Saint Sharbel the Miracle-Worker has followed me from the earliest days of my monastic journey. I remember learning of his beatification at the close of the Second Vatican Council in December 1965. Saint Sharbel's three inseparable loves, depicted in this image -- the Most Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Word of God -- are the mystical treasure of those who seek, in some way, to follow him in a life of silence and adoration.

Collect from the Missale Romanum 2002

O God who called your priest, Saint Sharbel to the singular combat of the desert and imbued him with every manner of piety, grant us, we beseech you, that by striving to be imitators of the Passion of the Lord we may be found worthy of becoming sharers in his kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.

Ex Oriente Lux

Saint Sharbel (also spelled Charbel) of Lebanon is one of those in whom the Holy Spirit fashioned a heart of flesh, a heart exquisitely sensitive to the mystery of Divine Love. The hermit priest Sharbel was beatified by Pope Paul VI on December 5, 1965, at the close of the Second Vatican Council. It was as if Paul VI wanted the Council to end with Rome gazing Eastward.

Another Saint Anthony of the Desert

Just before the beatification, a prelate at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome said to Bishop Francis Zayek, the shepherd of Maronite Catholics in the United States, "Reading about the holy hermits of the desert, we used to consider many reported facts as mere fables. In the life of Blessed Sharbel, however, we notice that these facts are authentic and true. Blessed Sharbel is another Saint Anthony of the Desert, or Saint Pachomius, or Saint Paul the Anchorite. It is marvelous to observe how you, Maronites, have preserved the same spirituality of the fathers of the desert throughout the centuries, and at the end of the nineteenth century, 1500 years later, produced a Sharbel for the Church."

A New Turning

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, a Trappist monk was emerging from a long period of spiritual depression. Thomas Merton had been in the Abbey of Gethsemani for nine years. He wrote in his journal, "Sharbel lived as a hermit in Lebanon -- he was a Maronite. He died. Everyone forgot about him. Fifty years later, his body was discovered incorrupt and in short time he worked over 600 miracles. He is my new companion. My road has taken a new turning. It seems to me that I have been asleep for 9 years -- and before that I was dead." Sharbel, the 19th century hermit of Lebanon, pulled America's most famous 20th century monk out of a spiritual crisis. That is the communion of the saints!

Like a Lebanon Cedar

On October 9, 1977, Pope Paul VI canonized Sharbel, citing the psalm, "The just will flourish like the psalm tree and grow like a Lebanon cedar" (Ps 91:13). The New York Times gave extensive coverage to the canonization in Rome and to the corresponding festivities in Lebanon, days of celebration that brought Orthodox and Catholic Christians together with Muslims.

Holiness in Clusters

Saint Sharbel's influence continues to grow. In Russia he has an immense following of Orthodox Christians. Muslims continue to seek his intercession, going in pilgrimage to his tomb. In Lebanon and in the Lebanese diaspora he continues to teach the way of silence, the way of the Cross, the way of humble love. On May 10th, 1998, Pope John Paul II beatified Saint Sharbel's professor, the monk, Father Nimutallah al-Hardini. Holiness grows in clusters.

A Eucharistic Death

Saint Sharbel suffered a stroke on December 16th, 1898 while celebrating the Holy Liturgy. He was reciting the prayer, "Father of Truth, behold your Son, a sacrifice pleasing to you. Accept this offering of Him who died for me." He fell to the floor holding the Holy Eucharist in his hands. He died on December 24th. Sharbel had lived twenty-three years in solitude. A lifetime of saying "Yes" to Love prepared him for a fully Eucharistic death and an abiding mission in the Church, one that, even today, is prophetic.

Saint Mary Magdalen, the Apostle to the Apostles, is one of the patron saints of this blog. The Responsory at Lauds is "Tibi dixit cor meum: Quaesivi vultum tuum": "My heart has said to Thee: I have sought Thy Face" (Psalm 26, 8). Here is something I wrote three year ago on this feast:

Woman of fire,
woman of desire,
woman of great passions
woman of the lavish gesture,
Mary of Magdala!

