Homélie Paul VI
La canonisation de Charbel Makhlouf
nécessitait la reconnaissance d’un troisième miracle. Cet événement miraculeux a été représenté par la guérison de Mariam Assaf Awad, une femme qui, après avoir invoqué saint Charbel lors d’une grave maladie, s’est retrouvée miraculeusement libérée d’une tumeur.
The Medical Council and the members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints examined the case and confirmed the authenticity of the miraculous event.
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Canonization of Charbel Markhluf
Homily of Pope Paul VI during a celebration in St. Peter's
Basilica Sunday, October 9, 1977
Venerable Brothers and dear Sons,
The whole Church, from East to West, is invited today to great joy. Our hearts turn to Heaven, where we now know with certainty that Saint Charbel Makhlouf is associated with the immeasurable happiness of the Saints, in the light of Christ, who praises and intercedes for us. Our eyes are also turned to the place where he lived, to the beloved homeland of Lebanon, whose representatives We are pleased to greet: His Beatitude Patriarch Antoine Pierre Khoraiche, with many of his Maronite Brothers and Sons, representatives of other Catholic and Orthodox rites, and, on the civil level, the Delegation of the Lebanese Government and Parliament, whom We warmly thank.
Your country, dear friends, had already been welcomed with admiration by the biblical poets, impressed by the vigor of the cedars, which have become symbols of the life of the righteous. Jesus himself came there to reward the faith of a Syrophoenician woman: the first fruits of salvation destined for all nations. And this Lebanon, a meeting place between East and West, has in fact become the homeland of various peoples, who have courageously clung to their land and their fertile religious traditions. The turmoil of recent events has created deep wrinkles on his face and casts a serious shadow on the paths of peace. But you know our constant sympathy and affection: with you we preserve the firm hope of renewed collaboration among all the children of Lebanon.
And today we venerate together a son of whom all Lebanon, and especially the Maronite Church, can be proud: Charbel Makhlouf. A very singular son, a paradoxical craftsman of peace, because he sought it far from the world, in God alone, from whom he was as if drunk. But his lamp, lit on the top of the mountain of his hermitage, in the last century, shone with ever greater splendor, and unanimity soon grew around his holiness. We had already honored him by declaring him blessed on December 5, 1965, at the end of the Second Vatican Council. Today, by canonizing him and extending his devotion to the whole Church, we give as an example to the whole world this valiant monk, the glory of the Lebanese Maronite Order and a worthy representative of the Eastern Churches and their high monastic tradition.
It is not necessary to go over his biography in detail, which is indeed very simple. It is at least important to note the extent to which the Christian environment of his childhood rooted the young Youssef in the faith - this was his baptismal name - and prepared him for his vocation: a family of modest, hard-working and united peasants; animated by a robust faith, familiar with the liturgical prayer of the village and devotion to Mary; uncles dedicated to the hermit life, and above all an admirable mother, pious and mortified to the point of continuous fasting. Listen to the words reported by her after the separation from her son: "If you were not a good religious, I would say to you: Come home. But now I know that the Lord wants you in His service. And in the pain of parting from you, I said to him resignedly: Bless you, my son, and make you holy" (Fr. Paul Daher, Charbel, a man drunk with God, Monastery of St. Maron d' Annaya, Jbail Lebanon, 1965, p. The virtues of the family and example of parents always constitute a privileged environment for the flourishing of vocations.
But vocation always also involves a very personal decision of the candidate, where the irresistible call of grace is united to his tenacious desire to become a saint: "Leave everything, come! Follow me!" (ibid. p. 52; cf. Mc. 10, 32). At the age of twenty-three, our future saint left his village of Géga-Kafra and his family, never to return. Then, for the novice who became Brother Charbel, he began a rigorous monastic formation, according to the rule of the Lebanese Maronite order of St. Anthony, at the monastery of Notre-Dame de Mayfouk, then in the more secluded monastery of Saint-Maron d'Annaya, after solemn profession, he followed his theological studies at Saint-Cyprien de Kfifane, receiving priestly ordination in 1859; he then led sixteen years of community life among the monks of Annaya and twenty-three years of completely solitary life in the hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul dependent on Annaya. It was there that he surrendered his soul to God on Christmas Eve 1898, at the age of seventy.
