As we celebrate the feast day of St Martin I today, I realized that I did not know a lot about him. He became Pope in the year 649 when Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine empire and when the patriarch of Constantinople was the most influential Church leader in the East. There was a lot of conflict between Eastern and Western Christianity at the time, with the emperor of Byzantium and the Patriarch of Constantinople often allied against Rome. In a council at the Lateran Basilica convened by Martin I, some of the teachings supported by the Patriarch and Emperor were condemned, which angered both of them. After a failed assassination attempt against Martin I, the Emperor had him captured and brought to Constantinople, subjecting him to torture and imprisonment. The Patriarch repented and was successful in his attempt to free Martin I, but Martin was in a weakened state. He died shortly thereafter. He is the last of the Popes in the Early Church to die a martyr. In our current era where there is often a lot of tension between our faith leaders and the government, the story of Martin I perhaps resonates with us today.
In our first reading today from Acts, we hear about Peter and John heading off to the Temple to pray when a lame man stops them and asks them for help. Instead of giving this man money to help him economically, they heal him through the Holy Spirit. This man leaps for joy and shouts praises to God, which draws the attention of a large crowd. This gives Peter the opportunity to preach to the people about Jesus. He tells the crowd about what happened to their Lord. Peter wants the people to repent, to change their lives, to become followers of Christ. In this miracle, it is not the miracle itself that draws attention, but rather the power and truth behind that miracle as it teaches us about God’s kingdom and about our faith.
In these two stories, a Pope and two disciples use the challenging difficult reality of their lives to act in faith and to reach out to others out of their faith. May we recognize those opportunities we have in life to rise above our own struggles and our own difficult reality to be examples of faith to others.
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