Walking like St. Martin in the Truth As Commanded, 32nd Friday (II), November 11, 2022

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Thursday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Alverna Center, Winona, Minnesota
Retreat for the Priests of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester
November 11, 2022
2 John 4-9, Ps 119, Lk 17:26-37

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following text guided today’s homily: 

• Yesterday the Church throughout the world pondered Jesus’ words that the kingdom of God is among us and why that is, because the King is here with us, he took our flesh, he remains with us in the sacraments, in grace, in the Church, in others; and we enter into that kingdom when we follow up our prayer “thy kingdom come!” with the complementary couplet “thy will be done!” We dwell within that kingdom when we’re with the King, when we allow his will to be done within us, when he reigns. That’s the definition of a truly Eucharistic Life, when we not only grasp that the King is among us, come to spend time with him and allow him to take up his glorious throne within us, but when we allow him to transform us to live fully in his kingdom and bring others into it as well. Today’s readings and feast provide a fitting commentary on these truths.
• In today’s Gospel, we see that even though Christ the King is present, some live in that kingdom and others don’t; others behave as if they are vincibly oblivious to it. Jesus contrasts Noah with those who perished in the flood, and Lot and those who perished in Sodom. Some were attentive and alert to God’s kingdom in their midst and some were not. Jesus encourages us to be similarly on guard. He says that when he comes at the time or the end of our life, whichever comes first, we shouldn’t head down into the house to get possessions or come in from the field, but we should go straight to the King whose kingdom we were seeking in action. He says that two will be sleeping, two will be cooking, but only one will be taken. This isn’t to be misinterpreted as if God’s going to do an arbitrary 50/50 split. Rather, it’s saying some in the very same circumstances will be ready because they’re connecting sleeping or cooking to God and his kingdom, and others won’t be ready, because all they think they’re doing is sleeping or cooking rather than doing it in communion with God in his kingdom. When they ask where this will take place, Jesus uses an aphorism, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather,” to indicate that just as vultures find a corpse, so we should find the kingdom! He also gives the principle of living in the kingdom: “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.” Those who are living in the kingdom are freely giving or “losing” their life for God and others, so that his kingdom will come and his will be done. Those who try to preserve their own kingdom, to hallow their own name, to do their own will, will be those who lose their lives.
• In today’s first reading, the only passage we have in the two-year liturgical cycle of daily Mass readings from St. John’s Second Letter, the Apostle, who was present when Jesus said the words in today’s Gospel, makes plain what living in the kingdom is all about. He phrases it as “walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the Father,” following in the footsteps of the Incarnate Truth. He describes that that involves not a new commandment but the one to “love one another” that Christ gave us, reminding us that love means to “walk according to the commandments” because the commandments train us to love God with all our mind, heart, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. To walk in the truth means to grow in a Eucharistic life, to grasp the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist who comes within, and to love according to that Eucharistic standard. St. John notes that there are “progressives” who do not “remain in the teaching of the Christ” and says that they do not remain in the Father and the Son, in the kingdom of God, and says, parallel to the upshot of Jesus’ message in today’s Gospel, “Look to yourselves that you do not lose what we worked for but may receive a full recompense,” losing their lives so as to save it.
• To live in the Kingdom, to lose one’s life for God and others, to do the will of God and walk in the truth and in the path of the commandments, is to live with Eucharistic charity, which is why today’s feast is so timely, because for the last 1700 years St. Martin of Tours has been an icon of the charity of the kingdom. He was the son of a pagan army officer and brought into the Roman army as a teenager. Eventually he was stationed to Amiens in the north of France which is where his celebrated conversion took place. He was on patrol duty one frigid night when he saw a shivering, lightly clad man begging for alms near the city gate. Martin was shocked that no one was giving this man assistance. He had no money on him; all he had was his horse, his sword and his own clothes. But he dismounted, evaginated his Roman lance, and cut his military cappa in two, covering the beggar with half and wearing the other half himself. Later that night, Jesus appeared to him in a dream dressed in the half of the cape given to the beggar, teaching Martin that whenever he cared for, whenever he served, anyone else, he was caring for Christ himself. He was a catechumen at this point but immediately sought and receive baptism. Soon after he left the army, he put himself under the charge of St. Hilary of Poitiers and began a life of prayer as a hermit, where he lived for more than a decade. In 371, the Christians of Tours demanded him to be ordained their bishop. He served them while he continued to serve the Lord in prayer. He fought very hard against the paganism of the territory and against heresies in Christianity. He traveled all throughout his enormous diocese by foot, on a donkey or by boat. He never stopped serving, he never stopped losing his life for his flock, he never stopped walking in the way of the truth and guiding them on that life-long pilgrimage, teaching them how to be ready to embrace Christ whenever and wherever he came. He never stopped cutting himself and his goods metaphorically in half and giving all he had for his people. Even when it was clear that his ascetical life, age and hard work were catching up with him, he kept on going. There was controversy in the parish of Candes because of disputes among priests and he wanted to go to bring peace. Those around him tried to prevent the journey, saying he would likely die on the way. He turned to the Lord and said, “Lord, if your people still need me, I am ready for the task. Your will be done.” To enter the kingdom involves doing God’s will. St. Martin went and reconciled the priests and people. But he informed them that he was about to die. As he lay on his death bed, they wanted to turn him around to prevent bedsores, but he said, “Allow me to look to heaven rather than at earth, so that my spirit may set on the right course when the time comes for me to go on my journey to the Lord.” He spurned the devil whom he could see standing there trying to tempt him to the last and entrusted himself to the embrace of Abraham. Especially on this Veteran’s Day, he shows us that the best soldiers and best Christians are soldiers of Christ, those who willingly give their life for his cause.
• Today on his feast, as we prepare strengthened by this retreat to return to our assignments and lead the enlisted members of the Church militant, we come to the source of his strength, Christ himself, in the Holy Eucharist, the source and summit, root and center, of our Christian and priestly life. We ask the Eucharistic King for a double portion of St. Martin’s spirit so that, like him, we may love one another, walk according to the truth in the commandments, lose our life, and so serve others so that when the Lord comes he may not take one of us and leave the other behind, but thanks to our love, take us all.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

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