Homily of Fr. Theodore Trinko (IVE) during Holy Mass of the celebration of the birthday of St. Sharbel, on May 7, 2022.
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Click HERE for more about the celebration, photos and video.
Saint Sharbel whose birthday we are commemorating today is famous because of the miracles he worked during his life. He is somebody who also accomplished incredible feats like the ones we heard in today's reading, how the apostle Peter first cured somebody who was egregiously sick, and then Saint Peter went on to raise somebody from the dead – something which only he and Paul did in the New Testament, after of course our Lord Jesus Christ himself.
But saint Sharbel did not have such a stupendous, or incredible, or fabulous beginning. He was born on May 8th of the year 1828, so that's like 196 years ago tomorrow. He was born to a poor Catholic Maronite family in Bekaa Kafra, and this little village is a mountain village. It is situated 5118 feet above sea level, it is the highest mountain village in the country of Lebanon. And so it's appropriate that somebody who would fly to the heights of sanctity would begin his life already at the top of the skies.
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Fr. Theodore Trinko (IVE)
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He was baptized Yousef, and he was the youngest of five children, born to Antoun Makhlouf and Brigitta Chidiac, and he had two older brothers and two older sisters. His birth would have been much like the birth of any child of his time: there were no visions of angels, there were no fireworks, there was not a miraculous conception, no prophecies foretold his coming, his birth was much like the birth of his siblings. But little did his parents know that they had given birth to somebody who would be called the Star of the East, or the Flower of Lebanon.
Every child is like this; every child has a very humble beginning, every child as soon as they're born is a bundle of possibilities. There was an old Latin teacher who, whenever he went into his classroom of elementary students, he would always give them a very deep bow before he began teaching, a very reverent, very grave bow. And he was asked why he did this, and […] he responded, “you never know what one of these […] children might grow up to be.” And that's the same of all children, like whenever any child is conceived, that child is capable of incredible feats, of working miracles like Peter, Paul or Sharbel.
But we have no idea when that child first comes onto this earth what they will be capable of. Whenever a child comes into a family, […] there are two things that take place.
First of all, the parents have to recognize that this is the greatest privilege which God can give them. It's a gift from God, it is not a right – that's actually a misconception a lot of people struggle with nowadays, thinking I have a right to a child, I deserve a child, a kid. Because many people, many couples, struggle with infertility. Ten percent of couples in America actually. But a child is not something that you have a right to obtain by any and all means necessary. A child is a gift from on high, it's the most precious of gifts, and is something to be given thanks to God for.
And the second thing, when a child is born, is that parents […] must recognize this child as their supreme responsibility. Because every child is a bundle of possibilities – basically they are in potency to do anything almost – but in great part depends upon the influence of the parents and the teachers, and the other people around that child.
We are social animals. […] No man is an island; we all depend upon people around us including our children.
And Saint Sharbel was surrounded with a great number of good influences. His father passed away when he was only three years old, unfortunately, but his mother had a reputation in the village as being a very strong devout Catholic woman. She had a reputation for praying her rosary and for fasting on a regular basis. And so growing up, St Sharbel was used to going to daily Mass, saying his prayers with the family, fasting on a regular basis. And actually his mother remarried, shortly after, two years after his father's death. And his mother remarried a deacon – in the Maronite rite, that's allowed. And that deacon actually went on to become a priest, which is also allowed in the Maronite rite. So it's Catholic, but it's the Maronite rite. And Saint Sharbel would have grown up with a very strong, devout Catholic mother, with a priest for a father. […] He would have assisted at his father's Mass as an altar boy, been influenced by him. And two of his maternal uncles were also hermits in a nearby monastery, and growing up, Saint Sharbel would make the four-hour trip by foot to visit his uncles. And he was greatly influenced by their example, by their guidance, and by seeing their faith and commitment to the Church.
One of the ways, one of the manifestations of the faith of Saint Sharbel that comes up in a very strong way in his life is his faith in the Eucharist, his faith in our Lord's real presence in the Eucharistic species. One of his biographers said that as a monk, he would spend about five hours every night kneeling in front of the blessed sacrament. That's at night, that's not at day. So at night he would spend five hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and the Mass was the high point of his day. You know, sometimes we see the Sunday Mass or weekday Masses something we would do, we check off, or it's something maybe we look forward to a little bit. But his whole life was either a time of preparation for Mass, or a time of thanksgiving for the Mass he had just celebrated.
