In August and everything after... (the point of feasting St. Lawrence)
Has anyone else noticed that the Sunday readings for August are very… demanding? Oh, they're beautiful. (Anything that features long extracts from the Letter to the Hebrews is going to be beautiful.) But they're beautiful in a very austere way, like the desert. A few of the messages I've noticed:
* Everything is worthless under the sun.
* If you do not give your all, you will lose all.
* God is not ashamed to be called their God -- those who really give their lives and their hearts.
* What are you complaining about? Have you shed blood in the struggle against sin yet?
* Many will be lost. Don't get distracted.
Given this… sunny background, it's been very interesting to me that, when I was going through the readings, I accidentally clicked on Saturday the 10th instead of Sunday the 11th, and therefore temporarily got the readings for the Feast of St. Lawrence mixed in there.
Once I realized, I had to look him up. St. Lawrence is a Roman-Empire-era saint who has apocryphal but wonderful stories. The most famous is that he joked even to the last, on his fiery deathbed (a horizontal stake at a public execution): "I am well done on this side. Turn me over!"
An even more crazy and joyful story is why he was arrested to begin with. Apparently the Romans demanded Lawrence's church turn over all its wealth -- as the Romans so often do in these stories -- so Lawrence spent three days busily giving away everything they had. He showed up with a rabble of the poor and homeless and presented them to the Roman prefect as "the wealth of our church!"
Therefore, the Saturday 10th readings ("God loves a cheerful giver") have a much different tone than the August Sunday readings. And yet… I didn't notice my mistake for a while because one message complements the other as perfectly as two hands:
Scripture readings: The struggle to follow God is hard. It should be hard.
Traditional witness of the Lawrence story: And in losing yourself to the struggle, you will be glad. Therein is life and the love of God forever.
* Everything is worthless under the sun.
* If you do not give your all, you will lose all.
* God is not ashamed to be called their God -- those who really give their lives and their hearts.
* What are you complaining about? Have you shed blood in the struggle against sin yet?
* Many will be lost. Don't get distracted.
Given this… sunny background, it's been very interesting to me that, when I was going through the readings, I accidentally clicked on Saturday the 10th instead of Sunday the 11th, and therefore temporarily got the readings for the Feast of St. Lawrence mixed in there.
Once I realized, I had to look him up. St. Lawrence is a Roman-Empire-era saint who has apocryphal but wonderful stories. The most famous is that he joked even to the last, on his fiery deathbed (a horizontal stake at a public execution): "I am well done on this side. Turn me over!"
An even more crazy and joyful story is why he was arrested to begin with. Apparently the Romans demanded Lawrence's church turn over all its wealth -- as the Romans so often do in these stories -- so Lawrence spent three days busily giving away everything they had. He showed up with a rabble of the poor and homeless and presented them to the Roman prefect as "the wealth of our church!"
Therefore, the Saturday 10th readings ("God loves a cheerful giver") have a much different tone than the August Sunday readings. And yet… I didn't notice my mistake for a while because one message complements the other as perfectly as two hands:
Scripture readings: The struggle to follow God is hard. It should be hard.
Traditional witness of the Lawrence story: And in losing yourself to the struggle, you will be glad. Therein is life and the love of God forever.