The Poor: Heaven’s treasure (HOMILY FOR SATURDAY OF THE EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR II (ST. LAWRENCE - AUGUST 10, 2024)

HOMILY FOR SATURDAY OF THE EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR II (ST. LAWRENCE - AUGUST 10, 2024)

2Cor.9:6b-10; Ps.112; John 12:24-26

The Poor: Heaven’s treasure

One interesting thing about celebrating heroic men and women of the Church is that their lives practically sheds light on the truth of the gospel. Studying the lives of saints is like studying the scripture itself because the saints were imitators of Christ.

Today, we celebrate the memorial of St. Lawrence whose life and death has made one of the greatest impression in the life and history of the Church. The unique story associated with him goes thus: He “was a deacon of the Church of Rome who was temporarily in charge of the Church administration. During persecution, the authorities asked him to surrender all the treasures of the Church in three days. For the next three days, St. Lawrence went around gathering the poor supported by the Church. Then he brought them before the authorities and presented them as the “treasures of the Church”’.

Does this remind you of any teaching of Jesus in the gospel? In Matt.6:19-21, Jesus taught: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.

When we put the above gospel passage side-by-side with Lawrence’s action, we come to identify the authorities as thieves who wanted to steal the Church’s treasures. They could not because Lawrence deposited these treasures in heaven. After three days, he presented “the treasures of the kingdom of Heaven” to them. Beloved, there is something about heaven in the poor. They are Heaven’s true treasure.

Lawrence was not unaware of the consequences of “disobeying” the authorities. It was just that his love for God could not be threatened by any human force. And so, his life became a grain of wheat that fell into the earth, died but bore much fruits. Indeed the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the faith.

God wants to use our lives to invest into the business of expanding his kingdom here on earth; but he will not take it unless we give it to him because what He loves is “a cheerful giver”. Nothing is as bountiful as our lives. When we sow with it, we will surely reap bountifully. May the live and actions of St. Lawrence inspire us to practice the gospel in concrete terms with our neighbours. Amen.