Witnesses
of conjugal love
The Beatification of Blessed Louis AND ZELIE Martin
Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins
Basilica of Lisieux, France
October 19, 2008
Brother bishops and priests,
Distinguished guests,
Dear pilgrims, my brothers and sisters in Christ.
“Worthy of
Heaven”
In 1897, Therese
wrote in Story of a Soul: “Pardon me, Jesus, if I go too
far in telling you all my desires and my hopes that reach
infinity, pardon me and heal my soul by giving it what I hope
for!” (MS B2v ). Jesus always listened to Therese’s desires,
even that which she confided in a letter to Father Belliere, and
that many people now know by heart: “God gave me a father and
a mother who were more worthy of heaven than of earth” (Lt
261).
I have just
completed the Rite of Beatification with which our Holy
Father the Pope has inscribed together the names of the two
spouses in the Book of the Blessed. This beatification of
Louis Martin and Zelie Guerin, whom Therese defined as
“parents without equal, worthy of heaven, holy ground permeated
with the perfume of purity” (cf. Ms A), is very important in
the Church.
My heart is full of
gratitude to God for this exemplary witness of conjugal love,
which is bound to stimulate Christian couples in practicing
virtue just as it stimulated the desire for holiness in Therese.
While reading the
Apostolic Letter of the Holy Father, I thought of my father and
mother, and now I invite you to think of you parents that
altogether we may thank God for having created and made us
Christians through the conjugal love of our parents. The gift
of life is a marvelous thing, but even more wonderful for us is
that our parents led us to the Church which alone is capable of
making us Christians. For no one becomes a Christian by
oneself.
Natives
of Normandy, a gift to us all
Among the vocations
to which indidividuals are called by Providence, marriage is one
of the highest and most noble. Louis and Zelie understood that
they could become holy not in spite of marriage, but through,
in, and by marriage, and that thei8r becoming a couple was the
beginning of an ascent together. Today the Church celebrates
not only the holiness of these children of Normandy, a gift to
us all, but admires, as well, in the Blessed couple that which
renders more splendid and beautiful the wedding robe of the
Church. The conjugal love of Louis and Zelie is a pure
reflection of Christ’s love for his Church, but it is also a
pure reflection of the “resplendent love without stain or
wrinkle, but holy and immaculate” (Ep 5, 27) as the Church
loves its Spouse, Christ. The Father “chose us before the
foundation of the world, that we may be holy and without
reproach in His sight, in love” (Ep 1, 4).
“Only
the violent bear heaven away”
Louis and
Zelie were witnesses to the radical gospel engagement of the
vocation of marriage, to the point of heroism for “from the
time of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffer
violence and the violent bear it away” (Mt 11,12). The
Martins were not afraid to do violence to themselves in order to
possess this kingdom of heaven, and thus they have become
“the light of the world that today the Church places on a
lamp stand so that it may shine on those in the household
[the Church]. They shine before men that those who see their
good works may glorify our Father
who is in heaven. Their example of the Christian life is like a
city on a mountain top that cannot be hidden” (Mt 5, 13-15.
“Master,
give us your opinion”
But what was the
secret of their success in living their life as Christians?
“It has been made know to you, O man, that which his good and
which God ask of you: to seek justice, to practice mercy, and to
walk humbly with God” (Mi 6,8) Louis and Zelie, a man and
woman who walked humbly with God in seeking the opinion of
the Lord; Master, give us your opinion. They sought
the opinion of the Lord. They thirsted to know the opinion of
the Lord. They loved the opinion of the Lord. They accepted
the opinion of the Lord without recrimination, without
discussion or even worse objection. And in order to be certain
that they were following the true opinion of the Lord, they
turned to the Church, the expert teacher of humanity, and to its
teachings. There wasn’t a single aspect of their private or
public life which wasn’t in perfect harmony with the teachings
of the Church, in their era as well as in ours.
My heart is full of
gratitude to God for this exemplary witness of conjugal love,
which is bound to stimulate Christian couples in practicing
virtue just as it stimulated the desire for holiness in Therese.
