Feast of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr

The strange, ghastly, inspiring story of Saint Lawrence is told on the Catholic Online website. (If you click on this link, be prepared to dispatch some spurious pop-ups.)  

In the meanwhile the Church offers us reflections on the challenge of being Christian, which inevitably includes the possibility of martyrdom. In these United States, it would be easy to suppose those days are long gone. They will never return.

Or, conversely, some suppose we (Christians or Catholics) are still a despised minority and a persecution might break out at any moment. A fellow in the VA hospital assured me that, no matter what President Obama does, he will keep his faith! I am sure he will. 

I am not inclined to either extreme. I worry more that Christians will become the persecutors of minority Muslims, Protestants and Jews. 

Christians should always be strangers and aliens in a foreign land. We are also good will ambassadors from God and welcome wherever we go.

I believe the martyrs’ challenge for us today is to remain in the conversation even as our opponents leave the building. We know who we are. We should  know our religion and our history, and also the religions of our neighbors and their histories. We should be ready to engage in conversation, friendly and respectful, at every moment.

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. (I Peter 3: 15-16)

The story of Saint Lawrence, famous for his humor, should remind us of our sense of humor. We don’t know anything. None of us has been to heaven or seen the Risen Lord Jesus. None has been given scientific proof of any article of faith.

Rather, we believe in God’s word. Belief is more powerful and more reassuring than knowledge, and far more humble. 

As Saint James insisted faith without works is dead, Saint Lawrence reminds us faith without a sense of humor is dreary.