[00:00] In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. In today's Gospel, our Lord Jesus once again reveals to us our calling and sharing in God's divine life. And though the Pharisees and Herodians were trying to trap Jesus in His speech, our Lord in His divine wisdom reveals a very sacred truth.

[00:34] As a coin, this coin is stamped with the image of Caesar, we are stamped in the image and likeness of God. That we have, especially through our baptism, we have the divine life of God dwelling in our souls. So we are stamped with the image and likeness of God. So what this is reminding us is as we are law-abiding and faithful citizens, we give what we are required to by the government, who I heard a very holy priest once say, Caesar,

[01:09] meaning the government, takes more than its fair share nowadays, but that we also are dedicated to God, that as we are made in the image and likeness of God, that we give to God what belongs to God, meaning our love, our service, our dedication, our faithfulness, our striving to conform to Christ and be faithful to Christ each day, that we want to give God the very best we can each day in our love and service of Him, love and service of Him,

[01:43] and as we follow His Son, Jesus Christ. Today we honor two very early Roman martyrs, Sts. Marcellinus and Peter. St. Marcellinus was a priest, St. Peter was an exorcist. Not very much is known about them, but their lives are very interesting. They were very zealous in preaching the Gospel and proclaiming the Gospel at a time when there was great persecution against Christians in Rome by the Emperor Diocletian, and they

[02:18] were eventually arrested and put in jail. And while they were in jail, the jailer who was in charge of the jail, his daughter was possessed, and Peter, being an exorcist, was able to deliver her in an exorcism that he performed and delivered her from the possession of the devil. And from this great act of this miracle, his whole family, the jailer's whole family came

[02:53] into the faith and was baptized by Marcellinus, the priest, and then when word of this got out to the Emperor, he wanted them to be tormented and to deny their Catholic faith, their Christian faith. And so Marcellinus was put in a dark cell with the floor covered with sharp glass, and so there was no place for him to lay or step without being pierced by sharp glass.

[03:26] But his spirit was never broken, and he remained faithful and would not deny his faith. Eventually it was decided to behead them, to execute them, and it was to be done at night so that they did not want the Christians to honor them as martyrs. So they were brought out to a forest in Rome, near Rome, and they were made to dig their

[03:57] own graves. And there they were executed, they were both beheaded. Now how did this story become known to the Church? The executioner, later on, in seeing the peace and tranquility of these two martyrs, he himself converted and became a Christian. The one who beheaded them himself became a Christian, and he went to Pope St. Damasus and revealed to Pope St. Damasus what he had done and what had happened.

[04:29] And so it was Pope St. Damasus, in hearing the story from the executioner, that made them saints, and he had their relics brought to Rome in a basilica that was built in their honor, was built in their honor. And later on, their relics were transferred, I was just learned today, their relics were transferred to a shrine in Germany and brought to Germany. But these two saints, and interesting enough, though we don't have much information about

[05:03] these two saints, when we have the First Eucharistic Prayer and the Roman Canon, they're both mentioned. St. Marcellinus and Peter are both mentioned in the Roman Canon. So we can ask these two great saints for the same zeal, the same courage, and the same perseverance in trials that they had. May they pray for us that we may imitate their zeal in spreading the Gospel and be heroic in accepting the trials that we have each day in loving and serving God.

[05:34] In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.