And that was a faith we saw lacking in today's gospel. Today, in our gospel, we've come to the end of the Bread of Life discourse. Jesus has been talking now for approximately 60 verses about the Eucharist, about His Body and Blood that we have to eat and drink if we want to have eternal life within us. And now, at the very end, we get the reaction from the crowd, and it says that many people did not believe. This is a hard saying, who can believe in it? And they no longer walked with Him, they turned their backs on Jesus because of the Eucharist.
Now if Jesus were to show up in the 21st century and give a talk to 21st century America on the Eucharist, we might be surprised at how similar of a reaction he would get. Not 21st century America, 21st century Catholic America. Because there are actually very few people, very few people in the Church, who believe in Jesus’s true presence in the Eucharist.
In the year 2010, a study was released that said, […] actually there were two studies, one said 45% of Catholics believed in the true presence. The other study said 50% of Catholics believed. A study that infamously came out a couple years back, said that only 33% of Catholics believed in Jesus’s true presence. So more Catholics – these are just Catholics, these are not Protestants, this is not the general population, Catholics – there are more Catholics who disbelieve in the true presence than believe in the true presence. Many Catholics these days would say along with the Jews, “this is a hard saying, who can accept it”.
And that's a great tragedy, because Saint John Paul II actually said […] 40 years ago, “unless the faith in the real presence is strong, stronger than it is now, I fear for the survival of the Catholic Church in many dioceses in the United States”. Because we depend upon the Eucharist. If we don't have Jesus in the Eucharist, then we are missing the majority of our faith. And what's more, if we lack that faith every time we come forward for Communion we're performing a merely perfunctory activity.
Actually, the difference is that between a man and a mouse. This is an example given in a seminary class, where the professor proposed the situation: imagine a mouse runs across the altar and consumes a piece of the Eucharist, does that mouse receive a sacrament? And the answer is as follows: he does eat the Body of Christ, because Jesus is really present there in the Eucharist, but he does not receive a sacrament because the mouse has no rational mind, it's not aware of what it's doing, it doesn't know who it is receiving.
So the question for us today when we come forward to Communion is, are we men or are we mice? Are we aware of who we are receiving, or do we receive our Lord's body and blood, soul and divinity on autopilot? Simply because oh, it's time for us to go forward, let's get in line! Or do we have this awareness, this powerful awareness of the person who's about to enter into our souls, enter into our bodies?
When the blessed virgin Mary received Communion, it was like an Annunciation all over again. The same Jesus who came into her womb at the Annunciation was coming into her at holy Communion. And that same heartbeat, which she felt within her, she would have in a sense felt again at holy Communion.
Let's ask her to pray for us, that we might have a faith more like Saint Sharbel's, in the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
Every child is like this; every child has a very humble beginning, every child as soon as they're born is a bundle of possibilities. There was an old Latin teacher who, whenever he went into his classroom of elementary students, he would always give them a very deep bow before he began teaching, a very reverent, very grave bow. And he was asked why he did this, and […] he responded, “you never know what one of these […] children might grow up to be.” And that's the same of all children, like whenever any child is conceived, that child is capable of incredible feats, of working miracles like Peter, Paul or Sharbel.
But we have no idea when that child first comes onto this earth what they will be capable of. Whenever a child comes into a family, […] there are two things that take place.
First of all, the parents have to recognize that this is the greatest privilege which God can give them. It's a gift from God, it is not a right – that's actually a misconception a lot of people struggle with nowadays, thinking I have a right to a child, I deserve a child, a kid. Because many people, many couples, struggle with infertility. Ten percent of couples in America actually. But a child is not something that you have a right to obtain by any and all means necessary. A child is a gift from on high, it's the most precious of gifts, and is something to be given thanks to God for.
And the second thing, when a child is born, is that parents […] must recognize this child as their supreme responsibility. Because every child is a bundle of possibilities – basically they are in potency to do anything almost – but in great part depends upon the influence of the parents and the teachers, and the other people around that child.
We are social animals. […] No man is an island; we all depend upon people around us including our children.
