Today April 14

Today is the feast of St. Justin Martyr. "Martyr" was appended to his name in honor of the witness of his manner of death. Justin was a philosophy major, a pagan who came to be dissatisfied with pagan philosophies including the Stoics, Peripatetics, Pythagoreans and Platonists. He was walking on the seashore one day contemplating a maxim of Plato's when an old man appeared behind him, called out to him, and told him of a still more excellent way: that of Jesus of Nazareth, foretold by the Hebrew prophets and then fulfilled in his person. The old man told the younger to pray for light that he might attain the knowledge that only God can give. He did study the Scriptures, as well as the eloquent example of the early martyrs themselves: "Even at the time when I was content with the doctrines of Plato, when I heard Christians accused and saw them fearlessly meet death and all that is considered terrible, I felt that such men could not possibly have been leading the life of vicious pleasure with which they were credited." How very philosophical of him! Although he was a Palestinian, he traveled a lot and was probably baptized in Ephesus or Alexandria at the age of 30.

He was a zealous and straightforward guy and I think neither the pagans (who felt threatened by him) nor the Christians (who were a little daunted by him) knew quite what to do with him. Although there HAD been a few Christian apologists before, none of them -- nor anybody else, it seemed -- shared about the secret rites of the early Church. Most Christians were simple and unlettered and content to put up with misunderstanding to prevent profanation of their Eucharists. Justin decided to blow the lid off all that, saying: "It is our duty to make known our doctrine, lest we incur the guilt and the punishment of those who have sinned through ignorance." He wrote 2 Apologies which are sometimes combined into a single work and "A Dialogue with Trypho the Jew" which have come down to us. It's striking how similar their meetings on Sunday were to our present Mass!

The Apology seems to have been addressed to the Emperor Antoninus and his two sons. It protests against persecution of Christians on the basis of their religion alone, as they were innocent of any other crime. He had to defend himself not long thereafter before the Roman prefect Rusticus. He declaimed that he had studied all branches of learning and finished with Christianity "because they have the truth." He explained his faith in the Creator, his son Jesus, the savior and judge. He explained that God is everywhere, so they needn't only gather in one particular place or temple. The prefect asked him, "If I have you beaten and beheaded, do you believe you will then go up to heaven?" "If I suffer as you say, I hope to receive the reward of those who keep Christ's commandments . . ." "So you think that you will go up to heaven, there to received a reward?" "I don't think it, I know it." "Very well. Come here and sacrifice to the gods." Justin: "Nobody in his senses gives up truth for falsehood." And thus he went the way of those fearless martyrs he had witnessed himself as a pagan. He was scourged and beheaded, along with 6 others, in the year 165.