To Love That Word: St. Bartholomew’s Day

Let us now our voic­es raise,
Wake the day with glad­ness;
God Him­self to joy and praise
Turns our hu­man sad­ness;
Joy that mar­tyrs won their crown,
Opened heav’ns bright por­tal,
When they laid the mor­tal down
For the life im­mor­tal.

Let us praise God for mortal men who boldly burned out bright in faith. This day we commemorate St. Bartholomew, to whom much is left unknown to us within the Scriptures. However, what little we do know should encourage us to be faithful. Scholars often identify Nathaniel and Bartholomew as one and the same Apostle, a theory supported by the prayer book tradition, as there is no feast for St. Nathaniel. Regardless, we know St. Bartholomew to be one of the Twelve Apostles called by Christ. Although the Twelve disciples deserted Christ when His hour had come, yet St. Bartholomew was counted as one of the eleven who Christ forgave in their repentance and whom Christ empowered by His Holy Ghost to go unto the ends of the earth preaching the Gospel.

Church tradition tells us St. Bartholomew ventured far and wide from Armenia to Mesopotamia. The earliest church history, by Eusebius, records that St. Bartholomew made it as far as India and bequeathed the new believers with the Gospel of St. Matthew in Hebrew. Tradition varies on his death, with classical art revisiting the tale of him being flayed alive – a gruesome death. What is known is that he died for faith in his Lord and Lord, and in the prayer book life we walk behind this saint who finished the course because He loved His Master, the Word.

The beauty of the prayer book tradition is that we do not celebrate hagiographies, but the One whom the saints died for: Jesus. Our collect draws our attention back to Bartholomew’s love, who should be our own first love: Christ. Hence we pray, “O almighty and everlasting God, who didst give to thine apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach thy word: Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy church, to love that word which he believed” (Collect of the Day). Bartholomew’s great example is being a servant. He was sent by Christ to go and serve – to apostle (“sent one”) – to all the nations. Wherever Bartholomew traveled, he preached Christ crucified. It is because of his faithful service to Christ that he met his death. According to one account, his conversion of an Armenian king is what leads to his death. Irrespective of what led to his immediate death, his entire life after Christ’s Ascension is one that evidences service to Almighty God. Therefore, we pray to enter into the same service as St. Bartholomew by asking God the Father “to love that word which he believed.” Additionally, this love of the Word is reflected by how we enter into Christ’s service ourselves, namely, “both to preach and receive the same, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Collect of the Day).

Never flinched they from the flame,
From the tor­ment nev­er;
Vain the ty­rant’s sharp­est aim,
Vain each fierce en­dea­vor:
For by faith they saw the land
Decked in all its glo­ry,
Where tri­umph­ant now they stand
With the vic­tor’s sto­ry.

Love of the Word begats more than mere reception of Divine Love. Love of the Word manifests love within ourselves by going to the stranger to the Gospel with preaching, teaching, proclaiming that Christ has died for them and raised up so they too may rise in the new life. Alleluia, Christ is risen!

One does not receive Love from the Master and simply sit at ease. To be loved is to love and to love is to show and share one’s love with their Beloved. Christ the Beloved loves us, and we are called to love Him by praising His holy Name and sharing His love with His lost sheep. We enter into the Divine Love and are called not to merely dip our toe into it, but to go headlong into the deep waters of the Love of God. We are compelled to go and seek other weary and wandering strangers and invite them in, for the water is fine.

Therefore, it makes sense that the Gospel lesson is drawn from when the disciples fought.

It does? You may be asking yourself.

Indeed, it does, for St. Luke records, “And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest” (Gospel lesson, Luke 22:24, KJV). Immediately, the question arises, why would the ancient Western Church select an argument to celebrate St. Bartholomew’s Day? Because it’s not about the saint, it’s about the One who set Him apart as a vessel of honor. Jesus intervenes in His disciples’ dispute, which each of the Twelve is participating in, “And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.” (Luke 22:25-26).

We are not to be like the Gentile kings, who rage, imagine vain things, and plot against the Christ. (Psalm 2:1-2). No, instead the Twelve are called to emulate and are sent out as Apostles to teach all disciples to be like the Master, who tells them, “For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.” (Luke 22:27).

The Lord’s rebuke also comes with good news to St. Bartholomew and company: “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Luke 22:28–30). The Word has spoken and the word is given. These twelve insignificant men shall rule with Christ and judge the very tribes of Israel from whence they came. However, their power comes not in lording it over one another, but comes only in humility, steadfastness, and service.

Our road that we walk is the same as the disciples turned Apostles. We are invited “to love that Word,” the same Word of God who promises that we too shall judge the angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). Yet we rule not like the Gentiles through demand and power but through washing feet and serving as Christ serves His Church. We deny ourselves so that His Holy Ghost may be manifested within us more and more. We love that same Word as St. Bartholomew by preaching and receiving those called by the Gospel unto Christ Jesus.

Up and fol­low, Christ­ian men!
Press through toil and sor­row;
Spurn the night of fear, and then,
O the glo­ri­ous mor­row!
Who will ven­ture on the strife;
Who will first be­gin it?
Who will grasp the land of life?
Warriors, up and win it!