The icons show you robed in red,
covered in the blood of the Lamb,
a living flame, a soul set afire.
You are there at the foot of the Cross:
kneeling, bending low, crushed by sorrow,
your face in the dust.

You love,
but in that hour of darkness,
dare not look on the disfigured Face of Love.
It is enough that you are there,
brought low with Him,
Enough for you
the Blood dripping from His wounded feet,
Blood seeping into the earth
to mingle with your tears.

You seek Him on your bed at night,
Him whom your heart loves.
David's song is on your lips:
"Of You my heart has spoken: Seek his face.
It is Your face, O Lord, that I seek;
hide not Your face from me" (Ps 26:8-9).

His silence speaks.
His absence is a presence.
And so you rise to go about the city,
drawn out, drawn on by Love's lingering fragrance.
"Draw me, we will run after you, in the odour of your ointments" (Ct 1:3).

You seek Him by night
in the streets and broadways;
you seek Him whom your soul loves;
with nought but your heart's desire for compass.
You seek Him but do not find Him.

In this, Mary, you are friend to every seeker.
In this you are a sister to every lover.
In this you are close to us who walk in darkness
and wait in the shadows,
and ask of every watchman,
"Have you seen Him whom my soul loves?"

Guide us, Mary, to the garden of new beginnings.
Let us follow you in the night.
Wake our souls before the rising of the sun.
Weep that we may weep
and in weeping become penetrable to joy.

The Gardener waits,
the earth beneath His feet watered by your tears.
Turn, Mary, that with you we may turn
and, being converted,
behold His Face
and hear His voice
and, like you, be sent to say only this:
"I have seen the Lord" (Jn 20:18).

Answer Me

Tell me, my people, what I have done, that thou shouldst be a-weary of me? Answer me. Was it ill done, to rescue thee from Egypt, set thee free from a slave's prison, send Moses and Aaron and Mary to guide thee on thy way? Canst thou doubt, then, the faithfulness of the Lord's friendship? (Micah 6, 3-5)

Man's Response, Faithless and Cruel

Today's First Reading from the prophet Micah contains the source of the first of the Improperia, the Great Reproaches that are sung during the adoration of the Cross on Good Friday. The liturgy places the words of the prophet in the mouth of the suffering Jesus; it contrasts the Divine Compassion manifested in the wonders of the Exodus with the faithless and cruel response of those upon whom God had set His Heart.

The Reproaches

O my people, what have I done to thee?
Or wherein have I aggrieved thee?
Answer me.
Because I led thee out of the land of Egypt:
thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour.

Because I guided thee forth through the desert for forty years,
and thee with manna,
and brought thee into a right good land,
thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour.

What more could I have done for that I have not done?
I, even I, planted thee to be my fairest vineyard;
and thou hast made thyself exceeding bitter to me;
for thou hast slaked my thirst with vinegar,
and pierced with a lance thy Saviour's side.

The underlying theme of the Improperia is the tragedy of God's unrequited love. The Improperia are one of sources of the spirituality of reparation that the Holy Spirit has stirred up in every age.

The Idea of Reparation

"The first great revelation of the Heart of Jesus," writes Alfred O'Rahilly in his Life of Father William Doyle, S.J., "is contained in the seventh chapter of Saint Luke's Gospel. 'Dost thou see this woman?' Christ said to Simon. 'I entered into thy house, thou gavest Me no water for My feet -- but she with tears hath washed My feet and with her hair hath wiped them. My head with oil thou didst not anoint -- but she with ointment hath anointed My feet . . . She hath loved much.' This detailed antithesis, this careful balancing of neglect with service, this sensitive juxtaposition of Simon and Magdalen in the Heart of Christ, contains the essence of the idea of reparation. That is, if Our Lord's life and mission is more than a simple historical event and is still accessible to us who live in these latter days.

But Thou?

Many a Simon nowadays treats Christ with studied slight and scorn, and we -- is the role of Magdalen closed to us? Cannot Christ still address the sinner, 'Thou . . . but she . . .?' Cannot our loving much even now prevail and repair? And to the solitary adorer does there not still from the Tabernacle come the whisper, 'The nine -- where are they?' (Luke 17, 17.)"

