P. Gorazd Cetkovský, O.Carm.
The pilgrimage of the relics of the parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and the Holy Face through Bohemia and Moravia, organized by the brothers and sisters of the Discalced Carmelites, was a great spiritual event for all our communities. Our magazine certainly does not aim to be a chronicle of events in the Carmelite family among us. However, it unintentionally serves as such a chronicle in part. And now I would like to consciously and willingly acknowledge this, and at least with a sketch of the ideas I spoke about in the homily during the holy mass on June 24 of this year at St. Benedict's Church in Prague's Hradčany district, I would like to preserve a stronger atmosphere of those moments for us.
The selection of biblical texts and the Mass formulary in honor of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin lead us to see them as a model for Christian couples and families. This primarily provides us with the opportunity:
- to give thanks for parents and families - ours, our friends', especially for those that have ever provided us with support in any way,
- to pray for parents and families - ours, those of our acquaintances around us, for those we know need prayer very much at this time, for those we have long been praying for... This will be especially remembered in the intercessions during this service.
But we are not here only as spouses, and the legacy of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin is broader: they are examples of fidelity and self-sacrifice in the vocation accepted, whatever it may be. Both initially contemplated a religious life. But when they ultimately decided on marriage and had children, they fully embraced this path... This is a model for spouses just as it is for us priests, religious men, and women. A very valuable example, as we often face the temptation to look back, to complain, to compromise on the authenticity that the vocation of each one of us demands.
Louis and Zélie, in the midst of France at that time, which was in no way a pious era like we imagine our grandmothers’ times, lived a distinctly Christian way of life. They led their family life this way and raised their children accordingly. Not out of tradition, not in a mentality of threat or ghetto, not demonstratively, but from a living faith, from love for God and a desire to be holy. And that they did not feel advanced in this at all is evidenced by Zélie's words, in which she writes about herself in one letter: “There is still much to be chiseling, and the wood is as hard as stone.”1
We could profitably consider further the example that Blessed Louis and Zélie have given us. But I will turn our attention another way. Next year, it will be exactly six hundred years since Master Jerome of Prague and his followers stormed into the Church of Our Lady of Snow at the first Carmelite monastery here in Prague, vandalizing reliquaries and scattering the relics of saints on the floor and trampling them... And amidst today’s Prague, we welcome the relics of the new blessed and crowd around them. Why do we do this?
Some years ago - and I recall this in connection with our worship today - I proposed in a youth community that we visit the grave of an important person together. And I encountered complete misunderstanding. "A grave?" those young people asked me, astonished and with a certain irritated resistance. I wasn't perceptive enough at that moment to respond convincingly to the unexpected question.
Today I would say: it is natural that we long for the presence and closeness of those we respect and love. Relics are to us a sign of this closeness to saints (their souls are with God) and the closeness of God Himself (they were temples filled with His Spirit). Since the times of the early Christian martyrs, the graves of saints became the foundations of altars (later relics of saints were placed in altars). This suggests: the strength of their holiness was given to them by Him, Christ, who also gives strength to us here during the service...
The relics of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin will certainly be requested for this purpose in the future: perhaps for churches in Poland, perhaps in Africa or the Philippines. Their lives also point to Christ, to His holiness, to His power to transform a person's life and family, giving them wonderful fruitfulness... I do not know what shortcomings regarding the veneration of relics Master Jerome of Prague reacted to, but we need not fear that we would slide away from firm faith in Christ through respectful devotion to the remains of saints.
Fully developing the last thought that I want to present to you is beyond my ability, but you will help me, and each of us can think about it independently. Let's ask and seek inspiration: how would Terezka experience such a celebration as the one we are now participating in (the visit of the relics of two saints), whether as a Carmelite behind the walls of the monastery or as a teenage girl with beautiful hair somewhere in the middle of the crowd in the church.
For my part, I will dare to estimate that she would experience it
- with enthusiastic faith: that God is close and great in His saints!
- with vigilance: that this is a time of grace and God wants to use it to bless us, to speak to us somehow, to prompt us, to guide us,
- with humility: being aware that God can also use very small and simple realities, such as the physical remains of His friends and our approach to them in prayer,
- with obedience, because even such a time of grace can turn out completely differently than we envision and expect,
- with great love and tenderness: namely, with openness to the loving God and with a willing eagerness to give Him our love.
Terezka's perspective fills us with grateful joy during this spiritual encounter with her parents. From the fact that the Gospel remains just as alive. And that God carefully and tenderly guides us all to heaven, regardless of the century in which we live.
