Saturday of the First Week of Lent 2023
Jesus said to his disciples:
"You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
-Matthew 5:43-45
The Readings for this Saturday of the First Week of Lent invite us to reflect in a particular way on our relationship with God. However, the focus is not on an individualized sort of relationship, but on our status as part of a People, a “people peculiarly his own” (Deuteronomy 26:18). Using God’s covenant with the People of Israel as a point of reference, the liturgy today reminds us that each of us has been called into a reality bigger than ourselves: the life of the Church.
The Second Vatican Council reflected on this mystery in Lumen Gentium (no. 9):
God… does not make people holy and save them merely as individuals, without bond or link between one another. Rather has it pleased Him to bring them together as one people, a people which acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in holiness… Christ instituted this new covenant, the new testament, that is to say, in His Blood, calling together a people made up of Jew and gentile, making them one, not according to the flesh but in the Spirit. This was to be the new People of God. For those who believe in Christ… are finally established as "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people… who in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God.”
While this lesson in ecclesiology might seem to be a bit heavy, it is important for helping us to understand the instructions presented in the Gospel, in which Jesus says “Love your enemies” and “pray for those who persecute you.” In an unexpected way, we find the Savior is offering us a lesson on the unity—the communion—of the Reign of God.
In a sense, Jesus is saying that, if we are truly his, then, like him, he must open our hearts to those who might wish us ill. We do this because we recognize that each of us, together, has been called by God into the greater reality of the Reign of God. And, in choosing to love and pray for those who might be opposed to us, we are making real the possibility of reconciliation, peace, and renewed relationships. This, too, is part of the work of Lent.
Saint Casimir, whose commemoration we celebrate today, is a model of the openness and the humility that such a stance requires.
Casimir—who came to be known as “the Peacemaker” and “Defender of the Poor”— was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1458 and was the third of the thirteen children of Casimir IV, King of Poland and Lithuania, and Queen Elizabeth of Austria. Casimir and his older brother Vladislaus were educated by a Polish priest and historian and they studied Latin and German, law, history, rhetoric, and classical literature, in preparation for their future roles as kings and statesmen. Even as a youth, Casimir demonstrated particular gifts as an orator in speeches made honoring his father and a visiting bishop.
Young Casimir’s life changed dramatically when his uncle, the seventeen-year-old King Ladislaus V of Hungary and Bohemia, died in 1457. This set off a chain of events that became folded into the “Thirteen Years War”. Casimir’s elder brother, Vladislaus, was elected king of Bohemia. Supported by Hungarian nobles opposing the rule of Matthias Corvinus, King Casimir IV tried to have the fourteen-year-old son Casimir installed as king of Hungary. The young prince was sent to lead an army against Corvinus and his forces, but because of a whirlwind of circumstances beyond his control, Casimir decided not to seek the crown for himself and called off the military campaign. Although King Casimir IV had been involved in a process of negotiating peace, his son’s early retreat angered the king who imprisoned his son for three months. Casimir, for his part, refused to ever take up arms again and this experience marked a turning point in his life.
Casimir eventually returned to the royal court, but he had no ambition to rule. He was, however, active in working on behalf of the poor and a contemporary account of his life relates that, “nothing was more pleasant, nothing more desirable for him, than to share his belongings, and even to dedicate and give his entire self to Christ’s poor, to strangers, to the sick, to those in captivity and all who suffer. To widows, orphans, and the afflicted,” the account continues, “he was not only a guardian and patron but a father, son and brother” (see the Office of Readings for the Commemoration of Saint Casimir). Casimir didn’t hesitate to make his father aware of injustices or needs of the poor that he thought had been overlooked.
In the years before his death in 1484, at the age of twenty-five, Casimir demonstrated a great devotion to the Mother of God and a piety that led many to regard him as more of a monk than a prince. He died of tuberculosis in Vilnius, Lithuania, in 1484. His name was added to the Roman Martyrology (the Church’s official list of saints) in 1583 and devotion to him was officially confirmed in 1602 (there seems to have been no formal celebration of canonization). Today, Saint Casimir is honored as one of the patron saints of Poland and Lithuania.
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.—Psalm 119:1-2
As we continue our journey through these days of Lent, we are invited, again and again, to look at all aspects of our lives as followers of Jesus.
How are we making real through our words and actions, our attitudes and affections, the faith that we profess?
How do we set aside preference and agenda, the desire to dominate, and the quest for comfort, to embrace all people, after the example of Saint Casimir and the Christ he served?
How are we being invited in these Lenten days to further the Reign of God by working for reconciliation and peace?
Almighty God, to serve you is to reign;
grant that, with the help of Saint Casimir's intercession,
we may constantly serve you in holiness and justice.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Commemoration of Saint Casimir
