Mes: noviembre 2006

The Wonders of the Lord

1. Modern science has had a special effect in many minds. Since we have been able to provide an explanation for many phenomena it is easy to think that everything can be explained. Since we have solved so many problems with the aid of technology, it is easy to imagine that every difficulty can be successfully tackled in technological terms.
2. It should be noted that this is not the first time that human reason is presented as a perfect solution for understanding and dominating the world. Back in the Seventeen hundreds some thinkers began to proclaim their atheism on the grounds of human mind’s power. The same attitude resurfaces nowadays with the dress of skepticism or open mockery at religion.
3. Nonetheless, there remain many unexplained facts. Many of us are familiar to Lourdes, for example. Dozens of well-documented miracles have happened in direct connection to prayer at the Grotto, in Lourdes. People have been cured and the physicians can only say: “We do know that this person had this illness… and he no longer has it, for no apparent reason.” Science has a limit, and whenever strong devotion flows, that limit emerges more than once.

Martin, the Miracle-Maker

1. There are hundreds of testimonies about the wonders and miracles that filled St. Martin’s life. The “cloud of witnesses” includes male and female, young and elderly, lay people as religious as well. Let us read a couple of ancient testimonies, told by Giuliana Cavallini in her book on the life of our Saint.
2. “One morning the master of novices sought out Martin and confided a great grief to him. Two novices had disappeared and could not be found anywhere. They must have fled. Martin promised the master of novices he would do his best to help find them, and began to pray. When he had finished, he went to ask the prior’s permission to go out. Knowing what had happened, the prior granted the permission, even though it was already night. Martin walked several miles and then stopped before the door of a house. The door was closed, but had made no difference to him. He entered and found the two fugitives tranquilly sleeping on two cots. Martin awoke them without one word of reproof. Instead, he began to speak in his pacifying and convincing tone of the beauty of the religious state, of the dignity of a life intimately united to the life of God, of the boundless field opened to love when a man closes his heart to the attractions of his lower nature and disposes himself to receive the light from on high. His whole discourse seemed so logical to the young men that they found it hard to believe they were really guilty of having fled from the monastery the day before. They heartily wished they had never done such a foolish thing. All they could think of now was how to get back to the monastery. The problem was simple for Martin. As long as the two culprits were sincerely repented, everything else would take care of itself. Just as he had entered the house alone through locked doors, he re-entered the monastery through its barred doors with the two novices. Thus, no one knew of their flight except the prior and the master of novices, and no shadow was cast on their honor as religious. They became good religious and remained members of the Order until their death.”
3. Here it goes another one: “I have said it and I have repeated it millions of times–Father Ignatius of St. Dominic used to say–that I decided to become a Dominican because I saw Brother Martin de Porres in prayer, lifted high above the earth, almost embracing the crucified Christ of the chapter room.” “Oh, if Father Ignatius were only here–said Father Christopher one day to Marcel de Rivero, the surgeon–And is not my testimony enough?–replied de Rivero testily–I also saw him, just as Father Ignatius did, high above the ground, in the chapter room, and my word is just as good as his!”

What We Can Learn from St. Martin To-day

1. Miracles do happen. It is good to remember this in order to escape a narrow vision of the world. Our Lord is the Lord of Wonders, and He has gone to the extreme of enduring his only Son’s death for the sake of our salvation. We have been powerfully loved by God and we can trust completely in his love, in his care, in his mercy.
2. St. Martin’s miracles are linked to prayer, just as his entire life was. If we want to see the wonders of the Lord, the very beginning is a real life of prayer. Prayer itself is an amazing thing, for is nothing less than uniting our being with God, the Creator of the Universe.
3. Every miracle has a message. This is evident enough in the gospel of St. John, for example, who uses to call Jesus’ miracles “signs” that ought be read. It is important that we do not stop in contemplating miracles as “funny things.” Through them, what we should attend is God’s Providence and the way He is calling us to lead a better, more faithful and more meaningful life.

Without Love I Am Nothing

1. “This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13,35). “This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you. No one shows greater love than when he lays down his life for his friends” (John 15,12-13).
2. “If I speak in the tongues of humans and angels but have no love, I have become a reverberating gong or a clashing cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can understand all secrets and every form of knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains but have no love, I am nothing. Even if I give away all that I have and surrender my body so that I may boast but have no love, I get nothing out of it” (1 Corinthians 13,1-3).
3. “A religion that is pure and stainless in the sight of God the Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1,27).

