"Your Tripod" reflects the personal Fourth Day journeys of its authors and editors. We are happy to have companions like you share in this project. Our prayer is that these reflections will invite and inspire your Fourth Day journey of Piety, Study and Action as much as writing or editing them inspires our journey and brings us all close moments with Jesus and our neighbors.
For the lowly may be pardoned out of mercy but the mighty shall be mightily put to the test.For the Lord of all shows no partiality, nor does he fear greatness, Because he himself made the great as well as the small, and he provides for all alike; but for those in power a rigorous scrutiny impends.Wisdom 6:6-8
And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"Luke 17:15-18
Piety
In the readings from Paul’s letter to the Romans last Thursday, we heard the line, “For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall give praise to God."So (then) each of us shall give an account of himself (to God) (Romans 14:11-12).Father, inspire and motivate us with the life lessons of St. Martin of Tours to make decisions in our life to follow you.Amen.
Study
In an irony of modern civil-religion, as Americans mark Veterans Day (Armistice Day), the Church recognizes St. Martin of Tours, one of its saints who dropped out of his military service as he was converted to Christianity. St. Martin’s life personified the reading from the Book of Wisdom – “For those in power a rigorous scrutiny impends.”
“A conscientious objector who wanted to be a monk; a monk who was maneuvered into being a bishop; a bishop who fought paganism as well as pleaded for mercy to heretics—such was Martin of Tours, one of the most popular of saints and one of the first not to be a martyr,” according to www.AmericanCatholic.org.
The website explains that at the age of 23, St. Martin refused a war bonus and told his commander: “I have served you as a soldier; now let me serve Christ. Give the bounty to those who are going to fight. But I am a soldier of Christ and it is not lawful for me to fight.”After great difficulties, he was discharged and went to be a disciple of St. Hilary of Poitiers.
Such a decision was arrived at by St. Martin after much discernment. As Kierkegaard reminds us “A road begun is the battle half won. The important thing is to make a beginning and get underway.” Whether in the fourth century when Martin lived or today as we survive in this crazy topsy-turvy world, cooperation with evil reminds us that almost nothing is either all black or all white. The saints are not some aliens from a far off world.They walked on this very earth just as our modern saints Padre Pio, Edith Stein, Mother Teresa, Mother Seton and St. Charles Lwanga.
Whether it is St. Franz Jagerstatter a modern day St. Martin, witnessing to peace in side a German concentration camp during World War II or St. Fr. Damien ministering to people with leprosy in Molokai, saints face the same conflicted world and decisions that we do. Decisions of conscience like that of Martin de Tours, Franz Jagerstatter or a Catholic protesting at the fence of the White House or in front of an abortion clinic always involves some risk. Let us be inspired by St. Martin’s resolve to decide and act upon his decision not to participate in war when he realized his calling to follow the Lord.
Action
Saints start out in the world just like you and I.However, something happens to them, some epiphany or revelation, which compels them to act out of love.Like the one leper who returns to give praise to Jesus, something clicks in their life that propels them into action.Maybe we will not become saints or national leaders but in the little decisions and actions we make every day, we can make a difference in the lives of others.
In some additional inspiring words from Kierkegaard, “Dare to renew your decision.It will lift you again to have trust in God.For God is a spirit of power and love and self-control, and it is before God and for him that every decision is to be made.Dare to act on the good that lies buried within your heart.”