And Saint Sharbel was surrounded with a great number of good influences. His father passed away when he was only three years old, unfortunately, but his mother had a reputation in the village as being a very strong devout Catholic woman. She had a reputation for praying her rosary and for fasting on a regular basis. And so growing up, St Sharbel was used to going to daily Mass, saying his prayers with the family, fasting on a regular basis. And actually his mother remarried, shortly after, two years after his father's death. And his mother remarried a deacon – in the Maronite rite, that's allowed. And that deacon actually went on to become a priest, which is also allowed in the Maronite rite. So it's Catholic, but it's the Maronite rite. And Saint Sharbel would have grown up with a very strong, devout Catholic mother, with a priest for a father. […] He would have assisted at his father's Mass as an altar boy, been influenced by him. And two of his maternal uncles were also hermits in a nearby monastery, and growing up, Saint Sharbel would make the four-hour trip by foot to visit his uncles. And he was greatly influenced by their example, by their guidance, and by seeing their faith and commitment to the Church.
One of the ways, one of the manifestations of the faith of Saint Sharbel that comes up in a very strong way in his life is his faith in the Eucharist, his faith in our Lord's real presence in the Eucharistic species. One of his biographers said that as a monk, he would spend about five hours every night kneeling in front of the blessed sacrament. That's at night, that's not at day. So at night he would spend five hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and the Mass was the high point of his day. You know, sometimes we see the Sunday Mass or weekday Masses something we would do, we check off, or it's something maybe we look forward to a little bit. But his whole life was either a time of preparation for Mass, or a time of thanksgiving for the Mass he had just celebrated.
And that was a faith we saw lacking in today's gospel. Today, in our gospel, we've come to the end of the Bread of Life discourse. Jesus has been talking now for approximately 60 verses about the Eucharist, about His Body and Blood that we have to eat and drink if we want to have eternal life within us. And now, at the very end, we get the reaction from the crowd, and it says that many people did not believe. This is a hard saying, who can believe in it? And they no longer walked with Him, they turned their backs on Jesus because of the Eucharist.
Now if Jesus were to show up in the 21st century and give a talk to 21st century America on the Eucharist, we might be surprised at how similar of a reaction he would get. Not 21st century America, 21st century Catholic America. Because there are actually very few people, very few people in the Church, who believe in Jesus’s true presence in the Eucharist.
In the year 2010, a study was released that said, […] actually there were two studies, one said 45% of Catholics believed in the true presence. The other study said 50% of Catholics believed. A study that infamously came out a couple years back, said that only 33% of Catholics believed in Jesus’s true presence. So more Catholics – these are just Catholics, these are not Protestants, this is not the general population, Catholics – there are more Catholics who disbelieve in the true presence than believe in the true presence. Many Catholics these days would say along with the Jews, “this is a hard saying, who can accept it”.
And that's a great tragedy, because Saint John Paul II actually said […] 40 years ago, “unless the faith in the real presence is strong, stronger than it is now, I fear for the survival of the Catholic Church in many dioceses in the United States”. Because we depend upon the Eucharist. If we don't have Jesus in the Eucharist, then we are missing the majority of our faith. And what's more, if we lack that faith every time we come forward for Communion we're performing a merely perfunctory activity.
Actually, the difference is that between a man and a mouse. This is an example given in a seminary class, where the professor proposed the situation: imagine a mouse runs across the altar and consumes a piece of the Eucharist, does that mouse receive a sacrament? And the answer is as follows: he does eat the Body of Christ, because Jesus is really present there in the Eucharist, but he does not receive a sacrament because the mouse has no rational mind, it's not aware of what it's doing, it doesn't know who it is receiving.
So the question for us today when we come forward to Communion is, are we men or are we mice? Are we aware of who we are receiving, or do we receive our Lord's body and blood, soul and divinity on autopilot? Simply because oh, it's time for us to go forward, let's get in line! Or do we have this awareness, this powerful awareness of the person who's about to enter into our souls, enter into our bodies?
When the blessed virgin Mary received Communion, it was like an Annunciation all over again. The same Jesus who came into her womb at the Annunciation was coming into her at holy Communion. And that same heartbeat, which she felt within her, she would have in a sense felt again at holy Communion.
Let's ask her to pray for us, that we might have a faith more like Saint Sharbel's, in the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
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Click HERE for more about the celebration, photos and video.
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