I. The example of the martyrs is most valuable.
While the height of all virtues, dearly-beloved, and the fullness of all
righteousness is born of that love, where God and one’s neighbor is loved, surely in none is this love
found more conspicuous and brighter than in the blessed martyrs; who are as
near to our Lord Jesus, Who died for all men, in
the imitation of His love, as in the likeness of their suffering. For, although
that Love, where the Lord has redeemed us, cannot be equaled
by any man’s kindness, because it is one thing that a man who is doomed to die
one day should die for a righteous man, and another that One Who is free from
the debt of sin should lay down His life for the wicked: yet the martyrs also have done
great service to all men, in that the Lord Who
gave them boldness, has used it to show that the penalty of death and the pain
of the cross need not be terrible to any of His followers, but might be
imitated by many of them. If therefore no good man is good for himself alone,
and no wise man’s wisdom befriends himself only, and the nature of true virtue
is such that it leads many away from the dark error on which its light is shed,
no model is more useful in teaching God’s people than that of the
martyrs. Eloquence may make intercession easy, reasoning may effectually
persuade; but yet examples are stronger than words, and there is more teaching
in practice than in precept.
II. The Saint’s martyrdom described.
And how gloriously strong in this most excellent manner of doctrine the
blessed martyr Laurentius is, by whose sufferings to-day is marked, even his
persecutors were able to feel, when they found that his wondrous courage, born
principally of love for Christ, not only did not yield itself, but also
strengthened others by the example of his endurance. For when the fury of the
gentile potentates was raging against Christ’s most chosen members, and
attacked those especially who were of priestly rank, the wicked persecutor’s
wrath was vented on Laurentius the deacon, who was pre-eminent not only in the
performance of the sacred rites, but also in the management of the church’s
property, promising himself double spoil from one man’s capture:
for if he forced him to surrender the sacred treasures, he would also drive him
out of the pale of true religion. And so this man, so greedy of money and such
a foe to the truth, arms himself with double weapon: with avarice to plunder
the gold; with impiety to carry off Christ. He demands of the guileless
guardian of the sanctuary that the church wealth on which his greedy mind was
set should be brought to him. But the holy deacon showed him where he had them
stored, by pointing to the many troops of poor saints, in the feeding and
clothing of whom he had a store of riches which he could not lose, and which
were the more entirely safe that the money had been spent on so holy a cause.
III. The description of his sufferings continued.
The baffled plunderer, therefore, frets, and blazing out into hatred of a
religion, which had put riches to such a use, determines to pillage a still
greater treasure by carrying off that sacred deposit, wherewith he was
enriched, as he could find no solid hoard of money in his possession. He orders
Laurentius to renounce Christ, and prepares to ply the deacon’s stout courage
with frightful tortures: and, when the first elicit nothing, fiercer follow.
His limbs, torn and mangled by many cutting blows, are commanded to be broiled
upon the fire in an iron framework, which was of itself
already hot enough to burn him, and on which his limbs were turned from time to
time, to make the torment fiercer, and the death more lingering.
IV. Laurentius has conquered his persecutor.
You gain nothing, you prevail nothing, O savage cruelty. His mortal frame
is released from your devices, and, when Laurentius departs to heaven, you are
vanquished. The flame of Christ’s love could not be overcome by your flames,
and the fire which burnt outside was less keen than that which blazed within. You
did nothing but serve the martyr in your rage, O persecutor: you did nothing
but swell the reward in adding to the pain. For what did you cunningly devise,
which did not rebound to the conqueror’s glory, when even the instruments of
torture were counted as part of the triumph? Let us rejoice, then,
dearly-beloved, with spiritual joy, and make our boast over the happy end of
this illustrious man in the Lord, Who is “wonderful in
His saints,” in
whom He has given us a support and an example, and has so spread abroad his
glory throughout the world, that, from the rising of the sun to its going down,
the brightness of his deacon’s light shines, and Rome is become as famous in
Laurentius as Jerusalem was ennobled by Stephen. By his prayer and intercession we trust at all times to
be assisted; that, because all, as the Apostle says, “who wish to live holily in
Christ, suffer persecution,” we may be strengthened
with the spirit of love, and be fortified to overcome all temptations by the
perseverance of steadfast faith. Through our Lord
Jesus Christ, amen.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf212.ii.v.xliv.html
Prayer to St. Lawrence: O glorious Saint Lawrence, Martyr and Deacon, who,
being subjected to the most bitter torments, didst not lose thy faith nor thy
constancy in confessing Jesus Christ, obtain in like manner for us such an
active and solid faith, that we shall never be ashamed to be true followers of
Jesus Christ, and fervent Christians in word and in deed. (http://catholicism.about.com/od/prayers/qt/Prayer_to_Saint_Lawrence.htm
My thoughts: I will not be so presumptuous as to think I could
add anything to a sermon by St. Leo the Great! I will retell one story, and add another
about St. Lawrence which should impress upon us that a good sense of humor is
very necessary in our work as God’s disciples. When Lawrence was told to turn
over all the Church’s treasures, he promised that he would do so. The next day,
instead of bearing gold and silver, he showed up with all the Catholics in the
town, proclaiming that the people of faith are the Church’s greatest treasure.
I can just imagine how that went over. Then, when he was being “bar-b-qued” to
death, he shouted to his executioners, “Turn me over, please, for I am quite
done on this side.” A fearless nature, a good humor, and an unwavering faith in
God: St. Lawrence is a saint who can give us all strength in times of
persecution. St. Lawrence, pray for us.
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