Justin: A Martyr Seeking the Truth

Today, June 1, the Church celebrates the Christian martyr and apologist Justin.

Every once in a while a moment will emerge allowing us to take stock in life. These can be transitional events like a graduation, a marriage, a birth, a move, a new job, a retirement, a change in health, or a death. In thirty days, precisely one month from now, I will get married. And even now I feel myself taking a step back to gain some perspective.

In these reflective moments, I find that we mostly discover that life moved as we anticipated with each step happening in a predictable manner. OKAY, JUST KIDDING! This hardly ever happens. Life does not move in easily foreseeable ways. As the old saying goes, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell God your plans.” We may lull ourselves into a false understanding that we know what today will look like because it is a Wednesday, and all Wednesdays are the same because they all have this thing that happens and that part of my routine and whatever it is that we think makes Wednesday different from Tuesday and Thursday. Sure on the surface this seems apparent, but truthfully it is not the case for Wednesdays, or for Junes, or for entire years. For we are not re-living other parts of life, in fact, there has never been this moment, this day, this week, this month, or this year, so how can it be like anything else?

Life actually moves in unpredictable ways to us humans. We may believe that we chose something, but so often events happen to us, and so we these occurred by happenstance. Later on these seemingly random events though may become the very things that drive us into who we are today, what we are doing today, or the people with whom we share life. I do not subscribe to a belief in coincidence. Strangely in the midst of chaos, God weaves this sort of tapestry that is our collective life together. We cannot always tell what the pattern is until much later in life. This was the case with the second century Christian martyr Justin.

Justin began his life as a Greek-speaking pagan who grew up in the middle of Israel near Shechem. Within him lay this intellectual thirst that drove Justin to seek greater understanding, so he was educated in various Greek philosophies. First, he learned in the school of the Cynics. Then, he moved on to studies in Pythagorean thought. Finally, Justin found wisdom in Platonism. This movement through Greek philosophies only gave him a deeper desire for the Truth.

One day when Justin was walking on a beach in Ephesus, he happened upon a stranger. This old man told him of Jesus fulfilling all the prophets of the Old Testament. This coupled with the impression that Christian Martyrs made on Justin lit a flame within this seeker’s heart. All the bouncing around from one philosophy to another had not been random, but had put Justin into a precise moment when God spoke to him through this man on the beach of Ephesus.

Justin went on to start a school of Christian philosophy beginning in Ephesus, then moving to Rome. In this school Justin did not discount the traditions that had brought him to his acceptance of Christ Jesus as the Ultimate Truth. Instead he wrote that Platonism especially can serve as a teacher that will lead us to know Christ. Justin’s three surviving works give to us today a knowledge of Christian practices of his time, as well as an understanding of the development of Christian philosophy during the second century.

During a public debate in Rome Justin accused a Cynic philosopher named Crescens of being both oblivious and unethical. Instead of fighting back in the debate Crescens took up a legal case against Justin, which led to the arrest of not only Justin, but also six of his students. The Roman prefect gave the Christians an opportunity to deny their Faith in Jesus, but they did not and were subsequently put to death around June 1, 167.

The witness of Justin serves us well today. We may look at the events of our lives as random. We can even allow ourselves to believe that we are somehow in control of the things that happen around us and to us. However, in hindsight we clearly see through the lens of Faith that God weaves together the diverse strands of our lives into the larger pattern that is Ultimate Truth. Justin sought the Truth and articulated that it is present not exclusively within the Judeo-Christian Tradition. Christ’s life, death, and Resurrection extend to all parts of Creation such that Truth is not solely possessed in one place, one people, or one period. Instead, the healing, uniting, and loving works of God in Christ Jesus sent shock waves of Truth throughout all time and space.

Take a moment to take stock, to reflect, and to look back. How has the Truth been woven into your story? What has propelled your life to this very moment? In what ways have diverse threads been tied together to reveal the pattern that is life in Christ?