What does such a life represent? The diligent practice, pushed to the extreme, of the three religious vows, lived in monastic silence and self-denial: first of all the most severe poverty in terms of housing, clothing, the only and frugal daily meal, hard manual work in the harsh mountain climate; a chastity that surrounds him with legendary intransigence; finally and above all total obedience to his superiors and also to his colleagues, even to the prescriptions of the hermits, a sign of his complete submission to God. But the key to this apparently strange life is the search for holiness, that is, the most perfect conformity to the humble and poor Christ, the almost uninterrupted dialogue with the Lord, personal participation in Christ's sacrifice through a fervent celebration of the Mass and his rigorous penance combined with intercession for sinners. In short, the incessant search for God alone, characteristic of monastic life, accentuated by the solitude of the eremitical life.
This enumeration, which hagiographers can illustrate with numerous concrete facts, gives the face of a very austere holiness, does it not? Let us dwell on this paradox that leaves the modern world perplexed, even irritated; we still recognize in a man like Charbel Makhlouf an unparalleled heroism, before which we bow, preserving above all his firmness above the norm. But is it not perhaps "foolishness in the eyes of men", as the author of the Book of Wisdom already expressed himself? Christians too will ask themselves: did Christ, whose welcoming life contrasted with the austerity of John the Baptist, really demand such a renunciation? Worse still, won't some proponents of modern humanism go so far, in the name of psychology, as to suspect this intransigent austerity of abusive and traumatic contempt for the healthy values of the body and love, for friendly relationships, creative freedom, life in a word?
To reason in this way, in the case of Charbel Makhlouf and many of his brother monks or anchorites since the beginning of the Church, is to demonstrate a serious misunderstanding, as if it were only a matter of a human performance; it is to show a certain short-sightedness in the face of an otherwise profound reality. Certainly human equilibrium is not to be despised.In any case, the Superiors and the Church must guarantee the prudence and authenticity of these experiences. But human prudence and balance are not static notions, limited to the most common psychological elements or only to human resources. It must first be forgotten that Christ himself made such abrupt demands of those who would like to be his disciples: "Follow me . . . and let the dead bury their dead" (Lk 9:59-60). "If anyone comes to me without putting me before his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers, his sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple" (ibid. 14:26). It is also forgetting, in the spiritual, the power of the soul, for which this austerity is first and foremost a simple means, it is forgetting the love of God that inspires it, the Absolute that attracts it; it is ignoring the grace of Christ that sustains it and makes it a participant in the dynamism of its own life. In short, it is a matter of ignoring the resources of the spiritual life, capable of reaching a depth, a vitality, a mastery of being, a balance that is all the greater because you do not seek for yourself: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and there rest will be given to you as well" (Mt 6:32).
And in fact, who would not admire, in Charbel Makhlouf, the positive aspects that austerity, mortification, obedience, chastity, solitude have made possible at a level rarely reached? Think of his sovereign freedom in the face of difficulties or passions of every kind, the quality of his interior life, the elevation of his prayer, his spirit of adoration manifested in the heart of nature and above all the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, his filial tenderness towards the Virgin, and all these wonders promised in the Beatitudes and literally realized in our saint: meekness, humility, mercy, peace, joy, participation, from this life, in the healing and converting power of Christ. In short, austerity, for him, put him on the path to perfect serenity, true happiness; he left ample room for the Holy Spirit.
