Today in the life of the Church we celebrate the memorial of Martin de Porres.
Martin grew up in serious poverty. He was the illegitimate child of a black woman from Panama and a Spaniard noble man in Peru. His father despised him because Martin favored his mother in complexion and eventually Martin's father abandoned them.
Martin was called many names growing up: mullato, half-breed, bastard child.
He refused to let the names determine his value and what he valued.
Though he was despised by his earthly father, he did not turn against his Father in heaven. It was his devotion to the Father in heaven that gave him strength to rise above is circumstance and to devote his life to the least in the kingdom.
Martin dedicated his life to helping to poor, the slaves, the prisoners, the sick. Since he was born the least he dedicated his life to the least.
As his reputation spread of doing good people from all over started to call him a new name, "Martin the Charitable."
Martin knew that he could not change the fact that he was a half-breed, illegitimate son of a father who did not care but he also knew he could not change the reality that he was child of God, it was this heritage that determined his value and the value of others and nothing less.
Martin lived out the words of St. Paul,
"humbly regard others as more than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interest, but also for those of others."
He also followed through on the gospel,
"When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
"God of all mercy, you transformed Saint Martin de Porres and made him a new creature in your image. Renew us in the same way...may each of us also be called by a different name, so that our names may be called in Heaven."
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