Sixteenth Sunday of the Year A

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19
Psalm 85: 5-6, 9-10, 15-16a
Romans 8:26-27
Matthew 13: 24-43

Holding One's Ear to the Word

Wisdom speaks, saying, "Never should thy own children despair" (Wis 12:19). The psalmist sings, "Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild" (Ps 85:5). The Apostle says, "The Spirit comes to the aid of our infirmity, for we know not how to pray as we ought" (Rom 8:26). Finally, the Word himself, arriving in the Gospel, speaks to those who have ears to hear: "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man. And the field is the world. And the good seed are the children of the Kingdom" (Mt 13:37-38). The Word given us today is not easily synthesized. One must be willing to hold one's ear to today's Word for a good long while before certain harmonics begin to make themselves heard.

The Demon of Routine

The Gospel obliges us to exchange the meaning attached to the images given us in last Sunday's parable of the sower for another level of meaning. Our Lord plays with the same images -- sower and seed, field and harvest -- but today, through them, He is communicating another mystery. The Divine Teacher obliges us at every moment to listen with ears that are quick to hear, and to look with eyes wide open, lest the demon of routine, the enemy of our souls, slip in to sow the confusion of cockle among the wheat.

Sown in the Field of the World

In last Sunday's parable, the seed was the Word. Christ was the sower sent by the Father to sow the seed of the Word profusely, lavishly, almost carelessly, in every human heart. In today's parable, the sower of the seed is again Christ, but the field is the world and the good seed are the children of the Kingdom (Mt 13:37-38). It is not the Word that is sown far and wide; in today's Gospel it is rather the hearers of the Word who are sown in the vast field of the world. The disciples, hearers of the Word, are the seed Christ scatters abroad. Christ implants in the world those in whom His Word has been fruitful, yielding "in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty" (Mt 13:23).

Alongside the Weeds

By planting His Church in every place, Christ has sown His own good seed among the nations, "from the rising of the sun to its setting" (Mal 1:11). We are the seed sown by the Son of Man. We are the seed tossed into the field of the world to "grow together until the harvest" (Mt 13:30) alongside of weeds sown by the enemy.

The Priestly Prayer in the Cenacle

Today's parable is, I think, best illumined by the priestly prayer of Jesus in the Cenacle. It is a prayer for the good seed, "the children of the kingdom" (Mt 13:38), sown in the field of the world. "I have given them thy message, and the world has nothing but hatred for them, because they do not belong to the world, as I, too, do not belong to the world. I am not asking that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them clear of what is evil. They do not belong to the world, as I, too, do not belong to the world; keep them holy, then, through the truth; it is thy word that is truth (Jn 17:14-17). Jesus' priestly prayer shines on today's parable and brings it into focus. Jesus prays not that the seed be taken out of the world, but that the seed be protected from the evil one. He prays for the children of the Kingdom, the seed of His Church, a seed sprouting holiness.

Grace in Weakness

What are the signs of a sprouting holiness in others and in ourselves? The First Reading offers some elements of discernment. First, holiness is the fruit not of striving and straining, nor of any natural talent or psychological predisposition, nor of accumulated good works, nor of a strong will, but of grace. "Of all justice, thy power is the true source" (Wis 12:16). The Vulgate has, "Thy power is the beginning of justice" (Wis 12:16). "My grace is enough for thee," said Christ to Paul, "my strength finds it full scope in thy weakness" (2 Cor 12:9).

Mildness and Forbearance

Second, true holiness is marked by mildness and by forbearance, by what the Vulgate calls the humanitas of God our Saviour (Tit 3:4). "A lenient judge thou provest thyself, riding us with a light rein" says our text from Wisdom (Wis 12:18). Holiness in the children of the kingdom is but the reflection of Christ who alone is holy. The holiness of Our Lord Jesus Christ is characterized, above all, by clemency, mildness, indulgence and mercy. In authentic holiness there is nothing harsh, nothing overbearing, nothing that crushes the spirit or extinguishes hope. We heard the prophecy of Isaiah in yesterday's Gospel: "He will not snap the staff that is already crushed, or put out the wick that still smoulders" (Is 42:3; Mt 12:20). The refrain of today's Responsorial Psalm bears this out, more strikingly in the editio typica. There, we read, Tu, Domine, suavis et mitis es. "Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild" (Ps 85:5).