Martin of Charity

1. Among the many titles and nicknames St. Martin got during his lifetime, the one that stuck the most is “Martin of Charity.” He was remembered especially for his complete selfishness, his incredible generosity, and the kindness of his way of treating everybody. Charity became a second nature in the poor Lay Brother, who was a true sign of bounty for all kind of people. In the midst of a harsh environment, with so much violence around his peaceful smile was a great relief for many, who would never forget him.
2. We would consider his charity and self-denial as extreme. It is said that when his priory was in debt, he implored them: “I am only a poor mulatto. Sell me. I am the property of the Order. Sell me.” It is also well known how much he pushed his health and human forces to the extreme, so that more than once his Superiors had to intervene to lessen his tireless self-giving to all, especially to the poor and sick.
3. Martin did his best with whatever means he could get striving to do every work of mercy. He spent his whole life as a barber, farm laborer, almoner, and infirmarian among other things. His love was all-embracing, shown both to humans and to animals, including vermin, and he maintained a cats and dogs hospital at his sister’s house.

What We Can Learn from St. Martin To-day

1. Nowadays, when we hear that “Love is powerful,” I suppose we think firstly of passionate or romantic love. People would regard love as a blind force that is able to overcome all sort of difficulties and survive in extreme circumstances. However, the face of love that Martin, like many other Saints, has depicted is not linked to the immediate and vain gratification of flame but with the lasting warmth and healthy purification of true charity. I suspect many people would do well learning a bit less about new ways of pleasure, and caring a bit more about Love, with capital L.
2. Christian love is today as necessary as always. Not far ago we had before our eyes the beautiful example of Mother Theresa of Calcuta, another great saint so devoted to serve the poor and destitutes. She has become an icon for a whole generation. Love is actual, it is always well received because it is so badly needed.
3. Notwithstanding that, we must bear in mind what the apostle teaches us: “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4,10). It is not a matter of heroism; it is a matter of giving permission to God to work freely within us. St. Catherine of Siena used to say: “When the soul sees itself so loved, it cannot avoid committing itself to love.” The short way to love is accepting God’s love.

Man of Prayer

1. Prayer is not the first thing we notice when we meet someone. In ordinary conversation, it is difficult to tell if a person prays a lot or what is the quality of her prayer. Yet if we stay for a while close to her we begin to perceive how she reacts in times of trial. When things go tough we immediately note who relies on herself and who relies on God.
2. Paul VI, the pope who canonized Martin de Porres, once taught: “The quiet personal prayer in which you encounter Christ in order to keep vital the contact of the soul with God, the source of all graces, simply does not have a substitute.” Prayer cannot be traded and there is no workaround for that time we spend with the Lord.
3. Prayer is the beginning and the end of a holy day. If we are called to be holy, we are called to be prayerful, for we cannot lead a holy life without holy mornings, holy evenings and holy nights.

A Contemplative Man

1. Martin is well remembered as a man of prayer. He used to spend a good portion of the night in the church, contemplating the Crucified Lord. If Christ hanging on the Cross is the great source of every grace, where are we supposed to go if not to that fountain?
2. St. Martin’s prayer shines forth with many rays. Among them, I would like to highlight these four: humility, adoration, perseverance, confidence. He certainly knew the power of prayer and was generous in giving time to his best friend, Jesus Christ.
3. It has been reported that, even walking down by the corridors of the priory, he would seldom or never pass by the image of a saint without saying some prayer. The statues were not mere decoration for him! He would recommend similar practices to his brothers in religion, and to everybody that would listen to him.

What We Can Learn from St. Martin To-day

1. We are in great need of rediscovering prayer. It can be difficult at times; it can seem wasting of time; we can feel we are going nowhere. Yet that “useless” time delivers our lives to the One that is able to shape us according to the image of his only Begotten Son.
2. The important point in prayer is not what we do but what God does. More important than our words is his Word. More important than our feelings is the mysterious action of his grace and his love.
3. We are not alone on the way to become prayerful people. The lives of the saints, true witnesses of God’s love, is constantly remind us that if we sow with generosity, we will harvest with joy.