Foundations

Though St. Lawrence lived under the later Empire (he died in AD 258), he belongs to the Roman world we begin this week. Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of Rome, entrusted with caring for the poor and managing the Church's goods. During the persecution under Emperor Valerian, the pope and his deacons were arrested. The Roman prefect, believing the Church was rich, ordered Lawrence to hand over its 'treasures.' Lawrence asked for three days, then gathered the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the widows the Church cared for, presented them to the prefect, and declared, 'These are the treasures of the Church.' Enraged, the prefect had him executed, according to tradition, by roasting on a gridiron. Lawrence faced even this with astonishing courage and even humor, reportedly telling his executioners, 'Turn me over, I am done on this side.' His story shows Christian discipline, the week's virtue, perfected: total self-mastery and peace in the face of death, rooted in love. He is a patron of the poor, of cooks, and of comedians, and his witness helped convert many Romans. His feast is August 10.

Rome began as a cluster of villages on seven hills beside the Tiber River in central Italy. Romans told two founding stories: that they descended from the Trojan hero Aeneas, and that the city was founded in 753 BC by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, raised by a she-wolf, after which Romulus killed Remus and named the city for himself. For its first centuries Rome was ruled by kings, but in 509 BC the Romans overthrew the last, tyrannical Etruscan king and founded the Republic, from res publica, 'the public thing.' Determined never again to suffer a king, they built a government of shared and balanced power. Two consuls, elected for one year only, jointly held executive power; each could veto ('I forbid') the other. The Senate, made up of experienced elder statesmen (the patricians), guided policy and finance. Popular assemblies let citizens vote and elect officials. Over time the common people (plebeians) won their own protectors, the tribunes. Rome also became famous for law: the Twelve Tables (c. 450 BC) wrote the laws down publicly so all could know them. This careful balancing of power, so no single person could dominate, is the Republic's greatest gift; the founders of the United States studied it closely.

Rome perfected one terrible instrument: crucifixion, a slow, shameful death reserved for slaves and rebels. It was on a Roman cross that the Son of God chose to die. YOUCAT (Q96-Q101) teaches that Jesus suffered and died not because God could not save us any other way, but to show the depth of God's love and to take on himself the weight of human sin. This is redemption, literally a 'buying back.' Sin had enslaved humanity and broken our friendship with God; Christ, the sinless one, offered himself freely in our place, the just for the unjust, to reconcile us to the Father. His death was not a tragic accident or a failure; it was the supreme act of love, freely chosen ('No one takes my life from me; I lay it down of my own accord'). On the Cross, perfect obedience undoes the disobedience of sin. The Church calls this the Paschal Mystery, the heart of the faith. As we study the Roman world, we remember that the empire's cruelest punishment became, in Christ's hands, the throne of his glory and the source of our salvation. This is why Christians make the sign of the cross and place it everywhere. (See CCC 599-618.)

Add today's vocabulary (republic, consul, redemption) to your glossary. Write one sentence connecting the Roman cross to the meaning of redemption.