To Those Who Pray

Holiness is the Father's gift communicated in Christ Jesus through the inward operations of the Holy Spirit to those accept it, that is, to those who pray. This is where today's passage from Romans comes in. Saint Paul knows the dilemma of those beset by infirmity: those who would pray but do not know how to pray. "The Spirit," he says, "helps us in our infirmity, and intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words" (Rom 8:26-27).

Pray Always

One who stops praying seals his own fate. One who prays is certain of obtaining help in infirmity. Pray for the grace never to stop praying. Listen to the reflection of the saintly Jesuit, Père de Ravignan (1795-1858):

The Holy Spirit

Our Lord does not abandon the good seed scattered by His hand in the vast field of the world. "He who is to befriend you, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send on my account, will in His turn make everything plain, and recall to your minds everything that I have said to you" (Jn 14:25). Even as the good seed grows together with the weeds until the harvest, it is secretly nourished and protected by the Holy Spirit.

The Children of the Kingdom

Drawn down by the epiclesis, the Church's solemn invocation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Divine Paraclete, the Source of all fecundity, is poured out upon the good seed. The Mass is the summit of the intercession made by the Spirit "for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom 8:27). The Father who searches the heart of every child of the kingdom, is pleased, in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, to mark His own with the sweetness and mildness of His Christ. By this are "the children of the kingdom" distinguished from "the children of the evil one" (Mt 13:38). On the day of the great harvest, the angels will be sent out to reap the fruits of holiness sprung from the good seed. And on that day, "the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen" (Mt 13:43).

Two strophes from this morning's hymn at Lauds seemed to come to life as I sang them in the sunlight of this new Day of the Lord:

Iesu, labantes respice
et nos videndo corrige;
si respicis, lapsus cadunt
fletuque culpa solvitur.

Tu, lux, refulge sensibus
mentisque somnum discute;
te nostra vox primum sonet,
et vota solvamus tibi.

The Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman translates:

Jesu, Master! when we sin,
Turn on us Thy healing Face;
It will melt the offence within
Into penitential grace.

Beam on our bewildered mind,
Till its dreamy shadows flee;
Stones cry out where Thou hast shined,
Jesu! musical with Thee.

Praying Audibly

Diocesan priests, deacons, and others who, for one reason or another, pray the Hours alone will find that if they recite or chant them audibly, respecting the rhythm and pauses of choral prayer, the sacred texts more easily descend into the heart. There one begins to experience the sacramental quality of the Divine Office; it is, in fact, a holy communion with the prayer of the ascended and risen Christ, our Eternal High Priest, to the Father.

With the Body

Whenever possible, even in private recitation, adopt the traditional bodily attitudes and gestures of the Divine Office: standing, sitting, kneeling, bowing, and signing oneself with the Cross. Saint Benedict enjoined those of his monks who found themselves far from the oratory of the monastery at the hour of prayer to perform the Work of God "on bended knee", that is, without omitting the body's tribute to the Divine Majesty (RSB 50).

In a Sacred Space

In this age of locked churches and the decline of parish-based neighbourhoods, it is not always possible to pray in the presence of the Most Holy Sacrament. A domestic oratory, even if it is no more than a corner in one's apartment or an empty closet refreshed with a coat of paint, is a permanent invitation to return to prayer faithfully. The soul finds peace in repairing to a space of beauty set aside for the glory of God. There, by means of sacred images, the "Healing Face" of Our Lord shines into the soul, while the Mother of God, the Angels and the saints offer the comfort of a familiar presence.

Reading Saint Paul

This morning in my lectio continua of Saint Paul, I read Romans 7:14-25. I'm using the splendid translation of Monsignor Ronald A. Knox. It renders the text with a striking clarity. Just listen to this. (I say listen, because it is best read aloud.)

