The Lord Jesus give you his peace. We celebrate today St. Cyril and Methodius,
the great apostles to the Slavic nations. And just as we heard in the first reading,
as the result of Solomon's sin, a dispersion of even the kingdom, that the northern tribes being
more or less broken off, and eventually even warring against, rebelling against the house of
Judah, Jeroboam getting these tribes. And of course, it's the missionary, and it's the really
nature of love, to bring back into union, which of course is what Christ is doing. He's going out
through the Decapolis. Many Gentiles are there, and going to heal. St. Cyril and Methodius
are tremendous saints in terms of their missionary zeal, but also in terms of their great
prudence in how to attack this problem. Specifically, St. Cyril, with his translation
into an alphabet that he himself created, the Cyrillic alphabet, which I believe is still used
in parts of Russia.
So, I think that the Gospel might be proclaimed in an intelligible way by the peoples that
hitherto hadn't heard it. St. Pope John Paul II proclaimed them co-patrons of Europe in
1980, and they, along with St. Benedict, will have a great role spiritually in interceding
for Europe, and bringing back to the fold many who have left, and even the rebuilding
of this civilization.
There was also, at the time of this proclamation, the eleventh centenary of an document called
Industriae Tui, whereby Pope John VIII approved the liturgical text in Slavonic. And approved
them for the liturgy. So, we remember their work today in a special way – St. Methodius
born in 815 A.D., maybe 820 A.D.
He died in Greater Moravia in 885.
He was the elder of the two brothers, and he was probably baptized Michael,
and he had something like his father, an inclination towards government.
He, in fact, was prefect of a frontier province for some years.
It wasn't long before he retired to a monastery at Mount Olympus,
which is called the Holy Mount, and he had also great love for solitude and great grace.
Later, with his younger brother, St. Cyril, who in the meantime had been studying,
and he was truly a quintessential student.
He was brilliant.
He was ordained priest, young, and he was, in fact, appointed different kind of almost tasks
that kind of showed what kind of man he was.
He was a librarian at the archives of Hagia Sophia.
He was the secretary to the Patriarch of Caesarea.
He was the secretary to the Archbishop of Constantinople, as well.
And he also, like his brother, gave up more of the active life
and wanted to be a recluse in a monastery near the Black Sea coast.
He did it secretly, but eventually they found him.
They brought him back to Constantinople with some persuasion
and asked him to teach philosophy, which he did with such excellence
that he was known therefrom as the philosopher.
No small compliment.
Later, both he and his brother, St. Cyril, were born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
St. Cyril was born.
His brother were sent on a mission to the Khazars,
but later the mission, which was to kind of define their contribution
to the church for the ages, was to Moravia.
There was a prince, Rostislav, of greater Moravia,
who wrote the emperor, Michael III, to send them a bishop and a teacher,
someone that would be able to teach them the true faith
in their own language.
And it was decided that St. Cyril was going to be a bishop.
St. Cyril and Methodius were just the men to do such a thing.
And Greater Moravia at the time was kind of at the crossroads
of Eastern influences and Western influences.
And consequently, they are great patrons for the efforts of ecumenism
and the efforts also for deeper unity between East and West in our day.
They were very well prepared as they went out.
They took what they knew that they would need for the sacred liturgy
and translated it into the language of the people.
They themselves, of course, were Greek.
They were born in Thessalonica.
And yet they began immediately what we call today a process of enculturation,
being able to immerse themselves into a culture.
And this has the singular distinction of almost being creators of a culture
insofar as contributing in alphabet really is the bedrock of things
that will spring up later, things like literature,
things like different sacred writings.
And owing to these two brothers, principally St. Cyril,
they met with notable success during the mission.
And on the way back to Rome, they were to report how things were going.
In Venice, it was kind of a public discussion
because there was some innovation with the techniques that they were using.
And it was kind of held up later.
St. Methodius would kind of suffer the ramifications of that,
of being charged, of not being orthodox.
Not being a true defender of the Christian faith.
He was certainly upheld by the Pope
and also by the patriarch Photius later in his days
as being truly of the faith.
During this trip to Rome, St. Cyril became very, very sick.
And it wasn't long.
He had only about 50 days to live after he made religious profession.
You can see where the man's heart was.
Although a very active,
missionary wanting to be fully consecrated to God.
And I'm dying and therefore plunging into the gift of consecrated life with vows.
And 50 days later, he died.
And on his deathbed, he gave his brother, St. Methodius, a charge.
He says,
Behold, my brother, we have shared the same destiny, plowing the same furrow.
I now fall in the field at the end of my day.
I know that you greatly love your mountain.
It's Mount Olympus.
But do not for the sake of the mountain give up your work of teaching.
For where better can you find salvation?
And St. Methodius would go back to the people
and continue to build up the church there, again, with great success.
But again, not without trial.
And so just as we are a missionary institute,
some basic principles of enculturation,
which is certainly a buzzword among people today.
It does get into immersing oneself into the culture,
knowing the language, to say the least.
And also knowing some of the familiar expressions that people use,
getting to know the people.
It's described in Redemptoris Missio, sections 52 through 54,
with different adjectives.
One of them is lengthy.
It's a lengthy process.
It's not to be done overnight.
And it's defined more or less as the intimate transformation
of authentic cultural values through their integration in Christianity
and the insertion of Christianity in the various human cultures.
It's basically the taking up of society,
a pagan society, into the church.
And just as in baptism, we're taken up into the mystery of Christ and divinized,
in the Holy Eucharist, we're taken up fully body and soul
into the mystery of Christ, resurrected, divinized.
So too, culture, which is a fallen human reality,
although there are elements of good in it, are taken up.
Human culture is taken up.
And missionaries have a pivotal role in affecting that
in a smooth and beautiful and sure way.
So may St. Cyril and St. Methodius,
guide our institute, guide our individual vocations.
We may never know where we will find ourselves,
that we may truly be men for the people of God
and men greatly devoted to our Lord's most sacred heart,
which is the heart of love,
to spread that love to the ends of the earth.
So may St. Cyril and St. Methodius,
guide our institution, guide our faith,
and guide our children towards forgiveness and forgiveness.
May St. Cyril and St. Methodius,