The Manly Saints Project
EP 008 - Hugh Hunter
Happy Memorial Day!
The liturgy of the hours asks us to start each day reciting the Canticle of Zechariah. This is the only piece of morning prayer that is repeated verbatim each day, so it allows for a considerable amount of contemplation.
One of the lines in the canticle is, “You my child shall be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way“. This line is specifically directed toward Saint John and the beginning of our Lord’s ministry, but it also applies to all Christians and Christ’s second coming. It begs the question, “how do we prepare the way for the Lord?“
I thought a good starting point would be to go and see how the Lord wishes to arrive. After all, preparing the way for a bullet train and a horse drawn carriage would be two different jobs entirely.
In revelation we see how the Lord returns. He comes on a horse, with a sword, covered by a robe drenched in blood. A startling image.
Our worldly experience would lead us to assume that this blood is the blood of His enemies, a testament to His power like we have seen in images depicting Viking raiders, Roman conquerors, or Mongol invaders.
Except that this is Christ we are talking about, not a normal human conqueror. This is a Man who proved already that He did not rule a worldly kingdom in His discussion with Pilate. No. The blood on His robe is not of His enemies. The blood is His own.
This then points to how we should make the way straight for Him to arrive. Our blood soaked King should arrive to a path laid forth by His blood soaked servants. Of course, we can only be those servants if we accept the same bloody Cross which gave our Lord His wounds to begin with.
For the majority of us, to bleed in this world - to sacrifice - is to do all the things that are required for the heavenly Kingdom when they go against our human will. But for some of us, it is to actually bleed. To actually die.
I thought this contemplation was appropriately timed, as today is a day where we honor those men and women who have given their lives for our country, and it is for an episode which focuses on those men who have given their lives for the Kingdom of God.
I hope that today you can spend time with friends and family and appreciate the sacrifices that our fallen service members have made for us. I also hope that today you can find some ways, big or small, to sacrifice your will, to bleed, for the will of God.
In that way, we will become prophets of the Most High, and we will have succeeded in our mission to prepare the way for the Lord.
This week, I get to talk with Hugh fromThe Manly Saints Project (TMSP). TMSP is his attempt to bring forth manly role models for men of any age to emulate today. Each week he posts about a saint with both audio and video on Substack and on Spotify.
I highly recommend his work. Through listening to his podcast, I have found my understanding of what it means to be a saint both expanded and deepened. Some saints have been kings, others have been monks, still others have been pilgrims just wandering the roads. All of them will teach you what it means to have a childlike dependence on God, without the childishness that stops so many boys today from becoming men.
Enjoy!