Holy Spirit, the life of any saint or any of
us in the Church. If it has any power, if it
has any strength, if it has any reflection of
the Almighty God, it's because of our love for
Christ and His love for us. Nothing can separate
us from the love of Christ. The hymn, one of
the hymns for St. Lawrence, has him crying that
out at the end. What can separate us from the
gospel, that line from the gospel? What can separate
us from the love of Christ? No threat, no fear,
no suffering. Not even our own sins, because
the sins which cause us to die have been forgiven.
And we know that even now, death is not something
to be afraid of, because Christ is risen, and
we shall rise by the same power he rose, the
glory of the Father. Same for St. Lawrence, it
was his love of Christ. He was a martyr, he was
an archdeacon in Rome. He was martyred in the
year 258, as best as we can determine. The crime,
of Christians, the reason they were being arrested
and killed was that the state determined that
they were bad for society. They were very corrosive
for society. Christians would not recognize Roman
religious practices. So they were considered
atheists, strangely enough. They were impious
from the point of view of the magistrates and
the authorities because they were apostates from
the venerable customs of Rome, the religious
practices that determined that you were a Roman
citizen and a faithful and a good one. Worse,
they worshipped a convicted, condemned, and crucified
criminal who was a Jew. They refused to swear
by the emperor as divine and offer incense. They
criticized the pagan worship and their own worship
was done in secret. So upon his arrest, the Archdeacon
Lawrence was given a choice. These people in
Rome were not barbarians after all. He was given
a choice. If he offered a little incense, on
the coals, before the Roman gods and in honor
of the emperor's genius, he would be granted
the authority over all the pagan temples and
priests in the great city of Rome. Work with
us. Imagine the rewards you could hear them saying.
Yet he refused. He didn't want to offer anything
except himself to Christ, who offered himself
to us. And he was then made worthy to suffer
shame for his name, as it says in Acts. While
in prison, he healed a blind man. It wasn't his
first miracle. There were many more to follow.
And he baptized every man. Many prayers and intercessions
followed. In due time, you see, when we are in
trouble, when we are pressed upon all sides,
when we are feeling most weak, That's when the
grace of God helps us the most. We don't want
to get there, and we're afraid that the Lord
will abandon us, but nothing can separate us
from the love of Christ. Eventually, the prison
warden himself was baptized, a man named Hippolytus,
and his whole household, and he would become
a martyr as well in this story. Now, through
a bit of very clever negotiation, The archdeacon
managed to become free for three days. And during
that time, he distributed all the wealth of the
church, whatever that was there, to the needy,
to the poor. Except for one item. Now it's claimed
whether this is true or not. It's hard to say.
No one knows. But it's claimed that the chalice
used by Jesus at the Last Supper, which is called
the Holy Grail, was in St. Lawrence's care. And
he had it sent off to his homeland, Spain, for
safekeeping. And they say it's still there. You
already know the story, because you hear it every
year from me, I won't tell you again, of how
he was told to bring the treasures of the church
to the magistrate. And not what they were expecting.
He brought them, the people of the church, that
were poor, that were sick, that were lame. And
he boasted before the magistrate, the church
is far richer than your emperor. Many intellectuals
of our day have forgotten about the revolution
that took place when Christians served the fellow
man, the poor, the sick, the homeless, children
that were set out because they weren't wanted,
infants that were left out. to be exposed so
that they would die. It was a revolution because
Matthew 25, the words of the Lord, to care for
the least of these, my brother, was taken extremely
seriously by the Christians. A pagan writer named
Lucian of the second century mocked Christians.
He mocked them for their charity because it was
considered gauche, silly. Let the poor die. He
said, the earnestness with which the people of
this religion help one another in their needs
is incredible. They spare themselves nothing
for this end. Their first lawgiver put it into
their heads that they were all brethren. We can
learn about love here. We can let the shame of
our own lack of involvement cause us to repent,
maybe, and to do. So that love, which is about
action, carries forward in our church. That our
church is not just known for the glending, which
is great, I love that. But it's known for the
help for the poor. And the love and the care
for the poor. Many of you do a great deal already,
I know this. And give a great deal of money.
But as a group we need to maybe consider... The
treasures that St. Lawrence was talking about.
At the end of his life, St. Lawrence was placed
on a hot grill, heated by coals, he was held
down by iron spears, and he offered himself as
a true sacrifice, not to gods, but to the God.
His whole mind, his whole soul, his whole body.
As I tried to explain last Sunday in that homily,
about the phrase, a rational sacrifice. And he
said this as he was suffering. He said, With
a contrite spirit have I offered myself as a
sacrifice to my God, as sweet -smelling incense,
and its face shone with bright radiance, the
radiance of the glory of God that he gives to
all those that love him, that shone in his own
face at the transfiguration. And as he was powerful,
before his death, in his intercessions and his
prayers. So he became even more dynamic in his
power after his death. Now a martyr is not just
someone who suffers and dies for his faith. A
martyr has dedication, self -dedication, self
-offering. They go willingly, joyfully even,
because they know they are called to something
unique and incredible. And nothing's going to
separate them from the love of Christ. And the
martyr is going to bear witness to Christ and
to that love and to that power of the resurrection.
And that suffering and the death that they're
going to endure, as terrible and horrible as
it can be, isn't going to steal that prize from
them. They follow what the Lord said. No one
takes my life from me. I lay it down with my
own accord. And so they do the same. Tyrants
threaten evil. and suffering and abuse, are we
going to bargain with that in that time of pressure?
No. Because suffering is evil. It's not from
God. It's not natural to us. Neither is death,
nor is sin. But martyrs, when they accept the
suffering that is laid upon them, they co -opt
it, they drain out of it the evil. then it's
God's power sufficient in our weakness. Bishop
Callasus said three things about suffering and
martyrs. He said, we can meet suffering with
resentment and rebellious defiance, but our own
anger will annihilate us in the end. Or we can
meet it with passive resignation, but our helplessness
will make us, as he said, moral zombies, will
crush us. Or we may meet it actively in the spirit
of love. He says it can be accepted, offered,
and through this offering transfigured, literally.
It's not easy. Don't go looking for it. But don't
run away from it. It's the way of Jesus Christ.
It's something that we can practice each day
in our own life to affirm. one another to deny
our own passions, so that nothing comes between
us and the love of Christ. St. Constantine the
Great built a chapel over the tomb of St. Lawrence
in the 4th century. It's known as St. Lawrence
Outside the Walls, and I'm hoping when Nicholas
goes to Italy, if you go to Rome, you will visit
this place. There's another church, San Lorenzo
in Panisperna, which was built at the place of
his martyrdom. And in this church you can venerate
the gridiron upon which he was put to death.
He's considered the patron of librarians because
he had care for the goods and the treasures of
the church. Archivists, cooks, and deacons. Through
his prayers, his intersections, his example,
his life. May we follow Christ each day, enjoying
his love and not let anything come between us
and that. Our Lord, who strengthens us in weakness
and gives glory to martyrs, glory not in us,
but to angels of age. Amen.