In the last post we left off at St. Martin’s baptism into the Church. There’s a pervasive idea out there of baptism being the height and the culmination of a Christian’s life when they turn their life over to Christ and that’s that, “once saved, always saved,” as they say. This sounds very funny to a Catholic mind. The Catholic understands baptism not as the culmination of Christian life, but instead as the beginning of Christian life. It breaks the power of sin over us (which does not mean that we will never sin again as a Christian) and it sends us out. Christianity is a moving religion; it is not static. Martin’s life after his baptism exemplifies this being sent perfectly.
Martin was released from the army a couple of years after his baptism because of his true dedication to the Faith. The incident that caused this was when the Franks and Allemmani invaded and his regiment was preparing for battle, Martin refused to fight, saying, “Put me in the front of the army, without weapons or armor; but I will not draw sword again. I am become the soldier of Christ.” The commander Julian was ready to do just that with Martin and put him in prison in the meantime, but then the invaders asked for a peace without cause or explanation. Shortly after Martin was then released from prison and the army.
Martin was about 20 years old at this time, and I think young people especially should take note of this scene. Notice his clear vision of who he is and what he believes in as a Christian and his willingness to stand firm in it all the way through. It is impossible to make a stand of any kind if you do not know these things and are not prepared to follow through. No matter what Julian did to him, Martin remained unperturbed because he had the strength of Christ in him. He attained this through living the Christian life day in and day out, uniting himself more and more closely to Christ. It’s time for young people especially to take a look at how they conduct their lives at college and question whether they are “just enjoying the last four good years of their lives before they enter the real world,” or are actively developing themselves into soldiers of Christ who know who they are and what they believe in and are unperturbed by the world when it tries to make them crumble. This is done only if we continually unite ourselves to Christ through His Church, as Martin did.
Martin then went to follow St. Hilary in Poitiers, who fought hard against the Arians who had control over much of the western part of Christendom. A quick word of clarification, the Arian heresy has absolutely nothing to do with the Nazi Aryan race ideology. The Arian heresy held that Jesus had only one nature, man, and was not divine, which contradicted the orthodoxy which had recently been established, which professes that Jesus indeed had two natures, human and divine. The Church today still professes this in the Nicene Creed thanks to the work of holy men like St. Hilary in fighting the Arian heresy, and luckily Martin received guidance from him.
Martin took a trip to visit his parents in his hometown and as he was traveling over the Alps he was stopped by a group of robbers. They wanted all of his property and even threatened to take his life. (Sound like one of our beloved Greg Hand security emails UC students?) Martin calmly talked to them about God instead of simply giving them what they wanted. He was so convincing that he converted one and the others left him unharmed. When I get those Greg Hand emails about robberies and stuff happening around UC, I like to imagine this scene happening if I were being robbed. Here’s what the police report might say:
November 14, 2012
To: UC Community
From: Michael Cureton
Director of Public Safety
Police Chief
Police are investigating an overnight attempted robbery that occurred approximately 10:30pm, Tuesday, November 13. Five males approached the male victim who was walking in the 6000 block of Short Vine. One of the five males produced a handgun and demanded property from the victim. The victim refused to give the suspects anything, and instead talked to them about God. No property was taken and the suspects left the victim unharmed. One of them converted.
Martin was released from the army a couple of years after his baptism because of his true dedication to the Faith. The incident that caused this was when the Franks and Allemmani invaded and his regiment was preparing for battle, Martin refused to fight, saying, “Put me in the front of the army, without weapons or armor; but I will not draw sword again. I am become the soldier of Christ.” The commander Julian was ready to do just that with Martin and put him in prison in the meantime, but then the invaders asked for a peace without cause or explanation. Shortly after Martin was then released from prison and the army.
Martin was about 20 years old at this time, and I think young people especially should take note of this scene. Notice his clear vision of who he is and what he believes in as a Christian and his willingness to stand firm in it all the way through. It is impossible to make a stand of any kind if you do not know these things and are not prepared to follow through. No matter what Julian did to him, Martin remained unperturbed because he had the strength of Christ in him. He attained this through living the Christian life day in and day out, uniting himself more and more closely to Christ. It’s time for young people especially to take a look at how they conduct their lives at college and question whether they are “just enjoying the last four good years of their lives before they enter the real world,” or are actively developing themselves into soldiers of Christ who know who they are and what they believe in and are unperturbed by the world when it tries to make them crumble. This is done only if we continually unite ourselves to Christ through His Church, as Martin did.