“Serving
God first”
For Mr. and Mrs.
Martin, that which was Caesar’s and that which was
God’s was very clear. “My Lord God served first”,
said Joan of Arc. The Martins made that the motto of their
home. The complete submission of this couple to the will of God
was remarkable. When suffering touched their lives, their
spontaneous reaction was always to accept the will of God. Mrs.
Martin often said, “God is the Master. He does what He
wishes.” Mr. Martin echoed his wife in saying “God is
served first”. Husband and wife, they served God in the
poor, not because of bursts of generosity, not through a sense
of social justice, but simply because in the poor they
recognized Jesus. To serve the poor is to serve Jesus, it is to
render to “God what is God’s: each time that you have done
this to one of the least of my brothers of mine, you did it to
me.” (Mt. 25, 34-40).
Heaven isn’t empty;
“Heaven is full of souls”
In a few
minutes we will express our profession of faith with the
apostles’creed that Louis and Zelie repeated so often during
mass and, above all, taught to their children. After we
proclaim our faith in the holy Catholic Church, the Creed
adds the Communion of saints.
“I
believed, said Therese,
I felt deep in my heart that there is a heaven and that heaven
is filled with souls who cherished me and who looked upon me as
their child…(Ms B 2v )
In
this heavenly home full of souls, as
Therese tell us- today and from now on we can call upon the
blessed Louis and d for us. Zelie, whom we invoke for the first
time, asking them to pray t to God for us. Please, cherish us,
look upon us as your children. Cherish the whole Church.
Above all, cherish
our homes and our children. […]
Louis and Zelie
represent a gift for spouses of every age by the respect, and
the harmony which marked their love during 19 years. Zelie
expressed that when she wrote to Louis: “I could not live
without you, my dear Louis.” He is your for a
lifetime.” The lived with heroism their marriage vows of
fidelity to the bond that united them, to the fruitfulness of
their love, in good times as in bad, in sickness, and in
health.
Louis and Zelie
represent a gift for parents: ministers of love and of life,
they brought forth nine children for the Lord. Among these
children, we particularly admire Therese. […]
Louis and Zelie
represent a gift for all those who have lost their spouses:
being widowed is always difficult to accept. Louis faced the
loss of his wife with faith and generosity, choosing for the
good of his children to move to Lisieux, even though he would
have preferred to stay in Alencon.
Louis and Zelie
represent a gift for all those who face illness and death: Zelie
died of cancer. Louis´ life ended after a succession of
incapacitating strokes. In our modern world which seeks to hide
from death, they teach us to look it in the face and abandon
ourselves to God.
An Exemplary Model
of a Missionary Household
Finally, I
thank God, in this 82nd World Mission Day, because
Louis and Zelie give us an exemplary model of a missionary
household. This is the reason that the Holy Father wanted the
beatification to take placed on this day which is precious to
the universal Church, to unite the masters Louis and Zelie to
the disciple Therese, their daughter, who is the Patron of the
Missions and a Doctor of the Church. The testimonies of the
Martin children concerning the missionary spirit which reigned
in their household are striking and unanimous:
¨My parents were very interested in the salvation
of souls… But the apostolic work which we knew the best was the
Progogation of the Faith to which, each year, our parents made a
very generous contribution. It was this same zeal for souls
which made them want so much a son who would become a missionary
and daughter who would become nuns.¨(Positio, Vol. II, p. 972)
Recently, Cardinal
Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for Evangelization
(Propaganda Fide) wrote: ¨For a disciple of Christ, to
announce the Gospel isn´t just an option, but a commandment of
the Lord… A Christian must have as a mission to spread the
Gospel in each heart, in each house, in each culture (Lambeth
Conference, July 23, 2008).
My brothers and
sisters, may your families, your parishes, your religious
communities and through the whole world, also be households of
saints and missionaries, as was the household of the blessed
spouses Louis and Zelie Martin. Amen.
Prayer for the Canonization of Blessed Louis and
Zélie Martin...