I am a thing of flesh and blood, sold into the slavery of sin.
My own actions bewilder me;
what I do is not what I wish to do, but something which I hate.
Why then, if what I do is something I have no wish to do,
I thereby admit that the law is worthy of all honour;
meanwhile my action does not come from me,
but from the sinful principle that dwells in me.
Of this I am certain, that no principle of good dwells in me, that is, in my natural self:
praiseworthy intentions are always ready to hand,
but I cannot find my way to the performance of them;
it is not the good my will prefers,
but the evil my will disapproves that I find myself doing.
And if what I do is something I have not the will to do,
it cannot be I that bring it about,
it must be the sinful principle that dwells in me.
This then is what I find about the law, that evil is close at my side,
when my will is to do what is praiseworthy.
Inwardly, I applaud God's disposition,
but I observe another disposition in my lower self,
which raises war against the disposition of my conscience,
and so I am handed over as a captive to that disposition towards sin
which my lower self contains.
Pitiable creature that I am, who is to set me free from a nature thus doomed to death?
Nothing else than the grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
If I am left to myself, my conscience is at God's disposition,
but my natural powers are at the disposition of sin.

Fellowship of the Inconsistent

"My own actions bewilder me" (Rom 7:15). Paul's bewilderment is strangely comforting to me. Paul takes his place among the fellowship of the inconsistent, the weak, and the flawed. The Apostle asks the question for me: "Pitiable creature that I am, who is to set me free from a nature thus doomed to death?" (Rom 7:24). And straightaway he answers it: "Nothing else than the grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom 7:15).

The Ministra Gratiae

Given that today is a Saturday Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I related this text of the Apostle to Our Lady's role in the economy of grace. I am set free by "the grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom 7:15), who "took birth from a woman" (Gal 4:5) "full of grace" (Lk 1:28). The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of "the only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth" (Jn 1:15) opens her hands over all of us who are inconsistent, weak, and flawed. She is the ministra gratiae, the dispenser of the all-sufficient grace of Christ. To the inconsistent she communicates reliance on the grace of her Son. The Blessed Virgin Mary strengthens the weak. She reshapes the flawed.

Yes, "my own actions bewilder me" (Rom 7:15) -- but the gracious interventions of the Mother of God, Mediatrix of All Graces, fill me with gratitude and wonder.

Collect

O God, who by the abasement of Your Son
have lifted up a fallen world;
grant to Your faithful a holy gladness,
so that having delivered us out of the servitude of sin,
You may give us to taste fully of joys that never end.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

General Intercessions

That, filled with the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, the Church in East and West may be a place of comfort for the little and the poor,
and an oasis of rest for every burdened and weary soul,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. CHRIST, GRACIOUSLY HEAR US.

That world leaders
may seek peace for the nations in the Gospel of the Humble Christ,
and so govern with the wisdom that comes from above,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. CHRIST, GRACIOUSLY HEAR US.

That the falling, the bowed down,
and those who are burdened with the cares of life
may open the ear of their hearts
to the invitation of the meek and humble Christ Who,
even today, says, “Come to Me,�
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. CHRIST, GRACIOUSLY HEAR US.

That we, having received
the revelation of mysteries hidden from the learned and the clever,
may rejoice in the arrival of the King of glory
who comes to us hidden beneath the sacramental veils,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. CHRIST, GRACIOUSLY HEAR US.

Collect at the General Intercessions

Almighty and ever-living God,
Who gave joy to Zion and comfort to Jerusalem (Za 9:9)
in the arrival of Your Son Jesus Christ,
gentle and humble in heart (Mt 11:29);
pour forth, we beseech you, His Spirit into our hearts (cf., Rom 8:9)
that, drawn to Him who calls us to Himself (cf., Mt 11:28),
we may lay aside every heavy burden and, entering into His rest (cf. Mt 1128),
glory in the poverty and lowliness of the King (cf. Za 9,9)
even as we confess the triumph of His victory over death.
Who is Lord forever and ever.