Drawn to him

In an odd but providential way, my path once brought me to St. Charbel, who I’d never heard of at the time, and I have continued to enounter him ever since in all sorts of unlikely places. Like Minnesota, and Mexico City, among other places.

First of all, Catholics know the place and importance of saints in the Church and faith life. They’re the holy men and women who lived ultimately for love of God and neighbor. Great numbers of non-Catholics around the world have a love of St. Francis of Assisi, for instance, or St. Therese of Lisieux (the “Little Flower”), for instance, or St. Paul, among others. They’re drawn to them by their example and witness, attracted by their transcendent love.

Charbel Makhlouf is one of them. He was a priest at St. Maron’s monastery in northern Lebanon in the early 19th century who eventually lived as a hermit, in a total spirit of abandonment to God. People were drawn by his holiness. After his death, many miracles were attributed to his intercession.

In 1925, his beatification and canonization were proposed for declaration by Pope Pius XI. In 1950, the grave was opened in the presence of an official committee which included doctors, who verified the soundness of the body. After the grave had been opened and inspected, it was reputed that the variety of healing incidents multiplied. Again, a multitude of pilgrims from different religious facets started flocking to the Annaya monastery seeking the saint’s intercession. Several post-mortem miracles are attributed him, including periods in 1927 and 1950 when a bloody “sweat” flowed from his corpse, soaking his vestments. His tomb has become a place of pilgrimage for Lebanese and non-Lebanese, Christian and non-Christian alike.

So how did I encounter him? One day on the sidewalk outside a suburban church talking with a friend, when he suddenly felt inspired to pull a holy card out of his prayer book and hand it to me saying “You should get to know St. Charbel. He’s wonderful.” The picture on it was the one above.

Okay…..I’ll look into it. But didn’t get a chance to until suddenly one evening I saw his face, in that same photo, on TV in a documentary about holy monasteries in Lebanon and the Maronite Church. It was a really peaceful film, one you want to stop what you’re doing and watch, one that touches your soul. It did mine, anyway.

So I come to meet Fr. Sharbel Maroun in St. Paul, Minnesota who heads up Tele Lumiere, a outstanding satellite network that reaches from here into Lebanon and across parts of the Middle East.

Télé Lumière as its name indicates means the “TV of Light”. It is the first and only Christian television in Lebanon and the Middle East and was founded in 1991 by a group of committed lay people…

Télé Lumière is a non-profit organization, its mission is ecumenical, it is not associated to any political party or movement, do not broadcast any political views and do not accept or promote any commercial endorsements…

The Church cooperated with this television station since the beginning when she found it one of the best means to promote the principles of justice, love, freedom and human rights; values called for by Christianity everywhere.

Fr. Sharbel was on my radio show a few times, the last time during the Israel/Hezbollah war last summer that devastated the satellite facilities of Noursat in the region and shut down the only voice of faith and hope that was there for a lot of people.

While many TV channels have become event-oriented, either focusing on terrorism, political turmoil and fanaticism, or are limited to amusement and scandals, the openness strategy of Télé Lumière and Noursat, promoting multi-cultural understanding and religious dialogue, have encouraged a large amount of Muslim viewers to watch and participate in the campaigns and programs strengthening peace, targeting coexistence and opposing immorality, violence and terrorism.
 
After all these years of broadcast, Télé Lumière and Noursat have become a daily bread and hope for the Christian minority in the Middle East and the diaspora as well as a source of peace for many viewers from different denominations.

Thanks to many good people, largely Fr. Sharbel and no doubt the intercession of St. Charbel, Noursat is back in business, but they certainly need support to continue that rebuilding. And to spread the message of peace further, and give people hope.

(Add on: Oh yes, Mexico City. So we’re there for a few days, and stopped by a neighborhood church on a city side street, and of course Our Lady of Guadalupe was everywhere in the art. But on one side wall hung a huge portrait of St. Charbel, which amazed me. He was so prominently featured, and honored…here in Mexico City. The next day, we’re at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, where surrounding shops and stands sell a gazillion religious items and assorted Mexican souvenirs, and there among all the statues and framed religious art was St. Charbel……in nearly every store, on nearly every crowded table and wall. I couldn’t figure it out, so we asked the shopkeeper sort of ‘why St. Charbel?’ and her eyes widened when she said “He is a saint of many great miracles!” Enough said.)