Christians who breathed a sigh of relief when Constantine proclaimed Christianity the state religion, believed this would end the bloodshed and martyrdom. But it was all too short a time until they were facing persecution once more -- from others who claimed to be Christian.
When Christianity became the state religion, many people adopted it for political reasons. Others adopted it without truly understanding it. Under these circumstances heresy found fertile ground. One of the most powerful heresies was Arianism which claimed that Jesus was not God. The Arians were powerful people, including nobles, generals, emperors. They commanded armies and senates. True Christianity was in real danger of being stamped out once again.
Saint Eusebius lived in a time when bishops were elected by the people and local clergy. He was ordained a Lector and when the people of Vercelli saw how well he served their Church, they had no doubt about choosing him as bishop.
Pope Liberius also noticed his abilities and sent him on a mission to the Emperor Constantius to try to resolve the troubles between Arians and Catholics. Seeming to agree, Constantius convened a council in Milan in 355. The powerful Arians however weren't there to talk but to force their own will on the others. A horrified Eusebius watched as his worst fears were confirmed and the Arians made this peace council into a condemnation of Saint Athanasius, their chief opponent. Eusebius, unafraid of their power, slapped the Nicene Creed down on the table and demanded that everyone sign that before condemning Athanasius. The Nicene Creed, adopted by a council of the full Church, proclaims that Jesus is one in being with the Father -- directly contradicting the Arian teaching.1 Unfortunately, this heresy has never completely died out. There still are those who deny that Jesus is fully human and fully divine, the Word incarnate. They see and understand scripture as words in a book, a disputed book at that.
Moses experienced and understood what quality time with God and His Word does to a person. It transforms us, sometimes physically, to the point of glowing. I can remember when a re-appropriated my faith how I wanted to glow, literally. I wanted to be so intimate with God and his Word & Eucharist that I physically glowed. I’m still working on this level of intimacy. As I reflected on this a scripture passage kept coming to me, “For the word of God is alive and active.” (Heb 4:12) Jesus, once again speaking to us in parables, poses the following questions for us to ponder today: Where is our treasure? What do we truly value? Before we move on, we must understand what it is to “value” something. To value you something means that we are willing to live or die for the valued item. Jesus, fully human, valued us so much so that he offered himself completely, even unto death, death on a cross. This is what we enter into at the altar the paschal mystery of Jesus. Do our treasures line up with the treasures of the kingdom of heaven? And finally, when we dream of the most precious things we could possess, is the Word of God and the Eucharist among them?
1 http://www.catholic.org/saints. Copyright 2017 Catholic Online.
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