Message of Abbot Paul - Wednesday 28th June 2023

Today, the eve of the great Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the Church remembers St Irenaeus, Bishop, Martyr and Doctor. Born in Smyrna, modern day Izmir in Turkey. sometime between 120 and 140, he heard St Polycarp preach, who in turn had hear St John the Evangelist, so in Irenaeus we have a direct connection with the age of the Apostles. He was Greek, of course, and brought up in a Christian family. He lived at a time of persecution and a time when the Church was fighting against heresy on all sides. There was, as yet, no real central authority and the first councils had not yet been called to deal with heresy and divisions in the Church. He became a priest and was sent to Gaul where he was eventually elected Bishop of Lyon. He was probably martyred for being a Christian and a bishop in the year 202. His great theological work is intitled Against the Heresies in which he refuted Gnosticism by offering the three pillars of orthodoxy (right belief): the Scriptures, Tradition and the Teaching of the Apostles and their Successors. I must confess that he is one of my favourites among the saints, a man to whom the Church owes a great debt for the clarity and purity of her faith.

 

​Our Gospel passage today comes from Matthew, (Mt 7: 15-20), continuing our reading of the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus warns his disciples against the dishonesty and hypocrisy of others, concluding with the famous proverb, “By their fruits you will know them.” Here is what Jesus has to say. “Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits. Can people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, a sound tree produces good fruit but a rotten tree bad fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits.” This is a warning that applies to every area of human life. I leave you to apply the words of Jesus where you see fit.