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189.1
[i]
First Point
While
still quite young Saint Martin became a soldier and was a soldier until he
was 40; but he had even more care to enroll in the Christian militia than
in that of the emperor. Although born of a pagan father, he had his name
entered in the Church on the list of catechumens when he was only eleven
years old. Afterwards he devoted himself entirely to piety and to the
service of God in such a way that he was admired for his virtue even among
those who had already received the grace of baptism.
He had especially such great tenderness for the poor, that, when he
was still in the military and had come upon a naked man who begged him for
something to cover himself, Saint Martin cut his own mantle in two and
gave the beggar half. This led Jesus Christ to let him know that he
acknowledged this gift as made to himself, and appeared to him the next
night wearing the half-mantle, saying, Martin, although he is only a
catechumen, clothed me with this mantle.
You, who are enrolled in the army of Jesus Christ, are in his
service, and, as it were, on his payroll, do you have the service of God
as much at heart as Saint Martin did? Are you also as charitable toward
the poor as he, even though he was still only a catechumen? Every day you
are with the poor and you are commissioned by God to clothe them with
Jesus Christ himself and with his Spirit. Have you been careful, before
undertaking such a holy ministry, to clothe yourselves with him[ii]
in order to communicate this grace to them? For, says Saint Paul, no
one knows who God is save the Spirit of God, and it is this Spirit of God
who, he adds, penetrates everything, even the deepest and most hidden
mysteries in God.[iii]
Pray, therefore, the Spirit of God to make known to you the
gifts that God has given you,[iv]
as Saint Paul says, so that you may announce them to those whom you are
commissioned to instruct, not with discourses that use human wisdom,
but with that which the Spirit of God inspires in his ministers.[v]
189.2
Second Point
Having
left the army, Saint Martin went to find Saint Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers,
and built a monastery near that city, where he withdrew with many
religious. There he lived with them a very austere life, in such great
piety and in such great separation from the world that it seemed they no
longer had any contact with the world, except that some of them went out
for the ordinary needs of life, and this as rarely as possible. It was in
this seclusion that Saint Martin gave himself entirely to God, devoted
himself to prayer with much fervor, and acquired there a great habit of
remembering the presence of God.
It is in seclusion that we learn to find God; it is there that we
come to enjoy God through the ease we have there to practice prayer, after
we have severed all communication with the world. It was also by these
means that Saint Martin prepared himself to do great things, especially by
filling himself with the Spirit of God and with zeal, which was necessary
for him in order to labor as usefully as he did for the salvation of
souls.
As you need both these things, you also have need for seclusion and
separation from the world, for neither of these things can be found in the
world. The world, as Jesus Christ says, cannot receive the Spirit of
God because it does not know him,[vi]
and because the maxims and practices that the Spirit of God inspires are
entirely opposed to those of the world.
189.3
Third Point
The
result that seclusion produced in Saint Martin was that God destined him,
and the clergy and people of Tours chose him, to be their bishop. It was
in this holy office that he exercised his zeal for the destruction of the
worship of idols, which was still prevalent in France, whose kings had not
yet become Christians. But since he knew that it was up to God to
establish his religion, and that people are only his ministers to preach
it and make it known, he devoted himself constantly to fasting and prayer,
without ever losing his attention to God.
This saint had a tireless vigilance for all the needs of his
church, considering himself responsible before God to provide what was
needed. He knew that a bishop needs to do two things: beg God for the
salvation of souls and carry out God's orders in order to procure this
salvation. For this reason Saint Martin divided his time between these two
things:
1. a great part of the time he kept his hands lifted up to heaven
to draw down the grace and blessing of God for the conversion of souls;
2. he devoted himself to this task with such zeal and assiduity
that, even at the hour of his death, in the ardor he had for the salvation
of souls he told God that if he was still needed by his people, he did not
refuse the work.
Let all your time, following the example of Saint Martin, be spent
in these two things: asking God insistently for the salvation of those who
are under your guidance, and seeking and helping them use these means.
------
Martin
(Ca. 315 - 397) was born at Salaria in Hungary and became a catechumen at
an early age despite the fact that his father was a pagan. Conscripted in
the Roman army, he became a Christian after a vision of Christ rewarding
him for his generosity to a poor beggar needing warm clothing. He left the
army after a miraculous victory over the barbarians in which, unarmed, he
led the Romans. Coming under the guidance of Saint Hilary of Poitiers, he
built a monastery near that town. Later he was chosen to be Bishop of
Tours. Sulpicius Severus (360 - 406) wrote a biography of Saint Martin
which has preserved the details of his life.
[i]
Number 188 is part of the Additions which are at the end of the
original edition and of this edition also.
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