Ignatius on His Way to Death

I am writing to all the churches, and I tell them all: I am dying for God willingly — as long as you do not get in the way. I beg you, do not be a kindness to me at the wrong moment. Let me be food for wild animals; through them I can reach God. I am God’s wheat, and I am being ground by the teeth of wild animals so that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. [a]

Better, coax the animals on, so that they become my tomb and leave nothing of my body behind; then, once I have fallen asleep, I will be no burden to anyone. I will truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ when the world cannot even see my body. Beg Christ for me, that through these instruments I may be found a sacrifice. [c]

I am not giving you orders, the way Peter and Paul did. They were apostles; I am a condemned man. They were free; I am a slave to this hour. But if I suffer, I will become the freedman of Jesus Christ, and I will rise in him a free man. For now, in chains, I am learning to crave nothing. [d]

The ruler of this age wants to snatch me away and to ruin the mind I have set on God. So let none of you who are there help him. Be on my side instead — which is God’s side. Do not talk about Jesus Christ and crave the world at the same time. [e]

Do not let envy live among you. Even if I beg you to your face, do not listen to me; listen instead to what I am writing here. I write to you alive, and in love with dying. My own desire has been crucified, and there is no fire in me that loves matter — only living water, speaking inside me, saying to me from within: “Come to the Father.” [f]

I take no pleasure in food that rots, nor in the pleasures of this life. I want the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, of David’s line; and for drink I want his blood, which is love that cannot perish. [h]