Sts. Cyril and Methodius

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

The feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius is a feast celebrating the co-patrons and evangelizers of Europe. Cyril and Methodius were the youngest and the oldest brothers, respectively, of a family of seven children. Born in Thessalonica, in Greece, they were the sons of a high official in the Byzantine Empire. Cyril had an excellent education in Constantinople and eventually became a professor at the Imperial University. Methodius followed a political career and rose to become a governor before entering a monastery in Bithynia.

Both men dedicated their lives to the evangelization of the Slavic peoples. Cyril put to use his expertise in languages so as to compose an alphabet for the Slavic language. Cyril also translated Scripture, as well as the liturgy, into Slav. Years later, Methodius completed this work of translation begun by his brother. Cyril died in Rome on the 14th of February, 869, and was buried next to the remains of St. Clementine. Methodius died on the 6th of April, 885, and his body was buried next to his brother.

Pope John Paul named these two saints, along with St. Benedict and also St. Edith Stein, as co-patrons of Europe. The Slavic countries are traditionally the countries where the Slavic languages are spoken. In the east, you have Russia, Ukraine, Belarus. In the west, you have Poland, Czechoslovakia. In the south, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Northern Macedonia.

Wholly dedicated to the conversion of the Slavic peoples, Cyril and Methodius carried out their missionary service in union both with the Church of Constantinople, by which they had been sent, and with Peter’s Roman See, by which they were confirmed. In this way, they manifested the unity of the Church.

Pope John Paul has spoken on many occasions about the Christian roots of Europe. It can be said, he said, that the European identity is not understandable without Christianity, and that it is precisely in Christianity that are found those common roots by which the continent has seen its civilization mature: its culture, its dynamism, its activity, its capacity for constructive expansion in other continents as well; in a word, all that makes up its glory.

The very name “Europe,” said one writer, is of fairly recent origin. For many centuries, the more commonly used name for the region was Christendom. Whenever a building is erected with unstable foundations, it is prone to collapse at the slightest tremor. It is for this reason that Pope John Paul has been so insistent about the deterioration of the faith in Europe. He’s been issuing the call far and wide for a new evangelization of the continent. He told a large group of pilgrims in Santiago de Compostela, “Today the Church is preparing for a new Christianization, which is the challenge she must face as in times past.”

His words were directed at all the faithful. In certain areas, this new evangelization will be taken up with the most fundamental aspects of culture, as was the case with St. Cyril and Methodius. It appears that certain areas have completely regressed to paganism, perhaps a more absolute paganism than was ever known in antiquity. In earlier times, primitive peoples appeared to have some religious sensibility.

This is a job which involves every one of us. We have to re-Christianize our environment, our social customs. We will have to focus on those people and circumstances which are within our immediate influence. We need to speak to people about God with clarity and without fear of rejection. We need to teach our neighbors that all human endeavor which ignores God’s presence in creation is doomed to failure. We should invite our friends to the means of formation with a sense of daring. We should distribute good reading material. We have to do an active work of apostolate for the sacrament of confession.

You could say that Christianity gave Europe its unity. A multitude of races and cultures came together through the Church and based their coexistence on Christian principles. The conversion of Europe did not happen overnight. It ended up by taking over one thousand years. It was an endeavor full of triumphs and apparent failures, an enterprise to which each people contributed their particular genius. One writer says, as always, the providence of God was predicated on the cooperation of men.

Above all else, the conversion of Europe was a religious phenomenon, which at the same time figured as an essential factor in the development of Western culture. Even to this day, Europe remains somewhat united according to certain essential principles in law and custom which derive from her Christian roots.

These contemporary values, said John Paul II, include the dignity of the human person, the desire for social justice and human freedom, industriousness, the spirit of enterprise and initiative, love for the family, respect for life, respect for other peoples, the longing for social harmony and international peace.

Side by side with these noble values, we also find in modern Europe the steady growth of atheism and skepticism. We see widespread moral uncertainty, the disintegration of the family, and the deterioration of Christian customs. Many countries have adopted anti-human legislation, such as legalized abortion and euthanasia, a social tragedy which gives the notion of modern progress an ominously barbaric character.

The only way to respond to this new paganism is with a new evangelization. It is the Christian’s vocation to overcome evil with an abundance of good. This is what our Lord is asking of all of us, whether we are many or few, young or old. We need to reach out to the people around us.

We would do well to recall that moving call of the Holy Father at Santiago de Compostela, where he said: “Find yourself again. Be yourself. Discover your origins. Revive your roots. Return to those authentic values which made your history a glorious one and your presence so beneficent in other continents.”

God is counting on us to re-Christianize society in the same way that the first Christians did. There’s a lot of work to be done. Without abandoning our professional and family duties, we need to put our best efforts into this momentous task. We have to lead lives of faith. St. Teresa of Avila said, “We have to become men and women of prayer; people who know how to deal personally with the One who loves us above everything.”

