The Wheat of Christ: Homily on Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr

Queen of the Americas Guild Annual Conference

Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe

La Crosse, Wisconsin

17 October 2026

Phil 3, 17 – 4, 1

Ps 34, 2-3. 4-5. 6-7. 8-9

Jn 12, 24-26

Homily

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

According to tradition, Saint Ignatius of Antioch was the child whom Our Lord took into his arms, when he was instructing the disciples on the simplicity of heart which should be theirs.[1] Whether the tradition be true or not, there is no doubt whatsoever that this great saint manifested, to an heroic degree, the simplicity of a heart placed completely into the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus. Having been consecrated a priest and Bishop, he had the care of the Church in the ancient See of Antioch, of which Saint Peter had been the first Bishop. He had served Our Lord with all his heart, and, when he was arrested by the Emperor Trajan for teaching the Catholic Faith, he longed to give his life for Christ Whom he loved with all his heart. Put in chains as a common criminal, he was brought from Antioch to Rome, where he was tried and condemned to be fed to lions in the Colosseum.

At the time of his arrest and during the voyage by ship from Antioch to Rome, the Roman authorities tortured him cruelly, doing everything possible to extract from him a denial of the faith, a betrayal of Our Lord. But his one concern was that the faithful, in their love for him, would, in some way, try to prevent his martyrdom and thus deprive him of his ultimate act of love for Our Lord. Saint Jerome, in his account of the life of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, tells us:

When he was sentenced to be devoured, and heard the roaring of the lions, his impatience to suffer made him exclaim: “I am the wheat of Christ; let me be ground by the teeth of wild beasts, that I may become the pure bread.”[2]

His communion with Our Lord throughout his lifetime, especially in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, reached its fullness in his martyrdom, by which he completed in his own body the suffering and death of Our Lord.[3]

The life and death of Saint Ignatius of Antioch reflect in a totally exemplary manner the truth which Our Lord teaches us in today’s Gospel. Just like the grain of wheat, so also our life, if it is to bear fruit for eternal life, must accept a share in the suffering and death of Our Lord for the salvation of the world. Satan tempts us to view our life in an earthly way and to seek what is easiest and most comfortable for us. But Our Lord teaches us to view our life and everything in our life in the perspective of eternal life, of our origin in God and destiny to be with Him – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – in the Kingdom of Heaven. Our only lasting happiness comes through dying to ourselves, in order to live for Our Lord and, living for Him Who gave up His life for our eternal salvation, to live for our neighbor, for our neighbor’s eternal good. Our Lord’s instruction to us is simple: “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.”[4]

One only thing in life should concern us: to be with Our Lord on the way of the Cross, which leads to eternal joy and peace, eternal life with Him. Our one concern should be our faithful obedience to the clear and firm maternal counsel of Our Blessed Mother, at the Wedding Feast of Cana, when she took the wine stewards, in their distress, to her Divine Son: “Do whatever He tells you.”[5] In today’s First Reading, Saint Paul reminds us that “our citizenship is in heaven,”[6] and he exhorts us to “stand firm in the Lord.”[7] Let us pray, through the intercession of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, that we may never become “enemies of the cross of Christ,”[8] worshipping our earthly comfort and pleasure, but rather live always as faithful coworkers of Our Lord in His saving work, no matter what the cost, even if it be death, as it was for Saint Ignatius of Antioch.

Rejoicing in the memory of Saint Ignatius of Antioch and in his living intercession on our behalf, let us now lift up our sinful hearts, one with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus, ever open to receive us and to pour forth into our hearts the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit. Through the Eucharistic Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us become with Him altars of sacrifice from which the love of God is proclaimed and witnessed in the world. May our hearts, like the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the pure heart of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, rest ever more perfectly in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so that the word of Christ may be manifest in our lives: “He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’.”[9]

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE

[1] Cf. Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year, Christmas, Book II, tr. Laurence Shepherd (Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications, 2000), p. 456. [Guéranger]; cf. Mt 18, 2-4; Mk 9, 36-37; and Lk 9, 47-48.

[2] Guéranger, p. 459.

[3] Cf. Col 1, 24.

[4] Jn 12, 26.

[5] Jn 2, 5.

[6] Phil 3, 20.

[7] Phil 4, 1.

[8] Phil 3, 18.

[9] Jn 7, 38.