Catechesis on penance

Charbel Makhluf Holy hermit

Catechesis on Penance as a Way of Life

• Fundamental Attitude of the Christian. Penance is an essential attitude for every Christian, which implies a continuous search for reconciliation with God and others. This requires an active awareness of one’s own actions and their consequences.
  
  
• Metanoia and Transformation Metanoia, a profound change of heart and mind, is fundamental. This process is more meaningful when we face our sins with sincerity, rather than limiting ourselves to a superficial act of reconciliation.
  
  
• Love and Openness Love is at the heart of a life of penance. Love must be manifested through works, creating a personal and intimate dialogue with the will of God. Penance also implies an openness to others, accepting differences and imperfections.
  
  
• Coexistence and Interpersonal Relations The life of penance translates into a better coexistence with others, where small daily gestures, such as patience and willingness to dialogue, become fundamental. It is important to evaluate relationships not only on the basis of power, but also in the ability to interact with humility and respect.
  
  
• Obedience to the Will of God Living penance means recognizing that the circumstances of life are part of the divine will. This understanding leads to greater acceptance of daily challenges without rebellion or complaint.

These elements form a complex but coherent picture of the penitential life according to Michel Markhluf, inviting us to a deep reflection on our spiritual and relational existence.

Penance as a way of life

Father Charbel inflicted penitence of all kinds and never complained about anything, always remaining serene as in suffering than in adversity.


When tribulations arrived, he did not grieve. He confided blindly in the Lord and repeated: God arranges things, it is his will! Or: We are pilgrims traveling to eternity.
He did not prefer health to the disease and did not mind the problems. No one has ever heard him say, "I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm tired." When he was wrongly accused, even though he was not guilty, he knelt down and asked for forgiveness without exculpation.


He accepted pain as a way to do penance. He suffered from severe stomach pains, but refused to take calming without the permission of the superior, even when the illness became unbearable. He also suffered from chronic renal colic, which worsened in winter, but hid his state of health without complaining and did not ask for a doctor's visit. He never asked for fresh drinks in summer or hot in winter.


One day, while Fra Elias A1-Mahrini, in charge of agricultural work, worked in the vineyard with Father Charbel, the saint had a renal colic. He began to wriggle and bend his back, letting out a few complaints. Fra Elias invited him to return to his cell, but the hermit replied, "I can not because I would have a rest against poverty on the conscience," and he continued to work all day, silently enduring the pain.


In the evening, while the laborers ate lentils and salad, he ate the stalks of the vegetables. At dawn the colic hit him again. Despite the evil refused to rest. Despite the insistence of Brother Elias, the saint worked all day in the camps as if he were well.


When Father Makarios offered him some buttered rice, he refused, to respect the rule of hermits that limited this seasoning to solemnities. They then brought him a decoction of bitter herbs to calm the pains. The saint accepted, on condition that he did not sweeten it: because "the Lord Jesus on the cross drank vinegar and myrrh while it was at the height of thirst and suffering".


Father Charbel wore a goat's hair shirt and an iron belt under his dress. Sometimes he would wrap his forehead with a branch and clasp his wrist with a bracelet, or step on the thorny shrubs with his bare feet and scourge himself, to inflict himself on voluntary penance. No one was aware of his pains and illnesses, which he carefully concealed.


Four years before his death he was struck by hemiplegia, which is the paralysis of half the body, from which he recovered, as his niece claims. For the problems of stomach the superior ordered him to wear woolen socks, but he wore them only once for obedience.


In winter, the brothers slept in the kitchen at the hearth, to protect themselves from the intense cold. The saint, however, remained only a few moments near the fire, then withdrew immediately into his cold cell.


The saint's bed was an oak leaves pallet, covered with a goat carpet. A strain wrapped in a rag served as a pillow. Father Charbel slept in summer and winter without a mattress or blankets and often preferred to lie down on the ground.


Father Chabel fed once a day, never consumed wine or thirst-quenching drinks. His meal was a soup of vegetables and cereals.


Father Charbel overcame all the other hermits in the practice of virtues and penance. It required mortifications that were not mandatory, such as permanent fasting, incessant vigils, work during illness, frosty nights, refusal of medicines.


Already at the time of his novitiate in Maifouq he was called: "the Holy Spirit" of the community.


This is how the Saint expressed himself: "Prayer relaxes the limbs of the body more than sleep, poverty promotes salvation, sobriety strengthens the soul. I want to live in privations, ignoring the pleasures and sweetnesses of this world, I want to be the servant of Christ and of my brothers".


Pope Paul VI, in his homily for the canonization of Charbel Markhlouf said: "We also need people who offer themselves as victims for the salvation of the world in freely accepted penance, in unceasing prayer of intercession, like Moses on the mountain, in a passionate search for the Absolute, testifying that it is worthwhile to adore and love God for Himself. (...) To save the world, to conquer it spiritually, it is necessary, as Christ wants, to be in the world, but not to belong to all that in the world distances one from God. The hermit of Annaya reminds us of this today with incomparable strength".