Saint Lawrence 2022
Jesus says
in our Gospel today “whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for
eternal life.”
Jesus does
not JUST say we should not give in to the sinful pleasures of this life, he
says we should HATE the sinful pleasures of this life.
Saint John
Chrysostom put it this way “When the soul invites us to things contrary to God
we should turn our soul away with all our might”. Saint John Chrysostom here is saying we
should rip ourselves away any time we feel temptation to sin.
And today
the Church celebrates the martyr Saint Lawrence who was told by the Roman Emperor
to gather the treasures of the Church.
Saint Lawrence asked for three days, and went around gathering all the
lame and blind and poor persons of the Church and presented them to the Emperor
as the treasure of the Church.
He was
martyred for this act.
Saint
Lawrence illustrates what Saint Augustine says in regards to our line from the
Gospel we have already been reflecting on about hating our life in this world. He says “when no other option is given and
when the persecutor threatens death and you must either disobey God’s law or
depart from this life, then choose death.”
Most of us
likely fall into the need to pull ourselves away with all our might from sinful
temptations. But some of us, at some
point in our lives, might be given the ultimatum that Saint Lawrence faced:
disobey God or die. If that is ever the
situation for any of us, may we choose to die rather than disobey God.
Saint Lawrence,
pray for us!
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