Sowing and Growing

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 10, 2024 - Celebrating Deacon St. Lawrence

2 Corinthians 9: 6-10; John 12: 24-26

The Deacon 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 would be seen as Christ, as another Christ, as alter christus! 

Every Martyr gives us this 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, inspite 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!