Posted on 10/25/2018 9:08:50 PM PDT by CMRosary
THE BELOVED DISCIPLE had just received the long-promised visit of our Lord inviting him to heaven when the Church, under Evaristus, completed the drawing up of the itinerary for her long pilgrimage to the end of time. The blessed period of the apostolic times was definitively closed, but the eternal City continued to augment her treasure of glory. Under this pontificate the virgin Domitilla, by her martyrdom, cemented the foundations of the new Jerusalem with the old. Then Ignatius of Antioch brought to the “Church that presides in charity” the testimony of his death; he was the wheat of Christ, and the teeth of the wild beasts in the Coliseum satisfied his desire of becoming a most pure bread.
Thou art the first Pontiff to whom the Church was entrusted after the departure of all those who had seen the Lord. The world could then say in all strictness: If we have known Christ according to the flesh, now we know him so no longer. The Church was now more truly an exile; at that period, which was not without perils and anxieties, her Spouse gave to thee the charge of teaching her to pursue alone her path of faith and hope and love. And thou didst not betray the confidence of our Lord. Earth owes thee, on this account, a special gratitude, O Evaristus; and a special reward is doubtless thine. Watch still over Rome and the Church. Teach us that we must be ready not only to fast here on earth, but to be resigned to the absence of the Bridegroom when he hides himself; and not the less to serve him and love him with our whole heart and mind and soul and strength, as long as the world endures, and he is pleased to leave us therein.
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Thanks for sharing about when popes were true to faith and martyrs.
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