Among the figures we glimpse in the darkness, in contrast to the light surrounding St Lawrence, are some armed soldiers … a scene that unmistakably recalls what the Evangelists describe when Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane. After the traitor gave the signal with a kiss so they could recognise him in the dark, Jesus said to those who came for him: “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Lk 22:52–53).

When threatened by the Prefect of Rome to hand over the Church’s treasures, like Christ, St Lawrence was not shaken by fear. Instead, as recounted in the Legenda Aurea, he asked for three days’ grace under the pretext that he needed time to gather everything. In that time, he did what he felt was right: he ensured that the treasures of the Church would not fall into the greedy hands of those who were never content with what they had but always wanted more. So he gave away all he could to the poor—those who are truly the joy of God’s people.

On the third day, fully aware of the fate that awaited him, he set his face like flint (see Is 50:7) and confronted the wrath of Prefect Cornelius. For our Deacon knew, as Christ had told Pilate, that the Prefect had no power over him except what had been given from above (see Jn 19:11). And he accepted martyrdom, for he would not deny the voice of his conscience.

St Lawrence would not go against what he understood to be the very essence of his being: a man created and redeemed by God, a deacon chosen to serve the people, a beloved son of God. Death, therefore, he could face as a meeting with this Love in which he had placed all his hope. He was not willing to deny this Love simply to preserve his youthful life. For, as the bride sings to the bridegroom of her soul in the Song of Songs—meaning the Lord: “love is strong as death,” because, like death, love always conquers, nothing can overcome it; “its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord” (Song 8:6).

Therefore, together with St Lawrence, we too sing to the Lord the words that open that same song: “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm” (Song 8:6). Set us close to your heart, O Lord, you who are He Who Is, you who are the Light of the world. Set us as a seal upon your Sacred Heart, so that within us you may ignite the flame of our love with your love. That, like this saint, for us too, despite life’s hardships, or rather, precisely within life’s hardships—in sickness, in betrayal and rejection, in isolation—the night will no longer remain dark, but everything will shine with the light that is You, who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.