Monday, August 10, 2020 - Saint Lawrence - Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 12, 24-26 - He who follows me will not walk in darkness, says the Lord, but will have the light of life.

The life of Saint Lawrence illustrates well the Gospel proposed on this day. According to Christ's teaching, we baptized are like the seed that is sown, that is, the sower selects the seed, and the dry seed is sown in a nursery to germinate. As it grows, the young seedling is transplanted and planted in the rice fields. As the days pass, it is hoeed and weeded; and when it is time to harvest, it is harvested and carefully prepared for storage in a silo.

Dear Christians, it is the same for us in our life with God. We cannot produce unless we accept and imitate the sown seed, accept to be buried, that is, we have to be buried in original sin and the Church is the nursery, the rice field where we have to grow up. The sacraments and the word of God are the means by which the Lord sustains our spiritual life; and we can say that we bear fruit when we succeed in what we undertake in our commitment to the Church, because we live the faith we have received. Therefore, every baptized Christian has been blessed by God to be fruitful in the Church. So let us each use the gift we have received from the Holy Spirit. The seed sown must die to produce a hundredfold. Help us, Lord Jesus, to be humble in our lives, to be fruitful according to your word and according to the sacraments we have received so that we may perfect our life as Christians and seek eternal life. Amen.