“Whoever serves me must follow me”Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
The truth contained in the word of Christ the Lord about the grain of wheat is revealed most fully in him, in his life-giving death. He is like the grain of wheat which died for us on the Cross, and from which we all grow to eternal life.
But all of us who believe in Christ must imitate him in this image of wheat. It is not an art to live according to God's commandments when it is easy and obvious. The point is, however, that we should always be faithful to God's commandments. Also when it requires sacrifice, effort, when you have to overcome, as if to die for some of your ambitions or life plans.
It is at such moments we are most particularly embraced by God's life. But also, if in such difficult moments we deviate from God's commandments, then God's life in us dies out. Sometimes it even turns out that someone was not a believer at all, but only pretended to be a believer.
"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." The truth of these words is especially clearly revealed in the martyr's death for faith. Reveled in the life and death of St. Lawrence, whose memorial we are celebrating today. The martyr testifies in his own name and on behalf of the whole Church that the Lord Jesus is absolutely in the first place for us, that he is even more important to us than this life, which lasts only a few dozen years.
Therefore, in the Church, we have known for a very long time that the blood of martyrs contributes significantly to the development of the Church, to new conversions and to a general increase in zeal in faith. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of new Christians," Tertullian wrote eighteen hundred years ago. But in general, every difficult in fidelity to Christ is a gift for the Church, contributing to the renewal of the Church. For if the wheat grain is not afraid to die, it yields a hundredfold.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george