Feast of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr

Today's Mass Readings

It is not mere coincidence that there are grill restaurants all over the country named for St. Lawrence. This saint was grilled to death. Legend has it that when one side of him had been thoroughly cooked, he told his executioners they should flip him over on the gridiron. While this is the stuff of legends, it is known that Lawrence, a deacon of the Church, was martyred during the persecution of Valerian in 258. Today’s readings are chosen specifically for his feast. “God loves a cheerful giver” is one of the lines from today’s first reading from the second letter of the Corinthians (2 Cor 9:7). This is appropriate for Lawrence given his willingness to endure martyrdom, especially in the spirit that is captured by the legend. At a time when all bishops, priests, and deacons were given an automatic death penalty by imperial edict, Lawrence accepted this fate and offered his life cheerfully. But it is also relevant for another story about Lawrence, told by St. Ambrose. When someone demanded of Lawrence the treasures of the Church, the saint brought the poor, to whom he had given all the Church’s collected alms. This is another example of what it means to be a cheerful giver. St. Lawrence had a high regard for the poor and their value to the Church.

The gospel passage reflects St. Lawrence’s life and death as well. The saint followed and served Jesus and literally lost his life for Jesus, and so now shares in his life and glory as a saint. At a distance of 1700 years, it can be easy to look at Lawrence and simply dismiss him as living in a different time and place and living a Christian life that is simply beyond our reach. This, however, is not the purpose of celebrating St. Lawrence or any other saint. We are not to look to him so that we feel like complete failures. Rather, we look to him as a model and as an intercessor. We want to be like him, and we want him to pray that we may be like him.

Granted, we do not want any governmental leaders demanding our deaths as Christians. At the moment, that seems pretty unlikely anyway. But while we do not have the opportunity to be grilled to death, dying in a literal sense, we do have the opportunity to die in a figurative sense. We are called to die to our own ambitions and live our lives fully to fulfill God’s will. We are called to love and to serve and to follow Jesus, regardless of the cost. In doing this, we will, as the gospel tells us, bear much fruit.

You may have heard the expression “to play the martyr,” meaning to act as though one is bearing all the tough burdens of others around them and making all the sacrifices. The person who does this may indeed be making sacrifices, but she is also making everyone around her feel bad about it! This is not the kind of model that St. Lawrence gives us. We must, instead, be cheerful givers – martyrs that can crack jokes along the way and delight in doing the will of God. This may not come easy for us, but it can come if we continue to form ourselves as disciples following the gospel.

Today, take some time to think of one way in which you need to be more cheerful in doing God’s will in your life. It may mean simply not complaining about a difficulty that you are facing. It may mean willingly giving of your time, talent and treasure. It may mean seeing the positive in a bad situation. Let us pray that we may aim at cheer in living the Christian life! St. Lawrence, pray for us!

- Maria Morrow