"Louis and Zélie were luminous
examples of married life lived in faithfulness, in welcoming life and in the
education of their children. A Christian
marriage lived in an absolute confidence in God that could be proposed to
families today. Their marriage was
exemplary, full of Christian virtues and human wisdom. Exemplary does not mean that we should copy,
photocopy their life reproducing all of their doings and gestures, but that we
should use, like they did, the supernatural means that the Church offers to
each Christian to carry out his vocation to saintliness. Providence
Why after such a long time? Is such a family not far removed from our
time?
In what way are the Martin parents modern? Can they help our families to take on today’s
challenges?
I am certain that a vast debate will begin
around this couple at their Beatification.
Conferences, debates, discussion groups, will try to analyse and compare
their experience with our very complex times.
On this, however, one must be very clear: The Church did not canonize a
period of time, but examined their saintliness.
With the Martins, the Church proposes to the faithful the saintliness
and the perfection of a Christian life that this couple achieved in an
exemplary manner and, to use the language of the process, to a heroic degree. The Church is not interested in the
exceptional but underlines how in their daily lives they were the salt of the
earth and the light of the world [Mathew 5.13.14]. The
Servant of God, John Paul II declared: “It
is necessary that the heroic becomes daily and that the daily becomes heroic.” The Church established that Louis and Zélie
made something heroic out of their daily lives and from heroism something
daily. This is possible for each
Christian, whatever his/her state in life.
I am pleased to quote here a passage from the famous letter to Diognete
on marriage and which the Martin couple knew exactly how to carry out:
“Christians do not differentiate
themselves from other men by their territory nor by their language, nor by
their clothing. They marry as others do
and have children, but they do not abandon the newly-born. They live in the body but not according to
the body. They spend their life on earth
but are citizens of heaven. They obey
established laws, but their way of living surpasses the laws.”
This letter traces a concrete model of a
possible life, a route that all disciples of Jesus are called to follow, even
today: to announce the beauty of a Christian marriage with its authentic
experiences that are credible and attractive.
To carry out this one needs couples and parents who are mature in
love. Louis and Zélie embraced this form
of married life to follow Christ.
Husband, wife, and parents in Christ, where marriage is welcomed as a
call and a mission given by God. With
their life they announced to all the good news of love “in Christ”: the humble love, love that spares nothing to start
anew every morning, love capable of confidence and sacrifice. This communion clearly emerges from the
letters exchanged between the two.
In one of his brief letters, which is
practically a synthesis of matrimonial love, Louis signs in the following way: “Your husband and true friend, who loves you
for life.” To these words, Zélie
echoes: “I follow you in spirit
throughout the day, I tell myself: ‘He is doing such and such at the
moment’. I am so impatient to be with
you, my dear Louis; I love you with all my heart and I can feel my affection
doubling in your absence; it would be impossible for me to live far from you.”
What is the secret of this communion? Maybe the fact that before looking in each
other’s eyes, they looked directly at Jesus.
They lived sacramentally reciprocal communion, through Communion that
they both cultivated with God.
This is what is new “Hymn of hymns”, not only must Christian couples sing it, but only
they can sing it. Christian love is a “Hymn of hymns” that the couple sings
with God."
-- From the homily of Cardinal Saraiva Martins on the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the wedding of Bls Louis and Zélie, 13 July 2008
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