BCCCAP00000000000000000001720

310 BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA of the Sacred Sciences". He certainly had the mental calibre and the intellectual preparation for carrying out his preaching ministry among both the Lutherans and the Jews 17 • Lawrence's biographer devotes one whole chapter to his "prea– ching to the Jews" 18 • Doubtlessly the primary scope of the sermons was to rekindle faith and reli– gious fervour among the Catholic faithful. Nonetheless targeting the adherents of the Reformation was also an intended scope of his ministry of preaching. Thus he employed his preaching mission as a double-edged sword as he strove to stoke up religious zeal and devotion among the Catholic faithful; he made use of every oc– casion that came his way to refute and disprove the underpinning rationale and the inherent logic of the Reformation. In his homily for the Fifth Sunday after Easter he explains: It is a well-established fact that as Christ was crucified between two thieves, so faith is always found between the two extremes of error. Formerly there were the hereti– cal Messalians, also known as Eucarites and Oratorians or 'those who pray', because they attributed almost everything to prayer, saying that man is justified and saved by prayer alone without the need for any sacraments or other virtues and good works. We also find other heretics who claimed that prayer could alter the plan and purpose and the order of divine providence. Our heretics today, however, tend to the op– posite extreme. They have jumped out of the water and into the fire. They maintain that prayer is not at all necessary, because faith alone is sufficient and because all things happen out of necessity, according to the immutable decree of divine pre– destination and providence, and because there is no such thing as merit in the eyes of God. However, if that is the case, why does the Lord says: Whatever you ask the Father in my name he willgiveyou? What would be the reason why he is so insistent, even by the use of many parables, regarding the need for prayer? Why did he say it was necessary to pray always without being weary? Without ceasing? Always, i.e. every day and, in fact, if that were possible, to be most persevering in prayer every hour and every minute 19 ? The homilies offer examples galore to show how Lawrence was ever vigilant to champion the cause ofthe Catholic Church, her doctrines, traditions and institutions 17 It was Clement VIII who appointed Lawrence to preach to the Jews in Rome precisely because of his competence in Hebrew and the Bible. He was their preacher from 1S92-1S94. A. Guzman Sancho, San Lorenzo de Brindis (Doctor Apostrflico), Villafranca del Bierzo 1994, 22: Lorenzo "hablaba con tal dulzura y sencillez que los judios, oyendose Hamar 'carisimos hermanos', dieron en Hamar al santo 'nuestro amado predicador"'. 18 Arturo M. da Carmignano di Brenta, San Lorenzo daBrindisi. I, 267-316. 19 Lawrence ofBrindisi, Opera omnia, Bk XII, 262.