Today we honor a saint who understood full well what our Lord is instructing us today,
that we can do nothing without his grace.
And indeed, when we respond to the grace of God in a certain sense,
we have done nothing except what he has given us the grace to do.
And so we recognize that we are unprofitable servants and we are commanded to serve the Lord,
and we must do so with joy.
St. Martin of Tours understood this so well, and it is how he lived his life.
He was born of pagan parents in Pannonia, which is now present-day Hungary or that vicinity.
And as a young man, he was enamored by the truth of Christianity,
and served as a soldier in the Roman army.
And eventually, at the age of 18, he would respond to the call of Christ
and be converted to the Catholic faith.
There, he would labor intensely to destroy the paganism that had overcome the Roman Empire
and had overcome the modern world.
St. Martin of Tours would be known for the extraordinary amount of miracles he would work.
They would include raising souls from the dead.
He, like St. Boniface, would challenge the...
...the Druid priest and take on the sacred groves.
And in Druidism, it was usually a pine tree.
And when St. Martin said that he was going to destroy it,
the pagans said that they would cut the tree down if he would stand in its path.
And so St. Martin of Tours stood in the path of the tree,
and as it was about to crush him, it reversed its path
and landed in a way in which it did not harm the saint.
And so he was a great worker of miracles.
Indeed, this witness to his supernatural life
is one that is destroyed by modern historians or modern interpretations of his life.
For we read amongst many of them that the events of his life were so extraordinary
that they could not possibly be believed.
And yet, is this not precisely what a miracle is?
It is something extraordinary above the natural.
And so it is most extraordinary and beyond, as it were, belief.
It is only if we believe in the natural order.
It is not beyond the belief of those who truly have supernatural faith.
And so, when members of Christianity assail these stories
and these miraculous accounts in the lives of saints,
they only belie their lack of faith and their form of naturalism that they have fallen into.
St. Martin of Tours would constantly combat the naturalism of his day,
the paganism of his time.
He would destroy temples and images
and burn them down.
And indeed, in one time when he was destroying a temple of the pagan world,
the winds blew up and it was about to also engulf a home in which formerly pagans had lived.
And so St. Martin of Tours would climb the roof and turn the fire back
and only the temple dedicated ultimately to Satan would be destroyed.
And so he would spend his whole life trying to destroy the manifestations of a fallen humanity
who had turned from God to Satan.
And so he would spend his whole life trying to destroy the manifestations of a fallen humanity
who had turned from God and had begun to worship himself.
And ultimately, that is what was at stake
and that is what is at stake in our modern world.
For St. Martin of Tours was particularly in combat with a form of paganism known as Druidism,
which, like all paganism, is merely, as it were, the worship of sensuality.
And so, St. Martin of Tours, by a chaste life,
a life that was described by St. Paul in today's Gospel,
a life in which he was mortified in all things,
would witness to the greatness of Almighty God
and what is possible for us if we respond to grace.
Perhaps the most extraordinary event that happened in his life
is not one that is often referred to or often given much account of.
The devil came to St. Martin of Tours and tried to deceive him to think that he was the Christ.
And so he came to St. Martin of Tours and explained that he was coming now for the second time
and that he wished to come first,
to St. Martin of Tours.
This immediately caught the attention of the saint,
and so he would remain silent,
for in his humility he truly understood something perhaps was going on
that was not quite what it appeared to be,
for he knew full well that he was a sinner
and why would the Lord come to him first,
most especially when the Vicar of Christ would seem to be the most logical one
if the Lord was going to single out any member on this earth to first appear to.
But then, as St. Martin of Tours said,
as St. Martin of Tours remained silent,
the devil began to engage him in dialogue.
And so St. Martin of Tours particularly became alarmed
because the devil was manifested in the purple robes of kings
with the golden crown and all the splendor of the kings of this world.
This immediately brought to St. Martin of Tours' attention
that perhaps something was going on.
And so, ultimately, when the devil would ask him,
St. Martin, don't you believe that I am the Lord?
St. Martin of Tours would respond,
I will only believe you are the Lord
if I see the marks of the cross on your flesh.
And so the devil, not being able to show those marks to St. Martin of Tours,
became furious and ultimately manifested himself
and a particular stench engulfed the room
that St. Martin of Tours was in when this event occurred.
And so the devil belied his true nature,
a filthy and despicable nature
that is truly a nature that can be described
as one not to be.
