We might need some help to refresh us on fulfilling the two commandments, loving God and neighbour. Today, that is, the third of November, is usually the feast of a Dominican saint, St Martin de Porres. We have an image of him, a statue positioned in the walkway between the chapels of Lady and St Joseph. He’d be very happy with that spot: he was a great helper but was very much out of the way; he lived in obscurity but was renowned for his prayer and compassion, service and sacrifice.
St Martin wasn’t a priest; he wasn’t even a lay brother of the Order. In the sixteenth century, those people were the sons of married parents. Martin was a donatus, someone “given” to the Order: donati were often older children whose parentage was not publicly known. Martin’s Spanish father only recognised him as his son to a local Peruvian mother well into his childhood. So, our brother was formally illegitimate, grew up in poverty, and earned his keep from a young age.
Martin’s first job was an apprentice barber-surgeon. Surgery was thought to be beneath physicians, so it was the barber with his various blades who pulled teeth, did the bleeding, and saw to amputations. He brought this trade with him into the Dominican priory at Lima, and was eventually appointed infirmarian to help with sick friars and others who came to the priory. There are some wonderful accounts of his miraculous work and healings. During an epidemic, the prior had ordered the internal doors of the priory to be locked shut to prevent the spread; Martin, we’re told, walked through them to treat those on the other side. His wonder working continued outside the priory too. Once, he and the novices were out picnicking but had stayed out too late and were going to miss the curfew. So, he brought the young friars together in prayer with joined hands and closed eyes, which when they opened showed they were back in the priory.
Our brother had a great love for the urban poor. He took in unwanted babies and orphans and street dwellers; he treated all the sick who came to him. On one occasion, a native Peruvian came for treatment for an arrow wound. Martin set the man up in his own room. The prior later told the saint off for the breach of cloister, to which he replied: “Forgive my error and please teach me, because I didn’t know the law of obedience took precedence over the law of charity.”
It's not hard to draw the conclusion that St Martin loved his neighbour as himself because he was always at the bottom of the heap, but what of his love for God? There was no one alive who wasn’t his peer, no matter how poor, but what about the power of that love? We can be reassured that Martin knew God must be loved above all things, because God is the one who can make us truly happy, that is, happy for ever.
Like St Dominic, St Martin spent many a long night in prayer. He was often found kneeling on the floor, on the left side of the Church close to the altar. Once, he was so enveloped in prayer that he didn’t notice the huge fire in the chapel which had caught his habit as well. I’m sure the friars took delight in pouring a bucket of cold water on him.
Saints like St Martin de Porres probably have little trouble with love of God and neighbour. The right attitudes and actions come to them as easily as hunger or breathing do to us. It’s just how they are. For us, however, it’s more of a balancing act. Too much of a certain kind of love for God ends in fanaticism. And so, we must love neighbour. Too much love of neighbour is just activism, and so we must love God. So, we should ask God in prayer to increase our love for whichever person, himself or neighbour, is neglected. We’ll always and can only do well to grow in love for God; we can and should grow in love for neighbour too. God is the only one who can make us truly happy, and so we love him for loving us; our neighbour will, we hope, share in that true happiness from God, and so we love them too.
In practice, loving God and neighbour always involves readiness to say we’ve gone too far: we’re coming close to fanaticism and so must turn to neighbour; we’re just activists so God must be at the centre and be through all we do. God’s will and our neighbour’s is to become our own; God’s honour and our neighbour’s is our mission.
So, now we ask God to increase our love for him and our neighbour. We ask him to change our desires and priorities and inclinations so that both God and neighbour are always seen together in our day. We ask God also to hear St Martin’s best prayers for us, so that all we have been called to do may happen with ease and joy.
Fr Paul Rowse, OP
Parish Priest
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