Today we remember St. Lawrence. We don’t worship him. We only worship God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But we remember Lawrence and we honor his memory.
Why? Why does the Church lift up some people and call them saints and why should I care to learn anything about them?
Before you read any further, I need to share a concern of mine. I continue to find myself bogged down in intense conversations based on misunderstandings. I, like so many, often get bogged down by vocabulary. In some recent interactions, I’ve found myself in “conversations” where two of us were talking past each other because we didn’t understand or we didn’t try to understand the words we both were using. Wars have started that way. So, I encourage you to try not to get distracted by the words I use, but rather try to understand my point.
There’s a great article on saints that I’d encourage you to read if you have you’d like to go a little deeper:
Here’s my point. All disciples of Jesus, that is all baptized Christians, are called to be holy. Let’s face it, that’s often easier said than done. It’s too easy to say, “I can’t be a saint because of the sin in my life,” or “if they only knew, I’d be kicked out.” So some fall into a trap of despair and find solace at the end of a bottle or some other distraction like drugs.
But the Church lifts up people as examples to us to show us that it’s never too late and that even me, with all my sin, can serve the Kingdom of God.
Take Augustine, for example. He was a womanizer, had a child out of wedlock, loved to party, drank and smoked excessively, among other things. Yet he was able to overcome his sinfulness and allow God to work through him. His writings continue to inspire Catholics, Protestants and Evangelicals right up today. So we remember him. We honor him. But we never worship him.
How was Augustine able to overcome sin? Through an extraordinary act of faith, he surrendered his life to Jesus. We call that heroic virtue.
Look at his mom, St. Monica, who never lost faith that God had a plan for her son. So she prayed. I’m sure she lectured him, probably yelled a little and cried a lot or yelled alot and cried a little. Ultimately she knew that nothing she did would save Augustine. Only Jesus could save him. So she prayed him home.
Monica, who demonstrated heroic virtue, is an example of the extraordinary faith of a parent. The Church gives her to us as an example to parents everywhere that you should never lose hope for your children.
Today we remember Lawrence, a deacon of the early church. In the year 258, Pope Sixtus II and others were being led out to die. The Prefect demanded that Lawrence give him the wealth of the Church. Lawrence asked for a few days to gather it all up. During that time, he managed to disperse most of it to the poor. Days later the Prefect demanded that he produce the wealth. Lawrence lead in the poor, the disabled and the blind and presented them as the real treasure of the church.
The Prefect ordered Lawrence to be slowly cooked to death on a gridiron – basically a giant bbq. After some time, Lawrence yells out in a deliciously humorous and sarcastic way, “Turn me over! I am well done on this side!”
It took extraordinary faith, heroic virtue, for Lawrence to stand up to the Prefect (and to try to educate him in what true wealth was). He could have used the time the Prefect gave him to run away with the money, but instead he gave it away to the poor. He was able to face his death because his faith was in Jesus Christ, his Lord and Savior, not in the Prefect and certainly not in all this world has to offer.
These are just three examples, but every saint has a story. It’s those stories that shed light on the good as well as the bad and sometimes ugly side of the people we call saints. But it’s not about the saints, not really. Those life stories hold opportunities that might be helpful to us.
Is every saint’s story helpful to everyone one of us? No, I don’t think so. I think that’s why the Church offers so many examples from the early church right up to the present. Somewhere throughout history each of us is bound to find at least one example that might spark something in us. What is it the Church hopes is sparked? It’s not about the saint, not really.
Through these stories of the of the lives of the saints, the Church hopes we might experience an encounter – an encounter with Jesus Christ; an encounter that leads to transformation; a transformation that leads to discipleship and salvation through Christ Jesus.
Happy St. Lawrence day!
Peace!