The homily starts at timestamp 00:26:17
Fr. Chuck, Subdeacons, Brothers and Sisters in Christ;
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
From the readings this morning, we get a clear message on how to live in a difficult world --how to live when things are not right. From the epistle, very beautifully read in English and Arabic -- "If God is for us, who can be against us?" If, in fact, God is for us. And God is for us. As Saint Paul says, for I am convinced neither death, nor life dangers, rulers, the future, the present, nor powers, nor heights, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
In the Gospel today, we have the story of the good sower, Our Lord Jesus Christ, He gives good things into the world and people follow him. But what happened? Lots of bad things happened. And so what does Jesus tell us; tell his disciples to do — Go take care of all those bad things and make sure the world is a perfect place so that you can live at peace? No. He says you'll have to live with that. At the end of time, God will judge.
Jesus himself was able to live in the midst of all these dark things that happened in this world. They spat on him, they cruficied him. God raised him from the dead just to have the final word. And that's the story of Saint Sharbel.
People think that Saint Sharbel, maybe, went to get away from the world. Would you blame him? But that was not his reason. He entered more deeply into the world. More deeply into himself. More deeply into his relationship with God.
As one of the prayers of the liturgy today said -- he entered with all the problems of the world and he took all of them with him to the hermitage. And by doing that, he solved the problems of the world. Not because he solved everybody else's problems, but he solved his problems. He became right with God. And when we are right with God, the whole world is right. That's how Jesus lived.
It's not easy for us to change bad habits, but if we let God change them, somehow, miraculously, we become better persons. If you remember Benjamin Franklin, he had a discipline every day to become a little bit better, to improve his life. That's fine. But then, so did Saint Paul. It didn't work out for Saint Paul, until Saint Paul finally said "Lord, have mercy. Change me from within".
And that's what Saint Sharbel does. Saint Sharbel was not a publicity seeker. In fact, at the time of his funeral, there were only six monks to bury him in 1898. Where was everyone else? They went away because the patriarch died the same time. So they went to bury the patriarch. How many of you remember the name of that patriarch? How many of you remember the name of Sharbel? So, this way of living, to live in the midst of troubles and difficulty, Saint Sharbel teaches us.
You know, Pope Paul VI, at the end of the Vatican council, the biggest gathering of church leaders in world history. Who did he point to at the end of that council, which was to renew the world and to renew each one of us? He pointed to Saint Sharbel! He beatified Saint Sharbel. He said, if we want to know how to change this world of ours; look to Saint Sharbel.
Wow.
So, what is Sharbel so famous for? Well, we know this -- he said mass every day; he worked the field; he lived on one meal a day; he prohibited himself from getting involved and entangled in all the affairs of the world; he kept to himself. In his last days, he celebrated them by offering mass. And it was during the mass, when the priest lifts up the host, he had a stroke. Several days later, he died.
From the moment of his death, there was a light that shown on his tomb. Even the ground around it turned to incense and there was a shining light. And his body was incorrupt until 1965. As a sign that if we want to find our way to God; and a way to solve the problems of this world -- we can follow the road of Sharbel.
A few years ago, we dedicated a shrine to Saint Sharbel at Saint Patrick's cathedral, NYC. And I thought there would be 2 or 300 people, so I advised Cardinal Dolan not to go over to the shrine, but to celebrate from the center of the church. When we walked out, there was 2,500 people from all over the world. Saint Sharbel in the middle of Madison Ave. In fact, if you walk in the back door of Saint Patrick's cathedral, the first set of eyes that you see are those of Saint Sharbel.
In the midst of a busy, complicated, wealthy world; here's a man that tells us that the interior life has value. How we are in our soul has value. Who we are in our person -- means everything. Our relationship with God, is everything. Sharbel loved silence. He loved Our Lady. He loved the Holy Eucharist. And he loved people. That, brothers and sisters, is the way we can live in all the difficulties of the world.
God is still sowing good seeds among us. Do we pick up the seeds of the evil one and become his messenger? Or do we pick up the seeds of the good one and become his messenger? It's important for us to know the difference.
Hatred, jealousy, unforgiveness, revenge -- we are on the wrong road.
Peace, harmony, deeper communion with God, forgiveness -- we are on the right road. The road Sharbel took.
Brothers and sisters, how to live in the world, where there are so many things that are not right? I think we have some good examples. Not only of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, but also Saint Sharbel. Who made it his aim to change the world by changing his interior life. To make it a proper dwelling place for God. May silence, love for the Virgin Mary, love for the Holy Eucharist and love for others keep us on that road that leads us, by way of Sharbel, to the kingdom of God.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.