(d.c.223) The man who was to be elected the sixteenth pope spent time as a slave before being ransomed and freed in Rome through the initiative of Pope Saint Victor I. He became caretaker of a major cemetery and advisor to Pope Zephyrinus, whom Callistus succeeded after his death. The papacy of Callistus was marked by schism over his mercy with respect to readmitting repentant sinners to Communion and his insistence that differences in economic class were no barrier to marriage. He was martyred, possibly by an anti-Christian mob, during the reign of the Emperor Alexander Severus.
It may be a mere coincidence, but it is interesting that this pope of mercy is also the patron of cemetery workers. Our faith deals with the Resurrection. Our recovery works to bring the (spiritually) dead back to life. How do we treat those in our community who relapse? How do we learn to guard our own recovery from relapse?
“If offences abound, then, let mercy also abound; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption” (Pope Saint Callistus I).
Reflection by Brad Farmer