It is essential that all our activity be anchored in the Holy Mass, the center and root of the interior life. In addition, we need to draw strength and receive pardon in the sacrament of penance.

St. Luke describes the first steps in the evangelization of Europe with the account of the travels of St. Paul and his companions. He says, “Passing through Phrygia and the Galatian country, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in the province of Asia. And when they came to Mysia, they tried to get to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And Paul had a vision one night. A Macedonian was standing appealing to him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us’” (Acts 16:6–10).

As soon as he had the vision, straight away, we are told in the Acts, we made efforts to set out for Macedonia, being sure that God had called us to preach the Gospel to them. 2,000 years later, we should still be attuned to Macedonia’s call: “Come and help us.”

It’s unlikely that our Lord wants us to imitate St. Paul in the sense that he traveled throughout the known world of his time. We have to Christianize the world that we know in our ordinary lives. Blessed Alvaro del Portillo says we have to bring faith and optimism to this world without becoming overwhelmed by the difficulties involved. If there are many obstacles, there will be abundant grace available. God himself will move the obstacles by using each one of us as his instruments.

We need to take advantage of all the circumstances of life that come our way: the birth and death of a relative or friend, sickness, family celebrations. There are always opportunities to suggest to someone a good book that will bring them closer to God. We can also give a word of encouragement or counsel to someone who is going through a rough time. We can suggest that new homeowners have their houses blessed. We can teach people to go to their guardian angels for help throughout the day. We can suggest to people that they put images of Our Lady in their homes to give honor to the Mother of God.

These are some simple customs which Christians have practiced for many centuries. They are like the plasma which animates the life of faith. We need to make God a participant in the thousand little moments of ordinary life. This can be done by the way in which we offer up our work, the manner in which we take our vacations, how we choose to rest. The faith should penetrate all our actions so as to enrich them and make them pleasing to God. We’ll find that this supernatural effort will help to make our activities more human.

Pope St. John Paul has been urging all Catholics to become fully aware of their baptismal responsibilities. This awareness will move us to make Christ known to others. If each and every Christian, said St. Josemaría in The Way, were to be wholly committed to the practice of the faith, it would not take long to change the world. We would make the world a more human place to live in. This is because we would recognize God’s rightful place in our affairs. Let us begin with our own lives and the lives of those closest to us. Apostolate then becomes the proverbial pebble dropped into the lake which has a wider and wider ripple effect.

In the opening prayer of today’s Mass, we pray: “Open our hearts to understand your teaching and help us to become one in faith and praise.”

Our personal identity card is inseparable from our being Christians; that is, it coincides with our being of Jesus. Therefore, knowing and loving Christ, we know and love ourselves better. The goal of our Christian vocation is to identify with him until we have the same feelings, which are the divine and human treasures of his heart, which depend on his being perfect God and perfect man.

St. Paul says to the Galatians, those sentiments of his heart are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, humility, self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23). Christian identity is a gift that God grants us freely. We achieve it through correspondence to grace and in following Christ according to our own vocation. For this reason, each of our actions—the interpersonal relationships of friendship or work—are marked with this seal: coherence with a personal call with which the Father has chosen us from all eternity.

St. Paul says to the Ephesians: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph. 1:3–4).

Growth in one’s identity consists in learning to live according to what one is. Since life on this earth ends with death, it is a never-developing task as we will only be able to fully identify ourselves with Christ in heaven. From one’s own identity, life acquires its true meaning. Knowing and loving God, we will discover little by little the way in which that identity illuminates every corner of life, starting with the way we relate to those around us. Because, as St. John says, “He who does not love his brother whom he sees, cannot love God whom he does not see” (1 John 4:20).

Both for the discovery of our own identity and for growth, we can look at some episodes in our Lord’s life. The Gospels show us that Jesus has always been aware of his personal identity as the Son of God. This has been shown in a particular way according to the stages of its growth. We see it both how he understands himself and in the actions he performs.

Regarding how he understands himself, we see that he has a well-defined understanding of himself all through his life. As a young child, we see him staying in the Temple instead of coming home with his parents. This shows that our Lord was already aware of his mission: to redeem men and illuminate their minds. The same could be said during his hidden life. We know that those years of hidden life were not wasted years, but that it was also a time of redemption, and therefore of awareness of and fulfillment of his mission.

During his public life, the Lord wants that awareness of and fulfillment of that mission that he received to be known, not only by Mary and Joseph, but also by his disciples. He asked them, “Who do men say that I am?” (Mark 8:27). But what interests him is not so much what people think of him, but what they themselves believe. Peter responds, “You are the Son of God” (Matt. 16:16). That response deserved the praise of our Lord, because the knowledge of his sonship is not born of flesh and blood, but of the will of his Father.

