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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Memorial of St. Martin of Tours, Bishop, 11 November 2022 2 John 4-9 ><000'> + <'000>< --- ><000'> + <'000>< Luke 17:26-37
Lord Jesus Christ, today you confront us with the two contrasting attitudes we disciples should have, walking in love and walking in truth. To walk in love is to live in love which is to love one another as you have loved us, Lord Jesus, even to the point of giving our very selves in love for another just like you. Of course, we know it so well and we have said so much about it but have miserably failed in truly loving like you because, O Lord, we have failed to walk in truth; love and truth always go together! We cannot truly love when we live in lies and falsehoods, when we are not sincere and faithful; most of all, when we choose to be blind and deaf to what is true and good.
For this is love that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning, in which you should walk. Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh; such is the deceitful one and the antichrist. Anyone who is “progressive” as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.
2 John6-7, 9
Grant us, Jesus, the grace of walking in love and walking in truth like St. Martin of Tours, a great Saint who taught us in his life how these two contrasting attitudes perfectly go together in witnessing your gospel. Upon seeing a beggar on a cold winter night, he cut his cape into two without hesitation to share it with the beggar freezing in cold; he was not yet baptized at that time that you appreciated it Lord by appearing to him in a dream with the other half of his cape. After he was baptized, as a soldier of the Roman army, he realized that war and the gospel are incompatible that he refused to fight in a battle by declaring "I am a soldier of Christ; I cannot fight." Threatened to be jailed for cowardice, St. Martin volunteered to be sent unarmed to the frontline when just before his commanders challenged his offer, their opponents sued for peace, preventing any battle.
After his discharge from the Roman army, St. Martin founded monasteries and soon his holiness became known that he was elected Bishop of Tours in France, faithfully serving you Jesus by walking in love, walking in truth. After his death, his cult spread and was so popular in Europe, proof that indeed, "whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it" (Luke 17:33).
St. Martin of Tours, Pray for us! Amen.
