Who are the "great" men and women in life? How can you know who they are? Today's gospel provides us, along with the saint whose memory we honor today, with an answer.
Only by falling back into the rich soil will the grain of wheat become even more for others.
Great men and women, it seems, are those who take the time to perfect a skill, a way of life, a personality which is then put back into the rich surroundings of life. The doctor who labors long through med school and internship, the artists who use canvas after canvas to raise the hearts and minds of others to encounter beauty in yet another way, the spiritual writer or creator of new hymns for worship spend hours in personal prayer so that others may deepen their love of God.
Only when a person grabs the grain for him/herself and doesn't let it fall into the needs of society that greatness is not achieved. So the question for us today is simple: am I working to perfect something, some skill, some talent that God has entrusted to me so that I can reach out to those around me to make their lives better?
The martyr, St. Lawrence, was indeed a man of prayer and sanctity before his death. But in his martyrdom he demonstrated to others who followed him in martyrdom during the Valerian persecutions the ultimate sacrifice he was willing to make. He made clear how strong his love of God was and that there was no limit to what he would endure to proclaim his faith.
