Mtr Margaret Babcock
The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.
This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message.
—Ephesians 3:5-7 The Message
Dear Friends,
Happy St. Valentine’s day!
Wait—Valentine is no longer on the official Church calendar. (It seems he was downgraded in 1969).
No problem. Happy St. Cyril’s and St. Methodius’ day instead!
Never heard of them? Well, they have as much of a claim to represent a day devoted to love as the elusive Valentine. It may, however, be a different kind of love than we usually associate with February 14…
In 863, the brothers Cyril and Methodius left their home in the Greek port of Thessalonica to travel to Greater Moravia, well over a thousand miles away. Their mission was to help the new Christians there more deeply connect with their faith. They did this by translating Latin liturgy into the Slavic language.
Cyril then took it further and developed an alphabet (which would later become the Cyrillic script used today), translating all kinds of Christian writings into the vernacular. This was a huge step in helping these people understand and respond to the Good News.
However, their work did not impress everyone. Just five years later, the brothers were called back to Rome to defend their commitment to allowing the Slavs to worship in their own language.
Some factions in the clergy insisted only Latin was acceptable in Church. Cyril died 869, but Methodius won the argument (for the time being) and became a bishop. He eventually translated the whole Bible using his brother’s brilliant linguistic creation.
Unfortunately, political squabbles caught up with Methodius when the clerical party supporting the Latin liturgy became ascendant. Beaten and tossed into prison, he suffered greatly until the election of a more sympathetic pope who freed him. Methodius spent the rest of his life trying to ensure the rights of the Slavs to worship in their own language. He died in 884.
St. Paul writes that both outsiders and insiders get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The two sainted brothers we remember today don’t inspire us with cupids and candy hearts. Instead, as Paul did, they model holy love for “outsiders” with their life’s work of helping people understand and respond to God’s love.
May we use February 14 to reflect on how we might, like Cyril and Methodius, devote our lives to such a labor of love for all those struggling to comprehend that God’s Message is indeed for them.
Blessings,
—Mtr Margaret
