Cyprian of Carthage (Mid-week)

 

Cyprian of Carthage

Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message

September 15, 2015

Today is the feast day of Cyprian of Carthage, bishop and martyr, who died in A.D. 258.   A kindly and gentle soul, he was raised as a Roman pagan in North Africa, converted to Christianity in 246, and two years later was chosen bishop of Carthage, in large part because of his public speaking skills.  He lived through the Empire-wide persecution of Christians under the Emperor Decius by going underground.  Stalwarts severely criticized him for not standing up for his faith publicly and dying as a martyr.  But throughout the persecution, he wrote letters of encouragement and counsel to all his diocese, and this largely kept the church together.  Once the campaign of harassment was ended, Cyprian came out of hiding only to have to deal with a major argument in the church: the same stalwarts criticized those who had publicly lapsed during the persecution, not wanting them to be allowed to come back into the church.  They were not worthy to be Christians, they said.  Cyprian argued that the lapsed should be met with compassion and wisdom, and that rather than excluding them forever, the church should welcome them back.  An appropriate (and generally brief) time of penance might help them and their critics recognize the rightness of this.  Where rigorists like Novatian (and later Donatus) argued that worthiness was a prerequisite for Church membership and for the sacraments to be valid, Cyprian argued that it was God’s worthiness that was at issue, not that of congregants or priests, and that mercy was the way to follow Jesus in treating those who had strayed.   In a second great persecution, under the Emperor Valerian, Cyprian was placed under house arrest and then beheaded, something that must have pleased his rigorist critics. 

Cyprian’s writings are important because they establish at a very early date doctrines and practices that were to become the mainstream in later Christian faith.  He calls the Eucharist a “sacrifice,” and says that the priest acts in the place of Christ, repeating his words and imitating his actions, at the altar.  Cyprian argues that blessing things is not intended to fix implicit unholiness or cursing. He notes that the Lord’s Prayer line “hallowed be thy name” does not mean that God’s name is not holy and needs to be made so, but rather that in admitting and confessing God’s holiness, we come to share in it.   He also stresses the importance of bishops in keeping the Church faithful to its mission and past.  Those who dislike the institutional church might consider his words: “Without accepting the Church as your Mother, it is hard to accept God as your Father.”   The parents he thus describes are gentle and kind, not domestic tyrants. 

Grace and Peace,  Fr. Tony+