Lent with St. Clare: Fifth Friday
March 31, 2023
Lent with the Saints: Martin de Porres
Hosea 6:1–6; Psalm 51:3–4, 18–19, 20–21ab; Luke 18:9–14>
Picture the simple Dominican brother Martin de Porres moving humbly among the sick and poor of Lima, Peru, in the seventeenth century. His work was long and arduous as he cared for orphans, slaves, and poor children. His hours of prayer and penance strengthened this ministry. At first only a lay helper in this community, thinking himself unworthy to be a vowed religious, Martin was eventually invited into full membership.
Life Is More than Winning and Losing
We say things like “There are two kinds of people…” or “We can do one of two things…” The mind likes dualities because there’s always a winner and a loser. But, as God and the meditator know, dualities are only two-thirds of the story. The deeper, subatomic mind thinks in threes and so winning or losing isn’t the main point. As a teacher, using stories that were both simple and subtle, Jesus used the dualistic to get to the Trinitarian. Don’t we all have moments when we feel superior, if not to everyone else, then at least to the lowest?