And, amazingly, God's people were not wrong. From the life of Charbel Makhlouf he radiated his holiness, his compatriots, Christians and non-Christians, venerated him, flowing to him as a doctor of souls and bodies. And since his death, the light has shone even brighter over his tomb: how many people, in search of spiritual progress, or distanced from God, or in anguish, continue to be fascinated by this man of God, praying to him fervently, while so many others, so-called apostles, have left no trace, such as those of whom Scripture speaks (Wis 5, 10; Epistle ad Missam ).
Yes, the kind of holiness practiced by Charbel Makhlouf carries great weight, not only for the glory of God, but for the vitality of the Church. Certainly, in the one Mystical Body of Christ, as Saint Paul says (cf. Rom 12:4-8), the charisms are numerous and diverse; they correspond to different functions, each of which has its essential place. We need Pastors who gather the people of God and preside over them with wisdom in the name of Christ. We need theologians who scrutinize doctrine and a Magisterium that watches over it. We need evangelizers and missionaries who bring the word of God to all the streets.and the world. We need catechists who are wise teachers and pedagogues of the faith: this is the purpose of the current Synod. We need people who are directly dedicated to helping their brothers . . . But we also need people who offer themselves as victims for the salvation of the world, in a freely accepted penance, in an unceasing prayer of intercession, like Moses on the mountain, in a passionate search for the Absolute, witnessing that God is worthy of adoration and of loving for himself. The lifestyle of these religious, these monks, these hermits is not offered to everyone as a charism that can be imitated; but in their pure state, in a radical way, they embody a spirit from which no believer in Christ is exempt, they exercise a function that the Church cannot do without, they call for a healthy journey for all.
In closing, we would like to emphasize the particular interest of the eremitical vocation today. It also seems that we are witnessing a certain resurgence of favor that is not explained only by the decadence of society, nor by the constraints it imposes. It can also take adapted forms, provided that it is always conducted with discernment and obedience.
This witness, far from being a survival of a past past, appears very important for us, for our world, as well as for our Church.
Let us bless the Lord for having given us Saint Charbel Makhlouf, to revive the strength of his Church, through his example and his prayer. May the new saint continue to exert his prodigious influence, not only in Lebanon, but in the East and throughout the Church! May he intercede for us, poor sinners, who too often do not dare to risk the experience of the Beatitudes that nevertheless lead to perfect joy! May he intercede for his brothers of the Lebanese Maronite order, and for the entire Maronite Church, whose merits and trials he knows of each of them! May he intercede for the beloved country of Lebanon, help it to overcome the difficulties of the day, to heal the wounds still open, to walk in hope! May it sustain and guide him on the right and right path, as we will sing later! May his light shine upon Annaya, uniting men in harmony and drawing them to God, whom he now contemplates in eternal bliss! Amen!
The Pope thus continues in Italian. Praise be to the Most Holy Trinity, who has given us the joy of proclaiming the Lebanese monk Charbel Makhlouf a saint, confirming the perennial, inexhaustible holiness of the Church.
The spirit of the eremitical vocation that is manifested in the new Saint, far from belonging to a time that has now passed, appears to us to be very important, for our world, as well as for the life of the Church. Today's social life is often marked by exuberance, excitement, the insatiable search for comfort and pleasure, combined with a growing weakness of the will: it will only regain its equilibrium with an increase in self-control, asceticism, poverty, peace, simplicity, interiority, silence (cf. Paul VI, Address to the Monks of Monte Cassino, of 24 October 1964: AAS 56 (1964) 987). The hermit life teaches him his example and taste. And in the Church, how can we think of overcoming mediocrity and achieving authentic spiritual renewal, not counting on the that on our own strength, without developing a thirst for personal holiness, without exercising the hidden virtues, without recognizing the irreplaceable value and fruitfulness of mortification, humility, prayer? To save the world, to conquer it spiritually, it is necessary, as Christ wants, to be in the world, but not to belong to everything in the world that distances one from God (cf. SALVATORE GAROFALO, The Perfume of Lebanon, San Sciarbel Makhluf, Rome 1977, p. 216).
The hermit of Annaya reminds us of this today with incomparable strength.
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