Louis Martin was born into a military family in Bordeaux region of France. As a young man, he desired to join a Catholic religious community, but was not admitted because he could not speak Latin and thus could not study theology. He trained to become a watchmaker and moved to the Normandy region of France where he met Zélie Guérin, a lace maker. Zélie also had tried to enter the convent as a nun, but was turned down. They married in 1858. They raised a family in a very loving Catholic home. Zélie died of breast cancer in 1877. After his wife’s death, he moved his family to the town of Lisieux to be closer to extended family members so that they could help him raise his five daughters. Zélie and Louis Martin nurtured their own holiness and faith and the faith and holiness of their daughters, all of whom became nuns. Their youngest daughter was Therese of Lisieux, one of the most beloved saints in the Catholic faith and a Doctor of the Church. Louis and Zélie were canonized by Pope Francis in 2015. I had the great opportunity to visit the city of Lisieux and to visit the places associated with this family, including the basilica of St Therese where Louis and Zelie Martin are buried. May we unite our prayers with their prayers today.
Our first reading today from Ecclesiastes in Greek is a part of the Wisdom tradition in the Hebrew scriptures. In this reading, a wise person reflects on different times in his life: times of death and birth, times of killing and healing, times of weeping and laughing. There are times and seasons in the way nature functions. There are times and season in our lives. While each time and season may seem to happen randomly, the underlying significance of this reading today is that there is a divine purpose for everything that happens in our lives. We are reminded of the sovereignty of God, the creator and ruler of heaven and earth. There are so many things that are beyond our human control of things. We may have a smart phone in our pockets that is more powerful than the computers that put the man on the moon. We may have advanced technology that many of our us could not have imagined as children. But there are many elements of our existence that are beyond our control. We cannot conquer time. God appoints each moment. Our lives here on earth are a mixture of joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, harmony and struggle, of life and death. Each season has an appropriate time in the cycle of life. Nothing stays the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment