St Martin of Tours and the Courage to Be Catholic

There are many excuses people make to not respond to Christ who visits them in different disguises, in the poor, in their family relationships, in the holy Sacraments.  The greatest perhaps is fear.  We are simply afraid to do something that would take us beyond ourselves.  In the Gospel for today's Mass (Mt 25:31-46), Jesus describes the measure of our life will be responding to Christ when he visitis us.

Listen to my homily for today:

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St Martin saw a beggar suffering from the cold and gave him his own cloak, even when this meant that he would go without sufficient covering.  That night he had a dream.  Jesus was wearing his cloak and thanked him.

He became a bishop of great courage.  He smote down idols and preached the Gospel untiringly to the pagans.  There are a lot of idols and a lot of pagans today.  The don't look the same, but the think secularism that inundates our culture has brought about another moment in history for those who wish to respond to  Christ must exercise great courage and perseverance.

Let us pray to St Martin and ask him and all the saints for the courage to be Catholic in an environment and arena of today's world that is at times openly hostile to our faith.