Gospel: Matthew 25: 31-40
The Church provides us with a fitting saint day and Gospel which provides an apt contrast to the secular remembrance of the day. For today we remember Martin of Tours, a man who renounced his military life and position in order to follow the Prince of Peace, to live a life of love and mercy dedicated to the care of others in imitation of the Lord.
This way of life finds concrete expression in the only criterion Jesus ever provides of our final judgment before God: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and imprisoned, welcoming the stranger. This is the life to which we are called as followers of the Lord Jesus. It is our sole measure of judgment in the life to come.
War does not provide for any of these things. To the contrary, war creates such conditions and makes those that exist even worse. War is the creator of widows and orphans, the great creator of poverty. Today's feast and gospel call us to a rejection of war and violence in all its forms. It calls us to dedicate ourselves to peacemaking by carrying out these works of mercy to those in need in our communities.
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