THE WORD AND THE SAINT
August 10, 2020: Celebrating St. Lawrence, the Deacon-Martyr
2 Corinthians 9: 6-10; John 12: 24-26
Martyr St. Lawrence gives us the occasion to hear yet another time this classical lesson that the Lord wishes to give us: what you sow you reap; what you are you grow to be! It is important here to notice that the crucial element is not what we do or what we become, but what we are! This is what St. Paul calls, becoming a new person in Christ. To be so transformed in Christ and into Christ, that we are seen as Christ, as another Christ, as alter christus!
That is what the early Christians were - in their minds, in their hearts, in their thinking and in their acts... in every way they were like Christ, other Christs, Chist-ians! Hearing that they put all their gold and silver in common as a Church, the Emperor Valerian wanted to get hold of that wealth in the treasury. He, who was killing every bishop, priest and elder in the Christian community, when it came to a humble deacon Lawrence's turn offered to let him live, if he showed where the treasury lay, where all the gold and silver was. When Lawrence asked for three days to gather all the gold and silver in one place, the greedy emperor was thrilled and excited. But three days later when he arrived at that placed indicated - he found all the poor, the sick, the crippled and the miserable gathered together. And Lawrence stood there and said: here is all the gold and silver that the Church possesses, the real treasure of the Church! The emperor was so infuriated that Lawrence was burnt to death that same day!
Listening to the Word, every Martyr gives us this same lesson: to die for Christ's sake. It does not mean only dying in the sense of losing one's life, but dying to oneself, dying to one's ego, dying to one's undue attachments, dying to one's fixed ideas, dying to one's weaknesses and fixations. That is martyrdom too...a martyrdom of a totally different nature, a martyrdom that is required of everyone. A martyrdom that has to be undertaken with a sense of gratitude and cheerfulness, in spite of the inconveniences it can cause.
What have we sown around us? What are we growing into? Let us become aware of our sensibilities and check if we are cheerful givers, who are ready to give up, in order to grow up!
Listening to the Word, every Martyr gives us this same lesson: to die for Christ's sake. It does not mean only dying in the sense of losing one's life, but dying to oneself, dying to one's ego, dying to one's undue attachments, dying to one's fixed ideas, dying to one's weaknesses and fixations. That is martyrdom too...a martyrdom of a totally different nature, a martyrdom that is required of everyone. A martyrdom that has to be undertaken with a sense of gratitude and cheerfulness, in spite of the inconveniences it can cause.
What have we sown around us? What are we growing into? Let us become aware of our sensibilities and check if we are cheerful givers, who are ready to give up, in order to grow up!