HACIENDO EQUIPO

Following Pauline tradition, Ignatius saw Church as “the body of Christ” and Eucharist as “the sign of unity” in the Church. In the body of Christ, Christ is the head of the body and all Christians are the members of the body.191 _{Any divisiveness in the community destroys the unity} of the body of Christ, the Church.192 _{Unity being the primary concern, Ignatius defended the} unity of God, unity of Christ, unity of the Church and the unity of the faithful. This led Benedict XVI to call him the “Doctor of Unity.”193 _{Benedict XVI also says that Ignatius dedicated himself}

188 _{Niederwimmer, 194. Niederwimmer says that chapters 11-15 give instructions for the good order and discipline} in the Church. It is very important that in this section the author has included a session on Eucharist and the preparation demanded for it.

189 _{Cf. Ibid., 154.}

190 _{Ibid., 200. Niederwimmer writes that when the local communities began to choose officials, the itinerant} charismatics collided with the officeholders representing the community. In this context, the text is concerned about achieving a resolution between these two groups.

191 _{Greeley, 12-3.}

192 _{Ignatius of Antioch, "The Letter to the Smyrnaeans," The Seven Epistles of St. Ignatius of Antioch.1:2; The word} for “body” used here in Greek is sarx, which means flesh. This is the word used by St. John (1:14; and Chapter 6). For Ignatius, the union of the Christian community is formed by the body and blood of Christ. Cf. Owen F. Cummings, Eucharistic Doctors: A Theological History (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2005), 13-4. Cf. LaVerdiere,

The Eucharist in the New Testament and the Early Church, 160. Cf. also, Š John S. Romanides, "The Ecclesiology

of St. Ignatius of Antioch," The Romans (1956), http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.11.en.the ecclesiology_of_st._ignatius_of_antioch.01.htm.

193 _{Benedict XVI, Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2008), 16;} 14. Benedict XVI says that by “unity of Christ” means the divine and the human nature in Christ. When the various heresies raised their heads separating the divine and human nature of Christ, Ignatius defended the divine and human

for the unity of the Church and his “irresistible longing for union with Christ was the foundation of a real ‘mysticism of unity.’”194 _{Ignatius’ view of the unity of Church, which is the foundation} of his Eucharistic ecclesiology, can be found in his model of “One Eucharist – One Bishop - One Church”:

Take ye heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to [show forth] the unity of His blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants: that so, whatsoever ye do, ye may do it according to [the will of] God.195

Theologians from catholic and orthodox traditions find the implications of the unity of Churches in this statement. Theologians like Afanassief and Zizioulas agree that what Ignatius had in his mind was the local church gathered around the altar under the leadership of the bishop.196

Cummings says that Ignatius had “a profound experience of union with God-in-Christ through the Eucharist,”197 _{with which he relates the entire Christian life. Ignatius calls Christians} “God bearers, temple bearers and Christ bearers,”198 _{names that could be appropriate only for the} partakers of the Eucharist. Ignatius, who believes that the Church presides in charity,199 _exhorts the members of the Church that their Eucharistic celebration should be the center of their self-

nature of Christ. By “unity of God” we mean that in God alone unity is found in its pure and original state. A Trinitarian God is the absolute unity.

194 _{Ibid., 14. Ignatius of Antioch, "The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians," in The Seven Epistles of St. Ignatius of}

Antioch, V.2. "Letter to the Philadelphians," in The Seven Epistles of St. Ignatius of Antioch (Catholic Culture.org),

VII.2; "Epistle to the Magnesians," in Early Christian Writings, VII.2; "The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians," in

Early Christian Writings, VII.2.

195 _{"Letter to the Philadelphians," Ch. 4; cf. LaVerdiere, The Eucharist in the New Testament and the Early Church.} LaVerdiere writes: “This passage is a fine example of how Ignatius drew on tradition, the life of the Church and personal experience to form a unique theological, pastoral, and spiritual synthesis.” See, Zizioulas, Part 1&2; Raymond Johanny, "Ignatius of Antioch," in The Eucharist of the Early Christians, ed. Willy Rordorf and Others (New York: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1978), 59.

196 _{Afanasiev, "The Church Which Presides in Love," 95. Cf. also, Zizioulas, Part 1.} 197 _{Cummings, 12.}

198 _{Greeley, 13.}

199 _{Ignatius of Antioch, "Ignatius to the Romans," in Early Christian Writings (Lightfoot & Harmer), Prologue. Cf.} "The Letter to the Smyrnaeans". Ch. 6. Irenaeus warns the Smyrnaens against the unbelievers about whom he says that they “have no regard for love; no care for the widow, or the orphan, or the oppressed; of the bond, or of the free; of the hungry, or of the thirsty.” Cf. also, Benedict XVI, The Fathers, vol. 1 (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2008), 16.

understanding, and also for their frequent celebration of the Eucharist as it effects and expresses the Christian concord.200 _{Eucharist is also a way of life for Ignatius and he warns that we cannot} be a Eucharistic people in our relationship with other people when we are cut off from the Eucharist. He tried to live a Eucharistic life being the advocate of love and unity in the Church and he also wanted to see his martyrdom as an expression of the Eucharistic way of life:

…Let me be given to the wild beasts, for through them I can attain unto God. I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread [of Christ]. Rather entice the wild beasts, that they may become my sepulcher and may leave no part of my body behind, so that I may not, when I am fallen asleep, be burdensome to anyone. Then shall I be truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world shall not so much as see my body. Supplicate the Lord for me, that through these instruments I may be found a sacrifice to God.201

Ignatius associated his martyrdom with the altar on which the Eucharist is celebrated and the sacrifice of Christ is remembered,202 _{and saw his martyrdom as God’s will and “the fulfillment of} his baptism and of his participation in the Eucharist.”203 _{Ignatius, with the eschatological}

meaning in his mind, called Eucharist “the medicine of immortality.”204

Ignatius used the adjective “Catholic” for the first time while he warns the Smyrnaeans against the separatist attitude among them, and it exposes his ecclesiological vision that the unity of the Church exists in relation to Eucharist and bishop:

Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is[administered] either even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid.205

200 _{Antioch, "The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians," Ch. 13. Cf. also, LaVerdiere, The Eucharist in the New}

Testament and the Early Church, 12; Cummings, 12.

201 _{Antioch, "Ignatius to the Romans," IV.1-2; Cf. also Cummings, 21.} 202 _{Antioch, "Ignatius to the Romans," II.2.}

203 _{LaVerdiere, The Eucharist in the New Testament and the Early Church, 155-6.}

204 _{Antioch, "The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians," XX.2; "The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians," XX.} 205 _{"The Letter to the Smyrnaeans". VIII.}

For Ignatius, the bishop is at the center of the true unity and it is clearly seen in the celebration of the Eucharist.206 _{He viewed the bishop as the representative of Christ who creates unity in the} community that is organized around him.207 _{Many believe that, what Ignatius means by}

“catholic” Church is the Church in communion with the bishop, orthodox in its teaching, and in spiritual communion with the invisible or the heavenly Church. Most Catholics mean it as universal Church in its context of geographical expansion, although it is against the views of many orthodox and protestant theologians.208