And so, we must learn from this
like St. Martin of Tours learned
to seek to unmask the devil
and all his machinations
and all that he is trying to do
in our modern society
and in our modern culture.
And ultimately, St. Martin of Tours gives us the key
for ultimately it was the cross
that St. Martin of Tours was enamored with
because St. Martin knew
that it was the cross
that was the cause of all that is good to us
and most particularly,
it was the cross
that allows us to have the most special gift of God,
his Eucharistic presence with us until the end of time.
Our Lord was crucified in order that he may undergo
his third and final humiliation,
that is the hidden presence of himself
until the end of time in the Eucharist,
where he will, as it were, come again.
And when he comes as St. Martin of Tours
are clearly discerned,
he will come not in the purple robes
in the golden crowns of earthly Kings,
but he will come with his true glory,
that by which he glorified his father,
that is the marks of his wounds.
And so he will show them to each and every member
of the human race
and that member will be judged
in order to, in accord with how they responded.
Did they enter into the life of their own crucifixion
or did they like most of the people
of St. Martin of Tours time
enter into that form of life
which seeks always and everywhere
to escape the cross of Christ,
by the sensuality of sin
and in accord to how we have respond,
so we will be judged.
And so let us like St. Martin of Tours
take up the banner of Christ crucified.
Let us love our Lord so that we can be witnesses
for St. Martin of Tours was noted particularly
for his charity, his charity towards all.
And while he combated the errors of the pagans of his time,
he never, as it were, destroyed the souls
of those who were practicing it.
He always reached out to them.
And indeed, when a little bit of a strong-arm tactic
was being taken against the heresy of Priscillianism,
it was St. Martin of Tours who literally came to the rescue
of those Priscillianists who were about to be slaughtered.
And he took them in to his own bishop's residence
and there he cared for them.
And ultimately they would return to Holy Mother Church.
And so let us always remember that we must seek
and always and everywhere like St. Martin of Tours,
to destroy heresy, to destroy paganism and all the images
and all the things that have become associated with it.
We must not in the same process destroy the souls of those
who are practicing it.
And so ultimately it is our zeal to destroy the sin of paganism,
the sin of sensuality in the world.
And while we do so, manifesting love towards those
who practice it, that we truly show ourselves followers
of the cross of Christ because we do not indulge in that false pleasure
which only manifests paganism in the members of the mystical body,
that overzealousness which seeks to destroy souls.
And indeed that has been one of the hallmarks of Protestantism
and that's why it is contrary to the true faith.
And so we must always and everywhere be thankful for the gift
that we have received in being members fully incorporated
into the mystical body of Christ as we strive to bring
those members separated from the body back into the body
so that as one unified whole, one true church,
one truly holy Roman Catholic church, we may go forth into the world
and to bring those souls lost in paganism into the mystical body
of Christ while at the same time we seek to destroy all the images
and all the places in which paganism has taken root.
That is, we seek to transform them by claiming them for Christ
and we can only do this through the cross of Christ.
And so let us, as St. Paul admonishes us in today's first reading,
let us always take up the banner of the cross for ultimately that is the life
that St. Paul is describing to us in his letter to Titus.
That is, the life of mortification, the life of the cross,
so that showing ourselves true lovers of Christ crucified,
we may ultimately love him for all eternity in that heavenly kingdom
where no longer we cannot be crucified.
We can be crucified where no longer we can suffer,
but we can only enjoy God as we were intended to enjoy God
for all eternity, joining the angels and saints,
praising and glorifying him and marveling at those wounds
that are now at this very moment present in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ
and will be manifested at the end of time.
And those who have loved them will glorify them for all eternity in heaven.
And so, let us be thankful.
Let us be thankful.
Let us be thankful.
Let us be thankful that we have the witnesses of the saints who truly show us.
And let us turn to Martin of Tours this day asking him to help us,
to intercede for us so that he may help us in our assault upon modern paganism
so that all may be converted to the true cross of Christ,
that is, to the Holy Roman Catholic Church in which they find,
as it were, the love of Christ crucified poured out upon them
so that all souls may truly work out their salvation.
so that all souls may truly work out their salvation.
In fear and trembling and after a life of suffering in this world,
they may join the angels and saints in the world to come,
praising God who has done such wonderful things for them.
© transcript Emily Beynon