Word to the Wise
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr
[2 Corinthians 9:6-10 and John 12:24-26]Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. (2 Cor.) "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." (John)
As one who enjoys gardening, I am continually amazed at how a small seed placed in soil can be transformed into a plant that is even thousands of times larger than that seed. Jesus often refers to agricultural images in the gospels because most of the listeners were subsistence farmers. The use of the image of a seed being sown, however, might not be the way most of us today would conceive of martyrdom! Nevertheless, I believe it was St. Justin who said that "The blood of martyrs is the seedbed of the church!" An individual loss brings about a great collective gain. To die for one's faith means that one's faith is truly an ultimate value on a par with life. This is why I think martyrdom inspires individuals and societies to take action against oppressive regimes. When that happens, the life and death of the martyr "bears fruit" bountifully. Not long ago, the pope beatified a number of my Dominican brethren who were martyred during the Spanish civil war in the late 1930's. Some of them were classmates of a Dominican I lived with! This had a way of making martyrdom a very real thing to me. It is not something that a person should deliberately seek, but there can be no question of its value. AMEN
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