This means that the knowledge and growth of our own identity as adopted children is also a gift that comes from God. In addition to his awareness as the Son of God throughout his earthly journey, his behavior also manifests that same identity. During the hidden life, he did so through obedience to Joseph and Mary. He was subject to his parents and “grew in wisdom and age and grace before God and men” (Luke 2:52).

In his public life, where Jesus wants his redemptive mission to be known, we see in his baptism in the Jordan the witness that the Father and the Holy Spirit give of him. Later it will be John the Baptist who presents him as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). When John’s disciples ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we waiting for someone else?” (Matt. 11:3), our Lord responds by pointing out the works that he performs, thus showing that they express his identity: the blind see, the lame walk, the kingdom is announced to the poor.

Something similar is said to the Pharisees when they refused to believe in his mission. He says in St. John, “But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (John 10:38).

We see, therefore, that the works of Christ manifest his mission and, in turn, his divine sonship. Ultimately, the sonship and mission of our Lord are guided by a series of principles of action. He lives with inner freedom, compared to the casuistry of the Pharisees. Hence, for example, he works miracles on the Sabbath to show that it was for man and his rest, and not the other way around. He remains in continuous dialogue with his Father. It is from him he eternally receives the sonship and his mission in time. He orients his action to the mission to which he has been called. He goes tirelessly from one place to another because he knows they are waiting for him, thus showing awareness of his identity. Because as he goes elsewhere, he says in St. Mark, to the neighboring villages, “So that I may preach there also, because for this have I come” (Mark 1:38).

He reaffirms his deep longing for redemption before those who oppose him, expressing his desire to allow himself to be enmeshed by love. That is why he says, “The Father loves me, because I give my life to take it again. No one takes it from me, but I give it freely” (John 10:17–18). He fulfills the loving will of God always and in everything because in it he finds his life and his food. He knows himself in the Father who loves him, and for this reason he wishes to do his will.

Those five principles of our Lord’s action contrast with identity deficiencies that when a vocational conflict arises may show themselves. For example, lack of inner freedom, which leads to interior affective and volitional suffocation. The person feels caged, forced to act against their will. They work in a certain way, but deep down they would like to do the opposite or something different. Lack of sincere dialogue in prayer to discern God’s presence, which also prevents growth in awareness of divine fatherhood and in his sonship and mission. That dialogue may also be lacking in people who should be in a position to bring light. The person tends to solve internal and external problems through their own resources. Only when they feel incapable do they pray or ask for help. Lack of deep decisions to fulfill the will of God. Lack of fortitude to reaffirm their own mission, although sometimes this means changing aspects of one’s environment, giving up some things because of one’s specific mission.

In the lives of Saint Cyril and Methodius, we see a great zeal, a zeal that is reflective of the divine zeal that Christ had for all souls. Just like any true friend, our Lord reveals to his disciples his inmost thoughts. He tells them of his zeal for the salvation of all souls: “I came to cast fire upon the earth, and would that it were already enkindled!” (Luke 12:49). Our Lord has a holy impatience to ignite and offer his holocaust to the Father on Calvary for the sake of mankind. “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:50).

There on the Cross, the fullness of God’s love for his creatures was made manifest. “Greater love than this no man has, than that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). We prove we are Christ’s friends if we struggle to follow him.

St. Augustine commented on this, saying, “People who believe in him are enkindled; they receive the flame of charity.” This is what we see in the life and the works of these co-patrons of Europe. That is why the Holy Spirit, he said, appeared in this form at Pentecost, “when there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributed and resting on each one of them” (Acts 2:3). Set aflame by this fire, the apostles set out across the entire world to inflame others, including their enemies. Their faith as such, said St. Augustine, has been smothered in ashes; it is good for them that they be set alight by this holy flame so that they may once again shine forth in Christ.

The crucial task of setting the world on fire has been passed on to today’s Christians. The re-evangelization of Europe is an important goal. This fire of love and peace will strengthen and purify souls. We need to go to the factories, into public life, to our own homes, to schools, to the university. If one were to set fires at different locations throughout a city, even if they were modest fires, they would quickly consume the whole metropolis. Likewise, if in a city, at various parts, one were to ignite the hearts of the inhabitants with the fire that Jesus brought to the world, then the goodwill of those people would quickly overrun the city, lighting it up with love for God.

The fire Jesus has brought to the world is himself. It is the fire of love. This is the love which not only unites souls to God, but unites souls to one another. In each city, these souls shall emerge from families: father and mother, son and father, mother and mother-in-law. This phenomenon can take place in organizations, in schools, in offices, in parish life, anywhere. Chiara Lubich said, “Each small flame for God necessarily kindles other flames.” Divine providence takes care to distribute these souls on fire where they can best serve the process. Through their action, many places in the world will be restored to the warmth of the love of God and to a new hope.

Let us ask St. Cyril and Methodius to help us to have that fire, to spread the blaze, to rekindle again that fire that Christ came to bring, so that once again Europe may shine as a seedbed of vocations for the universal Church.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW