Ez 34:11-12, 15-17 | Ps 23 | 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28 | Mt 25:31-46
Saint Martin is a popular saint throughout France and much of Europe. He was born in the early 300’s in modern day Hungary. As the son of a military officer, he joined the cavalry for the Roman Empire when he was about 18 years old and eventually served in an area which is currently located in France. As a young soldier, Saint Martin became attracted to the Christian faith. Though Christianity had been legalized by Constantine many years earlier, Martin’s parents looked down on the faith as beneath the dignity of their son.
Despite his parents’ opposition, Martin decided to take the first step of becoming Christian by becoming a catechumen (one preparing for baptism).
During that time, he was riding his horse into the city on a winter’s day. At the gates, a beggar was shivering in the cold with nothing to cover him. Moved by pity, Martin took his sword and cut his own cloak in half to share with the poor man.
That night, in a dream, Martin had a vision of Jesus standing before him, wearing the cloak he had given to the beggar. He heard Jesus turn to some angels and tell them, “Martin, who is still a catechumen, clothed me with this robe.” Inspired by that vision, Martin went on to be baptized. Many years later, he left the Roman army, was ordained a bishop, and founded many parishes and monasteries that helped the faith spread throughout France.
The vision that Saint Martin received in a dream was an echo of Jesus’ words in today’s gospel, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.” In the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, Jesus tells us that we will be judged by how we treat the poor and needy in our midst. He doesn’t tell us this story just to put the fear of God in us. Rather, he is trying to encourage us. When we find the courage to reach our hand out to another in need, something incredible happens. We find Jesus. Jesus still walks the earth in the form of the neediest among us, as Saint Martin discovered when he helped that poor, cold beggar.
A beautiful thing happens when we find the courage to reach out to others. Jesus Christ reveals himself to us in them. One way or another, though we think we are helping them, it turns out that they are helping us. As Saint Martin experienced when he gave his cloak to the beggar, the love of Christ gets returned to us in beautiful ways.
Father Paul Murray, the Irish Dominican spiritual writer and sometimes advisor to Mother Teresa, relates the following story. One day, he was in deep conversation with Mother, searching out the sources of her spirituality and mission. In response to him, at the end of their long talk, she asked him to spread his hand out on the table, and touching his fingers one by one as she spoke the words, she said, “You - did - it - to - me.”
For Christians, salvation isn’t just a future event awaiting us after death or at the end of the world. Salvation and eternal life are here, today and now. What we as Christians seek to do is bring heaven and its promises down to earth. Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and so, simply and yet profoundly, we seek in everything we do to bring the love of Christ to those we meet.