Written by Sr. Rosemary Finnegan, O.P.
Readings from: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100119.cfm
I’m embarrassed to admit that when one of our RCIA candidates, who was preparing to celebrate Confirmation at Pentecost, told me that she chose “St. Zelie” as her Confirmation name, I said ‘who’? She quickly, and proudly, told me that Zelie was St. Therese of Lisieux’s mother and that Therese’s parents, Zelie and Louis Martin, were canonized together by Pope Francis on Oct. 18, 2015. She chose Zelie as her patron saint because, as a mother of a young family herself, she wanted to emulate Zelie as a spiritual role model to her children.
In our gospel today, we heard that Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem but sent messengers ahead of him to prepare the way. In that spirit, I wanted to share the story of St. Therese’s parents, for they surely prepared the way for their daughter whose feast we celebrate today.
When Louis Martin and his bride, Zelie, were married in 1858, they promised that they would ‘serve God first’ together. They chose to put God first in their married life and strive to live their lives with love.
Louis was a watchmaker and Zelie made beautiful lace to help support their growing family of 9 children. Sadly, four of them died at young ages. Zelie and Louis were filled with sorrow each time one of their children died, but relied on their faith to sustain them. They raised their children in an atmosphere of prayer and with a desire for them to know God, love each other, and serve the poor.
Therese was their youngest daughter, and when she was only 4 years old, Zelie was diagnosed with cancer and died at age 45. Needless to say, the family was brokenhearted. Despite his overwhelming grief, Louis lovingly and devotedly raised his remaining 5 daughters, all of whom eventually entered the convent. He felt in his heart that he and Zelie had planted the seeds of faith in their children, and now his daughters were answering their own call to follow Christ.
He died when he was 71 years old. He and Zelie were the first married couple canonized together, and their feast day is July 12. Their married and family life of daily holiness could surely be a model for our time. Of her parents, St. Therese wrote: “God gave me a father and a mother who were more worthy of heaven than of earth.”
After a long struggle with tuberculosis, Therese died on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. Her last words were the story of her life: "My God, I love You!" She was canonized by Pope Pius XI on May 17, 1925, and in 1997, Pope John Paul II declared St. Therese a Doctor of the Church, one of only four women saints to be so named.
Jesus sent his disciples ahead of him to prepare the way for him in Jerusalem, and Zelie and Louis lived their lives in such a way that they prepared the way for their children to be followers of Christ. Therese learned from them and in her quest for sanctity, lived her life with simplicity by doing everyday tasks with love.
Like Zelie, and Louis, and Therese, we share in Christ’s mission by our prayer and doing daily tasks with simplicity and love. By God’s grace, may we, too, by our Christlike actions, inspire others to holiness. What did each of us do yesterday to be good examples, and what will we do today?
