Identity in Faith: The Lesson of Polycarp

As Christians we will either be a people of joy and peace or else will belong to the crowd of fear and rage that is so vocal in our day. In an age of fear and rage we are called to be a people marked by joy and peace. One of the scandalous things about the early Christians to the Roman mind was their apparently absurd joy. Despite the fact that the early Christians were often persecuted, they were characterized by an unmistakable joy—not a glib and superficial happiness, but a deep and abiding joy.