I have made you a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach the remotest parts of the earth. The Church honors today the memory of two brothers, Cyril, a monk, and Methodius, a bishop, who evangelized Moravia, Bohemia, and Bulgaria. Known as the “Apostles to the Slavs,” Cyril and Methodius prepared Slavic liturgical texts and served as the spiritual bridge between Eastern and Western traditions. The two brothers are patron saints of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Pope John Paul II also declared them co-patron saints of Europe along with St. Benedict the Abbot.
In the First Reading, we see St. Paul rebuking his fellow Jews for their rejection of him (and indirectly of the Gospel of Jesus). And although it was a move that did not please Paul to the least, he did not put a stop to his zeal to preach the Gospel. Rather than bemoan the missed opportunity to preach to his fellow Jews, Paul (and Barnabas) turned their focus upon the Gentiles and preached the Good News of the kingdom of God to them. As it turned out, Paul’s rejection by the Jews turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Gentile people. Whereas saints Cyril and Methodius did not become apostles to the Slavs because of being rejected by their people (as far as we are aware), the Slavs did benefit from the preaching of the two brothers. The brothers’ missionary work to the Slavs must have been their response to Jesus’ observation that while the harvest was rich and abundant, the same could not be said about the laborers.
Saints Cyril and Methodius, pretty much like the early Church missionaries, took it upon themselves to ensure that the Good News of the kingdom (peace, good neighborliness, kindness, and harmonious co-existence) reached all the corners of the universe. Having “tasted” the goodness of the Gospel message, they could not overcome the urge to share that goodness with others. Nothing was going to stop them from realizing this goal, not even a language barrier. But the generosity and self-sacrifice of the two brothers didn’t end here. To ensure that the people received the Good News in its fullness, they endeavored to translate the liturgical texts in the people’s local dialect. It was a demonstration by the two brothers of their dedication to the call both as laborers in the Lord’s vineyard and as God’s light to the nations. Only in a people’s own language can there be a meaningful rendering of praise and glory to the Lord (Responsorial Psalm).