“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
Mendicant preachers of the middle ages, including Franciscans, Dominicans, Servites and others, were often born of the upwardly mobile middle class. However, they had renounced the aspirations of their class, preferring the assured promises of eternal life to the ephemeral opportunities for greater wealth and comfort in this world.
They were also less attracted to the "spiritual warfare" of monks and hermits who had abandoned their aristocratic, warrier-class families to "fight" for freedom from the world's nonsense. Some of the last medieval aspirants to that guaranteed salvation were the Knights Templar. But aspiring martyrs do not make good warriors; they lose too often and surrender too readily!
The mendicant preachers readily spoke of spiritual profits and the risk of forfeiting eternal life. They took seriously the Lord's financial advice:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.
Getting a bit carried away by their paradigms, they sometimes monetized grace by assigning numbers like "300 days indulgence" to various prayers. (However, AI tells me the Church no longer does that! That's good to know. But does AI know what our many spendored Church is?) According to some skeptics, the Communion wafer is circular and flat for a reason; its resemblance to a silver or gold coin suggests its spiritual worth. In any case, the mendicants made heaven more available to devout people when there were few opportunities to follow in the footsteps of today's patron saint, the martyred Pope Sixtus II.
The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen renewed opportunities for martyrdom. And everyone is called to witness their faith by paying serious attention to political and economic realities; we must speak out when we see our own local, state, and federal governments violating the dignity of the unborn, the vulnerable, elderly, and dying. No one's suffering can be excused by expedience or efficiency.
But everyone is called to make sacrifices, and many are called to embrace the severe crosses they have been given. The best penances are not the ones we select; they're the ones which life demands of us.
Those who welcome these opportunities join Pope Saint Sixtus II in the endless praises of God.
