A way of living in this world, which announces the Kingdom…

Homily of November 11 2020

« Saint Martin de Tours est universellement connu par son geste du partage de son manteau, donnant au plus pauvre la part qui lui appartenait et découvrant dans un songe, dans la nuit qui suivit, que lui apparaissait le Christ lui-même, revêtu de cette part de manteau qu’il avait donné au plus pauvre.« Ce que vous avez fait aux plus petits d’entre les miens, c’est à moi que vous l’avez fait"
Cette illustration dans son existence, dans sa vie de Martin, de l’Evangile que nous venons de proclamer fait évidemment de Martin une figure universelle. « Recevez en héritage le royaume préparé pour vous depuis la fondation du monde… »
All those who share among themselves an ideal of this kingdom, oh so spiritual, perceive in Martin's gesture, from East to West, from North to South, this deep fraternity with this man.


It turns out that his celebration falls at the same time, for us in France, with the commemoration of the Armistice, which remains an extremely powerful moment even if this year it is contained by confinement. The fact remains that it is an important day of remembrance.
From the memory of these tragedies which not only marked our countries but which marked the entire world since it is estimated that nearly 8 million victims, dead or injured, during this first world conflict. What a sad picture when globalization takes the form of such a deadly conflict.
And yet around this memory, it is all of humanity which is invited, unfortunately nourished by other events of the 20th century, to become aware that there is another form of world to be built. That perhaps the one who was so present at the founding of peace in 1918, our friend Martin, can have something to say in today's world. This is undoubtedly not foreign to those who established this eleventh hour, on the eleventh day of 1918. It was even on the eleventh day of the eleventh month that this armistice was signed, putting an end to this terrible conflict. It was signed at the heart of this feast of Saint Martin, very present in the French culture of that time.

No doubt we have discovered more and more through the lessons of history that Martin is not only French. He is a very beautiful European figure. He is so by his destiny, by his birth.
He is the son of a Roman soldier who was born on the border of the Empire, which today is very close to the border between Hungary and Austria, in Szombathely. He is a man of frontiers whose whole life will be about moving since he went to train in Pavia in Italy. From there, being a soldier like his father by tradition, he went to Amiens. It was in Amiens that he met this poor man whose discovery was decisive for his conversion. But he continued to move around, notably in Italy where he discovered eremitism and when he returned to finally live his Christian faith, he set up as a hermit.
First near Poitiers, then we went to look for him to become bishop in Tours. But while being a bishop, he led a retired life in Marmoutier at the entrance to the city of Tours.
Then his life was made up of multiple trips, almost everywhere, so much so that Saint Martin is honored in many places. He is the one who has the most churches in his name.
So much so that following these terrible events which marked the history of the world, and first of all the history of Europe, he became a very beautiful figure of Europe.
Today he is invoked as the patron saint of this Europe and his memory is maintained by paths in his honor, wanting to weave a brotherhood between men by relying on the cities he passed through.

Your presence invites us to think that he is more than European, he is honored throughout the world as this gesture has more than symbolic significance. He can make deep peace.

Today we are increasingly developing this global dimension of Saint Martin. It seems to me that in the conflicts which risk crossing us today, between a deviated globalism and a sovereignism which also risks being born, we have a word from one of the founders of Europe which remains a key to living the world of today.

We owe these words to Robert Schuman, also a man of frontiers.
His family's farm straddled Luxembourg and France, a stone's throw from the German border. And in his own life, he was both Luxembourgish through his mother, French through his father but at the same time became German again at the time when Germany recovered the Moselle.
And this border man said this: “I am French but I intend to stay in Lorraine.” That is to say also belonging to this local terroir. I am French but I can also stay in Lorraine. I am European, I want to build Europe, but I can also remain French.
We could add to his words: “I am from the world but I also wish to remain European”.
As long as we do not understand that our identity can reconcile different affiliations, then we will continue to want to build a world that is based more on war than on peace. Having several degrees of identity that combine in beautiful ways that are always enriching.
This is a great challenge that Saint Martin can help us to live and our Christian conscience finds itself very comfortable in this way of being.
Both rooted as Jesus was of Nazareth and at the same time the son of man for all. Let us combine our affiliations, this is undoubtedly where we must look to build the future.
A second trait makes Saint Martin extremely contemporary. It is one of the acts of his life that he carried out somewhat at the end.
At a time when a Spanish heretic was making a lot of talk about him to the point that the Emperor Maximus, seeing the trouble that this heresy could cause, was determined to arrest and execute him. Learning of this, Martin left his country of Tours to go see the emperor, defending the cause of this heretic with whom he did not agree but he felt that we could not, even in the name of religion or truth, to the point of killing someone.
He objected, he made a conscientious objection to the emperor for this reason for a cause as noble as it was for the truth.

But unfortunately this great message from Martin was not heard and we know that over the centuries what he tried to convey in the name of the Gospel was not implemented.
So in the debates around religious extremism, how interesting it is to hear the relevance and topicality of this Saint Martin, animated by such a perception of the Gospel and the message of Christ.
This is the reason why we honor it in its rightful dimension in our current affairs.

That perhaps we were listening to these men who are both citizens of somewhere but also citizens of the world, in a beautiful way.
Ce monde étant quelque chose qui annonce le royaume quand il est vécu comme celui-ci. »