Homily for the Memorial
of St. Blaise
Feb. 3, 2021
Collect
Ursulines, Willow Dr., New
Rochelle, N.Y.
Unlike
most collects for the saints, today’s for St. Blaise is almost entirely
generic. He’s called a martyr, which he
was in Armenia, a part of the Roman Empire so remote that Constantine’s edict
of toleration didn’t penetrate there, according to the legend of Blaise’s
life. He’s supposed to have been
martyred several years after the Edict of Milan.
He’s invoked as a patron. Based on the well-known legend of his saving a child from choking on a fish bone, he’s invoked against any kind of ailment of the throat, as we shall do here, seeking “peace in this present life,” as the Collect says.
Blaise’s
legend reports that before he was beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to idols, he
was tortured by having his body raked with wool combs, the tools used by wool
workers to straighten sheared wool before it’s dyed and woven. So the Middle Ages Blaise also became the
patron of wool combers. If you have a
fine woolen sweater, hat, or scarf, you might turn to Blaise for protection—or
for assistance in living in praise of Jesus—“finding help for life eternal,” as
the Collect says.
Living
for life eternal while we still tread the earth is what gives us “peace in this
present life.” Living for life eternal,
with our focus on Christ our Lord, of course, is also supposed to keep us aware
of the life around us, which is to say, of the people around us. Blaise died by decapitation. Living aware of our sisters and brothers, of
their needs and concerns, is a kind of decapitation—losing our lives in
attention to and service of others, and so imitating our Lord Jesus.
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