Thursday in the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 10, 2023

The Feast of St. Lawrence

John 12, 24-26

Jesus said to his disciples: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me."

The Gospel Reading is the proper reading in the Lectionary for this feast.

St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage in the mid 200’s, wrote a letter to fellow Christians alerting them to the news of a new persecution ordered by the emperor Valerian.  Cyprian acknowledges the confusion of the faithful due to rumors, and wants to set them straight on the actual facts: “But the truth concerning them is as follows, that Valerian had sent a rescript to the Senate, to the effect that bishops and presbyters and deacons should immediately be punished; but that senators, and men of importance, and Roman knights, should lose their dignity, and moreover be deprived of their property; and if, when their means were taken away, they should persist in being Christians, then they should also lose their heads; but that matrons should be deprived of their property, and sent into banishment.”  He also added the news that, “[Pope] Sixtus [II] was martyred in the catacombs on the eighth day of the Ides of August [in the year 258], and with him four deacons.”  The Church had seven deacons in Rome st that time, assisting Pope Sixtus.  Two more were killed a couple of days later.  The last to die was St. Lawrence.  According to St. Ambrose (d. 397), St. Lawrence was told by the Roman authorities to present to them, on a given date, the treasury of the Church, and that instead of the wealth the Romans expected, Lawrence pointed to a group of poor Christians.  Ambrose goes to to say that Lawrence was then roasted on a gridiron until he died.  Although some critics contend that this reported manner of death contradicts the edict of Valerian, it is consistent with the rage the Romans felt for having been made fools of.  From early times he has been celebrated as one of the great Roman martyrs and his name was added to the ancient Roman Canon used for Mass.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.”  By entering into the Death of Jesus Christ, we who are joined to him as member of his Body share in his Redemptive work through offering him our own sufferings and deaths.  Thus St. Paul said, “I, Paul . . . who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his Body, which is the Church” (Colossians 1, 23-24).  The Lord Jesus, in his mercy, and not due to any necessity, allows the members of his Body to share in his work.  The martyrs do this most of all, suffering for their faith in Christ and thereby most closely conforming themselves to him.  The Lord Jesus, in his speaking of the grain of wheat, says that the believer who dies conformed through martyrdom to him who is The Grain will produce much fruit.  Not all grains of wheat fall to the ground and die and accomplish this.  Most grains are taken to the Master’s barns and they will nourish others.  This is no small thing.  But those grains which die will produce much fruit — will build up the Church through both their examples of faithfulness but also, and more importantly, through the grace which they obtain for it.

“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.”  The Lord assures the faithful that their deaths for him are not a waste but are the means of achieving life in heaven.  He speaks primarily of the martyrs, but also of all those who devote their lives to his service, and so “lose” their lives, that is, the lives they could have lived.  “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me."  The servant of Jesus Christ goes where the Lord desires him to go, whether in terms of moving about physically or in terms of the vocation which the Lord gives to each of his followers.  Conforming ourselves to his will in this way wins his approval and the Father’s honor.  That servant will hear glorious words at the end of time when all the accounts of men and women are reckoned up:  “Enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew 25, 21).