemned him to death. Artemius was beheaded in 362 in the city of Antioch, where he had been recalled by Emperor Julian the Apostate for maladministration of his province.

Meditation:
St. Ignatius and St. Ephrem on The Mother of God

“Through Eve death, life through Mary”
– St. Jerome, (Epistula 22 ad Eustochium)

Mary the Blessed Virgin, proclaimed the “God-Bearer” (Mother of God) by the Council of Ephesus, is significant throughout the theology of the period of the Fathers of the Church. As noted by Chorbishop Seely Joseph Beggiani in his book Early Syriac Theology, “It was natural for Syriac writers to see Mary as the fulfillment of Old Testament types and a symbol of the future church.
What must be kept in mind is that the Fathers, often were confronted with heresies that challenged the Church’s doctrinal understanding of the Triune nature of God, and the unity of the “divine” and “human” natures in the Son of God made Man, Jesus of Nazareth. Therefore, theological writings on Mary in the Patristic Era are more often than not a defense of the truth of the Incarnation, and a safeguard of the actual humanity of Christ. We find these teachings in doctrinal proclamations, liturgical documents, apologetic arguments defending the “true faith,” theological tomes, and in the case of St. Ephrem and others in the Syriac tradition — poetry.
St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
St. Ignatius was the second successor of St. Peter as the Bishop of Antioch. He was born in Syria sometime around the year 50A.D. and was martyred in the arena in Rome between 98 and 117A.D. Although the date of his birth makes it impossible, according to some early writers he was the child taken up into the arms of Jesus in Mark 9:36-37. “He then took a little child whom he set among them and embraced, and he said to them, ‘Anyone who welcomes a little child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’ “ On his way to Rome to be martyred, he wrote letters to the various Christian communities he passed through, leaving us with seven letters that allow us a glimpse of the early Church. In the following quotes from his Letter to the Ephesians, we see Mary’s role as the mother of Jesus, and related to this her connection with the action of the Holy Spirit:
There is only one Physician, having both flesh and spirit, born and unborn,
God become man, true life in death, from Mary and from God, first passible
and then impassible – Jesus Christ our Lord. …
For our God Jesus Christ, according to God’s economy, was conceived
by Mary of the seed of David, but also by the Holy Spirit. He was born and
baptized, that by his Passion he might purify the water.

We see here also that St. Ignatius places Mary within God’s “economy” of salvation. He is one of the first Church Fathers to use this term, which eventually becomes a technical term that refers to God’s plan of salvation being perfect and central to the total revelation of God to his people. Mary, who is always linked to the ministry of her Son and Lord, in bringing salvation to the Father’s creation, is overshadowed by the Father’s Holy Spirit at the Annunciation, that same Spirit who raises Jesus form the dead – the mystery of faith, the economy of salvation.
St. Ephrem, the Harp of the Holy Spirit
Ephrem was born in Syria around 306 and died in Nisibis in 373. He became the greatest example of Syriac poetry in the Patristic period, writing over three million lines of verse. The beauty and quantity of his work awarded him the title Harp of the Holy Spirit. “His verses not only overflow with beauty of form and lyricism but also express rich religious and theological thought. The poet reveals his feelings of deep awe and admiration when considering the holy Virgin and her virtues.” Living some two centuries after St. Ignatius and the Apostolic Fathers (those Fathers who knew the Apostles or disciples of the Apostles), St. Ephrem not only sees Mary in relation to doctrine and apologetics, but also as the object of spiritual devotion. This is illustrated in the following quote:
Only you (Jesus) and your Mother
are more beautiful than everything
For on you, O Lord, there is no mark;
neither is there any stain in your Mother

Some have held that St. Ephrem is one of the first Christian writers to explicitly refer to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. He wrote:
In Mary, as in an eye,
the Light has made a dwelling and purified her spirit,
refined her thoughts, sanctified her mind, and
transfigured her virginity.

For St. Ephrem, Mary is the symbol of the Church, the People of God, who await the Kingdom of God, whose gates were opened by Christ. In his Hymns on the Crucifixion, he wrote:
Three angels were seen at the tomb:
these three announced that he was risen on the third day.
Mary, who saw him, is the symbol of the Church
which will be the first to recognize the signs
of his Second Coming.
Conclusion
This brief exposition introduces us to the vital role of Mary in the “economy of salvation,” and this role is illustrated even in the primitive Church and throughout the Patristic tradition and beyond. Mary especially in her most important title, Mother of God, affirms the true humanity of Christ, accepts the power of the Holy Spirit in the Word becoming flesh, and mirrors the Church as being the daughter of Christ and vessel of the Holy Spirit.
(Rev.) David A. Fisher