8/10/2016 - St Lawrence – Deacon and Martyr – Wednesday of 19th week in Ordinary Time – John 12:24-26

     Lawrence was one of seven deacons who served in the Church in ancient Rome in the first half of the third century.  After the death of Pope Sixtus, whom Lawrence served, Lawrence was ordered by the Roman authorities to hand over the treasures of the Church. He distributed as much wealth he could to the poor, so when the authorities came, he presented them the poor, the blind, the suffering and the lame as the true treasures of the Church.  As a result, Lawrence was imprisoned and was burned to death by the Roman authorities.  Lawrence became a well-recognized martyr in the early Church, having been killed in these Valerian persecutions in the year 258. He is honored in our Church’s liturgical calendar today.  This week, Edith Stein and Maximilian Kolbe, two Catholics who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in WWII, are also honored as martyrs for the faith.

      Just a decade ago we thought about martyrs as coming from faraway places such as Africa and the Middle East or products of an era that has past.  However, with Christians being attacked or persecuted because of their faith throughout the world and even in our own country, with news of an elderly French priest being killed in his own church in France, we cannot take anything for granted anymore. 

     The Gospel today very much exemplifies St Lawrence and his witness of faith, as Jesus tells us about the grain of wheat that enters the ground and dies to produce much fruit.  Like St Lawrence did, to serve Jesus, we must take up our crosses and follow him.