Saint Justin
Martyr, Memorial
Other Celebrations for this Day:
Introduction
St. Justin, a philosopher living in the second century, was an honest seeker of the truth. Disappointed at pagan philosophies, he came to recognise the way of Christ as the true philosophy and the full truth. After his conversion he served the Church as an apologist (defender of the faith) and founded in Rome the first school of Christian philosophy, a sort of catechumenate for those interested in Christianity. In this school and in his writings, he presents Christianity as the complete and surpassing fulfilment of pagan thought and culture. Stating that no one gives up the truth for error, when the judge condemned him, he was beheaded for his faith.
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
we celebrate today the remembrance
of the philosopher and martyr St. Justin.
He did not cease to search for the truth
until he had found your Son Jesus Christ.
Like him, may we become restless
until we have discovered all the depth
of the love of your Son,
who is our way, our truth, our life.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
First Reading
The message of the cross remains foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God,
as scripture says:
I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise
nd frustrate
the intelligence of the intelligent.
Where is the wise person? Where is the scribe? Where is the speaker of this age? Hasn’t God made the wisdom of the world foolish?
Initially, God spoke the language of wisdom, and the world did not recognize God through wisdom. Then God chose, through the foolishness of what we preach, to save those who believe.
The Jews seek miracles, and the Greeks seek wisdom,
while we proclaim Christ crucified, a great scandal for the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles!
But he is Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, for those called by God among both Jews and Gentiles.
The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (5) The Lord delivered me from all my fears.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear and be glad.
R. The Lord delivered me from all my fears.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. The Lord delivered me from all my fears.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. The Lord delivered me from all my fears.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the Lord is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. The Lord delivered me from all my fears.
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Let your light shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Salt and Light. Image of the Disciples: Salt and Light
You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It has become useless. It can only be thrown away, and people will trample on it.
You are the light of the world. A city built on a mountain cannot be hidden.
No one lights a lamp and then covers it; instead, it is placed on a lampstand where it provides light for everyone in the house.
In the same way, your light must shine before others so that they may see the good you do and praise your Father in heaven.
Jesus and the Law
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
I tell you this: as long as heaven and earth last, not the smallest letter or dot in the law will change until everything is fulfilled.
So then, whoever breaks the least important of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys them and teaches others to do the same will be great in the kingdom of heaven.
Prayers of the Faithful
Prayer over the Gifts
God, source of the truth and of all life,
we come with bread and wine
to join Jesus your Son
in his praise and thanks to you.
Accept our thanks for our faith,
which came to us as your free gift.
Let the Holy Spirit express in us
that we are happy to have found your Son
and to be his disciples
and through him to see fulfilled
our quest for life and love.
All thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
happy that we have your Son as our guide,
may we in your Church, like St. Justin,
be eager to make others know and love Jesus.
Do not even let the foolish wisdom of the cross
deter us from being faithful to him
and to proclaim him as the living Lord
who understands our sufferings
and who make us see
that even the difficulties of life make sense.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
REFLECTION
St. Justin
[Courtesy: Vatican News]
Coming to know God face to face. He’ll get there, but this man with a sharp intellect and an even sharper soul starts from afar, from paganism. In Samaria in the first century after Christ, Justin grew up nourished by philosophy. The masters of Greek philosophical thought are the light guiding his search for the infinite Being. He has a burning desire for this knowledge; if he could, he would like to grasp and explain that infinite Being with the power of reason.
Disappointed by the many philosophies
For Justin, the final goal of philosophy is the “vision of God.” But which philosophical school could even come close to this? The Samaritan from Flavia Neapolis – Justin’s native city – knocks at the doors of the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagorists. None of them manages to lead him to that ambitious goal. Justin’s heart warms a little when he meets a Platonic thinker. “The knowledge of incorporeal realities and the contemplation of the Ideas excited my mind,” he writes. He decides to continue his search far from the crowded cities.
You can speak of God if you know Him
In the isolated place he chooses – described in his “Dialogue with Trypho” – he meets an old man, with whom he converses about the idea of God. Justin’s effort to arrive at the perfect definition of the divinity falls apart, however, when he is challenged: If a philosopher has never seen or heard God, asks the old man, how can he formulate even one thought about Him? The dialogue then shifts to the Prophets: in centuries past they spoke of God and prophesied in His name about the Son who would come into the world. This is the turning point. Justin converts to Christianity and around the year 130, at Ephesus, he receives baptism.
The genius at the service of the Gospel
Some time after this Justin finds himself in Rome, where he opens a philosophical school and tirelessly proclaims Christ to pagan scholars. He writes and speaks of the God he has finally come to know, using the language and categories of the philosophers. Above all, he uses his intelligence and skill in defense of persecuted Christians, as we see in his Apologies. Justin attacks the professional slanderers, but his public controversy with the philosopher Crescentius – a rabidly anti-Christian thinker backed by the politically powerful – is fatal. Justin is thrown in jail, ironically, as an “atheist,” that is, as a subversive and an enemy of the State. He and six companions are beheaded around the year 165, under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Unforgotten after 2,000 years
The fame of the missionary-philosopher, to whom we owe the oldest extant description of the Eucharistic liturgy, traverses the centuries. Even Vatican II recalls his teaching in two pillars of the Council: the documents Lumen gentium and Gaudium et Spes. For Justin, Christianity is the historical and personal manifestation of the Logos in his totality. For this reason, Justin says, “Everything beautiful, no matter who said it, belongs to us Christians.”