St Lawrence 2013

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.