Thoughts for the Day
Monday, 1st March 2021: Saint David's Day
Ezekiel 2 Saints God
Reading : Verses from Ezekiel, Chapter 2
He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. He said to me,. 'Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God.' Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them. And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words.'
Photo of St David's Cathedral, courtesy of Alan Thomas
(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)
Thoughts
1st March is St David's Day (Dewi in Welsh), the patron saint of Wales. Our reading above shows God calling Ezekiel. St David's call might well have been similar.
We know that St David was born around 520 AD near St Bride's Bay in Pembrokeshire. Not much is known about his life, although the Welsh scholar Rhygyfarch in 1090 says his father was a chieftain and his mother was St Non. He was educated at the monastery of Hen Fynyw under St Paulinus, and became a priest. Over the years he travelled throughout Wales and Britain as a missionary, and later moved the seat of church government to Mynyw (later to be called St David's) where the cathedral is situated. He died on 1st March 589 Ad at Mynyw.
Many miracles are attributed to him, and he was canonized as a saint by Pope Callactus II in 1120. He was later declared to be the Patron Saint of Wales. Today there are some 50 churches dedicated to Saint David.
Prayer
Almighty God,
as You called Ezekiel and St David
to work with Your people;
engaging with them
to bring men and women to You;
may we hear Your call to us,
to be Your people in this day and age,
and to carry out Your offer of hope
to those around us.
Amen.
St David was credited with fighting Pelagianism, which was a heresy. Palagius was a monk who lived sometime between 300 and 400 AD. He seems to have become fed up with people committing sins who then complained it wasn't their fault. The church taught that men and women were born sinful, but Pelagius believed they born innocent and free from sin. He argued that people were born with free will, and subsequently made good or bad choices. It was all about using their free will, he argued.
This all sounds fine, but he didn't believe people needed God's grace (his love) to become holy. However, the church insisted that no-one, except Jesus, had ever managed to do this. Pelagius' doctrine was condemned by the Council of Carthage in 418, and again at the Council of Ephesus in 431.