Cardinal Semeraro’s Homily on the Announcing the Beatification of God’s Servants Leonard Melki and Thomas Saleh

“We need witnesses and martyrs who gave themselves completely, to show us the way day by day. We need them to put, even in the smallest matters of our daily life, the good over comfort, knowing that this is how we truly live life,” said the Dean of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in His homily presided over the Mass announcing the beatification of the Servants of God, Leonard Melki and Thomas Saleh.

Cardinal Marcello Simraro, Dean of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided on Saturday evening at the Church of the Monastery of the Cross in Jal El Dib in Lebanon, the Divine Liturgy to announce the beatification of the two servants of God, Leonard Melki and Thomas Saleh, the two martyred priests of the Capuchin Order of the Friars Minor. to me” (John 7:37). They are the first words of Jesus that we have heard from the proclamation of the Holy Gospel and are already sufficient to engage and comfort us. He says: “Let him come to me!” But who would say that? for the righteous? Who are they without sin? Who maintains the ecclesiastical law as well as the law of God? no! Jesus simply says: If someone thirsts! This is the person Jesus is turning to!

The Dean of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints continued, saying that feeling thirsty means many things. The Bible, for example, speaks of a “thirst for justice,” and this thirst is very often felt by man. Even today and in many parts of the world, injustice continues to injure humanity and cause great suffering. In the Beatitudes, Jesus praises this thirst, but – as Pope Francis explains – it is necessary to understand that the justice he speaks of begins to be served in everyone’s life when one is just in one’s decisions, and thus expresses it in the pursuit of justice for the poor, the weak and the defenseless and this It is holiness. In our human language, the word thirst also means something else. It expresses, for example, a desire. We are all born of a desire: God’s desire of course, which is why each of us is filled with desires and in all of them we can see our history: joys and sorrows, successes and failures, hopes and disappointments… However, we always need to discern these desires, because none of us He is so transparent regarding himself that he knows where his heart resides. So Jesus calls: Come to me! Saint Thomas Aquinas comments that he says so: in the fulfillment of desiresThat is, to fulfill every good desire. And in order to help us understand all this, the Evangelist explained that Jesus said this regarding the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in this context, we would also like this evening to consider the image of the Lebanese Capuchin friars, Father Leonard Melki and Father Thomas Saleh, who are now beatified as martyrs.

Cardinal Marcello Simraro added, asking who were the martyrs? To answer this question, Saint Ambrose considered the Church, which, every time it announces the death of its Savior (and this is what we do when we celebrate the Holy Eucharist), receives a wound of love. Then he explains, “Not everyone can say that they were wounded by this love, but the martyrs can say that because they were wounded because of Christ, and because it was given to them to be wounded because of his name, they love him more.” Let us now consider the earthly life of our blessed. They are victims on the human level, victims of the wave of hatred that has repeatedly traversed the end of the Ottoman Empire and intertwined with the tragic events of the persecution of the entire Armenian people and once morest the Christian faith. In fact, when our Blessed Ones chose to go on a letter, it was precisely those years. We heard the account of the events that led to their martyrdom at the beginning of the celebration. So I will summarize it briefly. In December 1914, while all the other Capuchins took refuge in a safer place, Blessed Leonard chose to remain at Mardin Monastery to continue caring for an elderly brother. On June 5, 1915, Blessed Leonard was arrested and subjected to violence and torture until he was killed with his comrades by stoning and then stabbed with a dagger and a sword. As for Blessed Thomas, he was received in December 1914, along with his other brothers, in the Urfa monastery. Arrested with the other brothers, he was imprisoned in various prisons and underwent many death marches and terrible torments in order to renounce his faith. But despite this, his calmness and strength are inherited in the Lebanese Church.

The Dean of the Congregation for the Trials of Saints continued saying if I say that they are victims on the human level, but they are winners from the perspective of the Christian faith. But what force are we talking regarding? It is certainly not the will to power, which governs the instincts of evasion and control, which we so painfully witness at all personal, collective, and social levels. no! We are talking rather of the gift of spiritual strength, which is referred to in Catholic doctrine as the third essential virtue; Any one of the virtues that constitute the foundations of a virtuous life. Therefore, it is not regarding using muscle power, but rather a passion for truth and benevolence all the way to self-denial and life sacrifice. The Church’s mission, therefore, is also to bear witness to this power. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote in the Encyclical “In Hope Are Saved” that in life’s grave trials and tribulations, especially when we must make our final decision to put truth before luxury, occupation, possession, and certainty of the great true hope, then precisely are we “in need of witnesses and martyrs.” They gave themselves completely, to show us the way day in and day out. We need them so that in even the smallest matters of our daily lives we may prefer good to comfort, knowing that this is how we truly live life.” And there is another question: Who gives the martyr the courage to be a witness? The Holy Spirit is the one who gives courage. This is the answer. And we heard it from Saint Paul the Apostle: “The Spirit also comes to the aid of our weakness.” The ancient Fathers tell us that martyrs are like athletes who, freed from the clothes that prevent them from racing, run to the field, moved by the Holy Spirit, to win the crown of victory.

Cardinal Marcello Simraro, Dean of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, concluded his homily by saying, “Let us pray, then, with these words borrowed from St. Gregory of Nariki: “The blessed martyrs, who were made perfect by their sufferings, are now dancing happily in an endless feast. With their intercession and their prayers, which please your eyes, because they are colored with their blood, they are offering their blood.” Accept us also, O Lord, and keep us steadfast and steadfast in You, that we may attain eternal salvation. Amen.