HOMILY 29TH Sun. YR B: Louis/Zoelle Martin – Saints

This Sunday, in Rome, at the Synod on the Family, Pope Francis is going to do what no other Pope has ever done before: canonize a married couple, named Louis and Zélie Martin.

This should be of interest to parishioners here at our parish, because Louis and Zélie Martin are the parents of our patroness, St. Therese of Lisieux.

I’m going to begin today by posing the question: What is it that makes someone a saint? Well, “saint” comes from a Greek word hagios, which means “holy.” A saint is someone who has achieved the heights of holiness in this life; someone who always tried to do God’s will; and as a result, someone who, as the Church says, has lived a life of “heroic virtue.”

Last night I was reading from an excellent book, True Devotion to the Holy Spirit, by the former Archbishop of Mexico, Luis Martinez. In describing different approaches people have to doing God’s will, Archbishop Martinez says this:

“[Those who love the world] neither know nor love the will of God and despair many times on account of it. Imperfect souls already possess the Holy Spirit, but since their love is imperfect, they receive the will of God with resignation, a mixture of joy and sorrow. The Spirit has not yet attained complete possession of them, nor do they enjoy that entire harmony and fullness of peace that love brings, because all their inclinations have not yet been coordinated in the unity of love.

“In the saints, however, all is harmony, peace, and unity, for all is love. The Holy Spirit has penetrated, possessed, and transformed them. With divine light, they see in the divine will the good of God, which is their own good, and, with all the impetuosity of love, . . . they give themselves up to that will.” (p. 109)

In other words, the Saints are those who always respond to God’s will, freely and with great peace of soul, out of love for Him.

This is what St. Therese of Lisieux did during her life; and this is in fact the Little Way of Spiritual Childhood which she describes in her autobiography, The Story of a Soul. Saint Therese resolved never to pass up an opportunity to make some little sacrifice, some renouncement of her own will, no matter how small, in order to do God’s will, out of love for God.

This was the way of all the saints. This past Friday was the feast of St. Margaret Mary, to whom Jesus appeared and revealed his Sacred Heart. Listen to what St. Margaret Mary says in one of her letters, giving spiritual advice to someone:

“In the course of every activity pray as follows: ‘My God, I do this or endure that in the Heart of your Son and according to His holy counsels. I offer it to you in reparation for anything blameworthy or imperfect in my actions.’”

St. Margaret Mary goes on to say, “Continue to do this in every circumstance of life. And every time that some punishment, affliction or injustice comes your way, say to yourself: ‘Accept this as sent to you by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ in order to unite yourself to Him.’ But above all preserve peace of heart.”

So, how did Louis and Zélie Martin live out a life of heroic sanctity in the midst of their daily, ordinary lives? As one biographer says of them: “They lived by the principle of doing each everyday act with great love, as if for Jesus Himself. Zélie, Therese’s mother, used to speak of making small sacrifices that would ‘set pearls in your crown’ in Heaven. In this, we can see the seeds of Therese’s own spirituality.”

There is nothing really remarkable about any of the things we’ve just heard described; simply put, sanctity, true holiness, is achieved by carrying out all the ordinary actions in one’s everyday life in a spirit of sacrifice, out of love for God. It’s possible for you, for me, for anyone!

Louis, born in 1823, and Zélie, born in 1831, both grew up in Alençon, France; for a time they both considered entering religious life, but changed their minds. Louis became a watch and clock maker, and Zélie learned the trade of making lace.

They saw one another one day as they were crossing the same bridge in opposite directions. Each one asked about the other around town; they were introduced to each other three months later they married.

Zélie ran a thriving business out of the home;she employed 20 women, with orders for her lace coming from as far as Paris. Over time, Louis gave up his business to assist with hers. They would never work on Sundays, the Lord’s Day.

They had nine children, four of whom died very young. When the youngest child, Therese, was only four years old, Zélie died. Louis was left alone to raise his five girls.

The same biographer says that Louis and Zélie “show us how it is possible to live an ordinary life with extraordinary virtue. For those with the vocation to marriage and family – the majority of Catholics today – they provide an example of living out that vocation in a faithful and holy way. In short, they are a shining reminder that by loving our spouses faithfully and raising our children with love, we are living holy lives.”

Zélie wrote of how she wanted lots of children, in order to raise up saints for Heaven. Both Louis and Zelie prayed that their children might have religious vocations. In particular, they wanted sons who would become missionary priests. It was a great blow to them when both of their sons died.

Well, one of those children, Therese, has been called by numerous Popes “the greatest saint in the modern era,” and Pope Pius XI named her Patroness of Missions – even though she was a cloistered Carmelite nun who never left the monastery in Lisieux after having entered it at age 16 and died at the age of 24!

And where did Saint Therese and almost every other saint receive their initial formation in holiness and virtue? In the home and in the family.

It’s worthy of note that all five of the Martin girls entered religious life. Therese, a Carmelite, is a saint and Doctor of the Church. Another daughter, Léonie, who became a Sister of the Visitation, has just had her cause submitted for beatification, on July 2, 2015; perhaps she will be proclaimed a saint as well one day soon.

This Sunday, on which Louis and Zélie Martin are raised on the altars of the Church as the first married couple to be canonized as saints, let us turn to them and ask their heavenly intercession – for the Synod on the Family which continues in Rome, that the Church may boldly proclaim the fullness of the truth about the family as taught by Christ; and that Louis and Zélie may assist with their prayers all married couples, that they may lead holy lives in fulfilling their beautiful vocation in marriage, and that they may form their children in that same holiness – to become saints as God calls them to be.

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