Feast of Saint Lawrence — A Man Who Understood the Gospel
Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Lawrence. It is a great, surprising, and often understated feast of the Church.
Saint Lawrence is lived between the years 225 to 258. It is absolutely astounding that the wisdom and insight he showed in a time of great persecution for the Church. We have a lot to learn from him.
We know very little about his life. He is one of those whose martyrdom made a deep and lasting impression on the early Church. A well-known legend has persisted from the earliest times. As a deacon in Rome, Lawrence was charged with the responsibility for the Church’s material goods and the distribution of alms to the poor. When Lawrence knew he would be arrested like the pope, he sought out the poor, widows, and orphans of Rome. He gave them all the money he had on hand, selling even the altar’s sacred vessels to increase the sum.
When a soldier of Rome heard of this, he imagined that the Christians must have considerable treasure. He sent for Lawrence.
He realized the Church must have accumulated significant wealth. He told Lawrence, “Now, your doctrine says you must render to Caesar what is his. Bring these treasures—the emperor needs them to maintain his forces. God does not cause money to be counted: He brought none of it into the world with him—only words. Give me the money, therefore, and be rich in words.”
Lawrence agreed. He told the soldier that he would need 3 days to do an inventory of the wealth he was passing on to Caesar. During those 3 days, Lawrence gathered together all of the poor, lame, blind, lepers, maimed, widows, orphans, and beggars. He filled the seats of the Church with those he brought together. The soldier returned to collect the wealth of the Church for Caesar. He was presented with the crowd of those who suffer. Lawrence told the soldier that such as these are the wealth and the treasure of the Catholic Church.
The soldiers were furious and decided to martyr Lawrence as slowly and painfully possible. He built a fire and burned it down to hot white coals. He placed a grate on the fire and laid Lawrence on the grill.
Legend has it that as he was burning on one side, he called out clearly to the crowd, “Turn me over, I am well done on this side.
What an inspiration. We must never lose sight of who the Church is. It is all of us. It is the motley, ragged group we are. Nothing is more valuable than the people of our Church family. It is where our real wealth and treasure lies. You are the treasure of the Church!
In God’s Unending Love,
Gwen