Martin then went to follow St. Hilary in Poitiers, who fought hard against the Arians who had control over much of the western part of Christendom. A quick word of clarification, the Arian heresy has absolutely nothing to do with the Nazi Aryan race ideology. The Arian heresy held that Jesus had only one nature, man, and was not divine, which contradicted the orthodoxy which had recently been established, which professes that Jesus indeed had two natures, human and divine. The Church today still professes this in the Nicene Creed thanks to the work of holy men like St. Hilary in fighting the Arian heresy, and luckily Martin received guidance from him.
Martin took a trip to visit his parents in his hometown and as he was traveling over the Alps he was stopped by a group of robbers. They wanted all of his property and even threatened to take his life. (Sound like one of our beloved Greg Hand security emails UC students?) Martin calmly talked to them about God instead of simply giving them what they wanted. He was so convincing that he converted one and the others left him unharmed. When I get those Greg Hand emails about robberies and stuff happening around UC, I like to imagine this scene happening if I were being robbed. Here’s what the police report might say:
November 14, 2012
To: UC Community
From: Michael Cureton
Director of Public Safety
Police Chief
Police are investigating an overnight attempted robbery that occurred approximately 10:30pm, Tuesday, November 13. Five males approached the male victim who was walking in the 6000 block of Short Vine. One of the five males produced a handgun and demanded property from the victim. The victim refused to give the suspects anything, and instead talked to them about God. No property was taken and the suspects left the victim unharmed. One of them converted.
Martin arrived at his hometown and found that the Arians had control there as well. It didn’t take long for them to whip him and exile him for speaking out against their lies. The same thing happened to his mentor St. Hilary back in Poitiers, so Martin sought a secluded monastic lifestyle on an island near Milan where he could more clearly discern God. Eventually Martin and Hilary were reunited and then Hilary sent Martin on a wilderness retreat, where disciples started following him. He founded a monastery for them and lived there with his brothers until after Hilary’s death. Something that I think should not be overlooked in the non-descript statement “disciples started to follow him,” is the magnetic nature of holiness. A person who is genuinely holy has a sort of attractiveness to others that defies explanation. A modern day example of this is Blessed Mother Teresa. Even as a bent over 86 year-old woman she radiated a deep joy and love that drew people into Calcutta as if it were Hawaii. If we’re going to convert the world, we need to develop ourselves into holy men and women like Saint Martin and Blessed Mother Teresa.
In Martin’s day bishops were chosen by the people. When the Bishop of Tours died, the townspeople decided they wanted a genuinely holy person to be their leader and knew that Martin was that person. The problem with that was that Martin was too humble to agree to be bishop, so they decided to trick him. A townsman went out to Martin and begged him to come and visit his sick wife. Martin went, not suspecting he would be tricked, and when he arrived in Tours everyone popped up out of hiding. As more and more people appeared, Martin realized what was going on and fled, the townspeople in pursuit. He managed to hide in a stable and would’ve escaped everyone had it not been for the loud flock of geese in the stable that started honking and gave away his position. They figured out where he was and carried him to the bishops to be ordained. The bishops were disgusted by Martin’s ragged and dirty appearance and didn’t want to ordain him, but the townspeople insisted that he be ordained because they picked him for his holiness and not for his haircut.
I think the funniest part in all of this is that Martin was not even asked what he wanted. Had he been asked, he would have said that he wanted to continue to live his monastic life off in his cell by the cliffs where he could pray an grow close to God and minister to the people that came out there. God did not have that in mind for him though, and no matter how he fled he couldn’t escape his calling. Despite his own desires, Martin accepted with humility the vocation he was being called to. This, I think, is the most important lesson to take from this section on St. Martin. Too often we think only on what we want and not on what is needed of us. We say, “well I was never asked about it.” As unfair and unjust as this might seem, we need to look to our holy examples like St. Martin to see how a faithful Christian handles this. Martin was focused entirely on serving God and when the call came for him to rise to the task of leading the faithful of Tours, he was able to say yes even though it isn’t what he wanted. His prayer was not “God this is what I want from you,” but instead “God, what do need of me?” That is the prayer of any Catholic who takes the Lord’s Prayer seriously. And that is precisely what makes a saint. It isn’t suddenly rising up out of nowhere to perform some great work for God at the opportune moment. It’s living a life that constantly says, “Lord, what do you need of me,” and continually answers “yes,” day in and day out. Becoming a saint is to constantly say “yes” to God despite the fact that we might not have been asked what we want, because ultimately God gives us what we need, Himself.
This is the end of Part 2. Stay tuned for the last installment!
If you missed Part 1, check it out here.
Written by:
Marty Arlinghaus
This is the end of Part 2. Stay tuned for the last installment!
If you missed Part 1, check it out here.
Written by:
Marty Arlinghaus
