COLLECT: “O GOD, GIVER OF THAT ARDENT LOVE FOR YOU BY WHICH SAINT LAWRENCE WAS OUTSTANDINGLY FAITHFUL IN SERVICE AND GLORIOUS IN MARTYRDOM, GRANT THAT WE MAY LOVE WHAT HE LOVED AND PUT INTO PRACTICE WHAT HE TAUGHT. THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOUR SON, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU IN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GOD, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN”.
2Cor 9:6-10; Ps 111:1-2,5-9 and Jn 12:24-26.
Lawrence, the most famous of Roman Martyrs, was a deacon. Killed four days after Pope Sixtus, Lawrence became famous because of his youth, evangelical love for the poor, courage before his torturers, and sense of humour while dying. Tradition holds that he was roasted to death on a gridiron. He is Patron Saint of the poor and of cooks, and is invoked against lumbago and fire.
Both readings we are reflecting on today have placed before us a scene of a farmer, his field (farmland), how he works on the farm and eventually how he reaps or fails to reap. The earthly life is like a seed. We are the farmers with our seed of life. If we sow more in this life with our lives, we will reap more and vice versa. If the farmer sacrifices or forgoes what he would have eaten and sows it in the soil, and allows the seed to decompose and germinate and grow, it will yield a bumper and a very rich harvest. It also goes to say that if you are ready and willing to give or share cheerfully what you have with others, especially the less fortunate, God loves you because He loves anyone who gives or shares cheerfully. Your returns will be overwhelming and far-reaching.
This was exactly what St. Lawrence did with his life. He was able to allow his life-seed to fall into the ground, decompose, germinate, and eventually yield fruits. That is why he is counted among the saints we honour today in heaven. His evangelical love for the poor, his courage before his torturers and persecutors as he was being slowly roasted on a gridiron, and his sense of humour while dying (instead of cursing and regretting) are all signs of the more seed he sowed, not grudgingly but cheerfully and eventually he harvested more.
We are encouraged to do the same, of course, not necessarily giving ourselves up to be tortured by persecutors, or to be roasted on a gridiron, but to execute and discharge our duties and responsibilities to the best of our abilities and capabilities. We should do the ordinary things we are supposed to do in the world and as believers, in extraordinary ways. We should be ready and willing to sacrifice in our little ways whatever we are doing in this life. If we can do that cheerfully but not grudgingly, at the end of this earthly life we will be told: “Because you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your master”(Mt 25:21). May Saint Lawrence intercede for us. Stay blessed and happy feast to all who bear the name Lawrence.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, MONDAY, ON THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES: ‘THE ANNUNCIATION, THE VISITATION, THE BIRTH OF JESUS, THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE AND THE FINDING OF THE CHILD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE’. (LET US PRAY FOR HUMILITY, LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR, POVERTY IN SPIRIT, OBEDIENCE AND JOY IN FINDING JESUS) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and the hour of our death, Amen”.
PRAYER: “NOURISHED BY THESE SACRED GIFTS, WE HUMBLY EMPLOY YOU, LORD, THAT THE HOMAGE OF DUTIFUL SERVICE, WHICH WE RENDER ON THE FEAST OF SAINT LAWRENCE, MAY BRING US AN INCREASE OF YOUR SAVING GRACE. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN.”
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.com.
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