The Wheat of God

Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the church that has received mercy in the majesty of the Most High Father and of Jesus Christ his only Son; the church loved and given light by the will of the one who willed everything that exists, in keeping with the love of Jesus Christ our God; the church that presides in the territory of the Romans — worthy of God, worthy of honor, worthy to be called blessed, worthy of praise, worthy of getting what it asks for, worthy to be called pure; the church that presides over the love, named after Christ and named after the Father. I greet it in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. To those who are united in flesh and spirit to every one of his commands, filled undividedly with the grace of God, strained clean of every color not their own: my fullest greetings, blamelessly, in Jesus Christ our God.

Since I prayed to God, I have been given the sight of your faces — faces worthy of God — and I was asking to receive still more. For as a prisoner in Christ Jesus I hope to greet you, if it is his will that I be counted worthy to go through to the end. The beginning has been well managed, if I am given the grace to take up my portion with nothing in the way. What I am afraid of is your love, in case it does me an injury. It is easy for you to do what you want; it is hard for me to reach God, if you will not let me be. [g] I do not want you to be people-pleasers; I want you to please God — as in fact you already do. I will never have another chance like this to reach God, and you will never have a better piece of work put to your name than staying silent. If you say nothing about me, I become a word of God; if you fall in love with my flesh, I go back to being a voice. [j]

Grant me nothing beyond this: that I be poured out to God while the altar is still standing ready. Then, made into a choir in love, you can sing to the Father in Christ Jesus that God counted the overseer of Syria worthy — sent for from the east and found in the west. It is good to set from the world toward God, so that I may rise in him.

You have never begrudged anyone anything; you have taught others. What I want is that the lessons you lay down when you teach should hold firm. [n]

Only ask that I be given strength inside and out — that I may not only talk but want it, not only be called a Christian but be found one. If I am found one, then I can be called one, and be faithful then, when I no longer show up in the world. Nothing that shows is good. Our God Jesus Christ, now that he is in the Father, is all the more visible. Christianity is not a work of persuasion but of greatness, when the world hates it.

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. [q]

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.

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.

From Syria all the way to Rome I have been fighting wild animals, by land and sea, night and day, chained to ten leopards — that is, a squad of soldiers, who only get worse when they are treated well. Their abuse is making more of a disciple of me; but that is not what counts me righteous. [s]

May I have the good of the wild animals that are ready for me, and I pray they make short work of me. I will coax them into devouring me quickly — not do what they did with some men, whom they lost their nerve and left untouched. And if they are unwilling and refuse, I will force them.

Bear with me. I know what is good for me. Now I am beginning to be a disciple. May nothing seen or unseen begrudge me my reaching Jesus Christ. Fire and cross, packs of wild animals, cuttings, tearings apart, the scattering of bones, the chopping off of limbs, the grinding of the whole body, the devil’s cruel punishments — let them all come on me, only let me reach Jesus Christ.

The ends of the world will do me no good, nor will the kingdoms of this age. It is better for me to die into Christ Jesus than to be king over the ends of the earth. I am looking for the one who died for us; I want the one who rose again for our sake. My birth is close at hand. [w]

Bear with me, brothers. Do not get in the way of my living. Do not want me dead. Do not hand over to the world a man who wants to belong to God, and do not cheat him with matter. Let me receive pure light. When I arrive there, I will be a human being.

Let me be an imitator of the suffering of my God. If anyone has him inside himself, let him understand what I want, and let him feel with me, knowing what is closing in on me.

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. [ab]

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.”

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.

I no longer want to live the way people live. And that is what will happen, if you want it. Want it, so that you too may be wanted. [af]

In this short letter I am asking you: believe me. Jesus Christ will make it plain to you that I am telling the truth — the mouth that cannot lie, in which the Father has truly spoken. Ask for me, that I may reach God. I have not written to you in a human way, but according to God’s own mind. If I suffer, you wanted it; if I am rejected, you hated me.