Saint Sharbel Makhlūf: Homily for Thursday, July 24, 2025

Today we celebrate Saint Sharbel Makhlūf, the “miracle monk of Lebanon. Living in the 19th century, his holiness and his ability to bring together Christians, Muslims and Druze is a grace from God needed today. Readings for Today.

Saint Sharbel Makhlūf

As I mentioned, I was looking on the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene and I noticed on today’s day there was this optional memorial for Saint Sharbel Makhlūf. I don’t even know if I’m pronouncing his name right. I’d never heard of him before so I began to read about him.

He was born in the 19th century and died right just before the beginning of the 20th century. He was a Maronite monk and for most of his life was a hermit, but he gained a wide reputation for holiness. But this is what struck me about such appropriateness for our age. He was able to unite Christians, Muslims, and Druze.

Now the Druze have become a little bit more known in the news in Syria because there’s been fighting. They’re kind of a group that arose first from the Muslims, but they really are kind of a mix of Christianity, Islam, and their own religion.

It’s the unity that struck me. How often is it when we encounter someone who is different than we are that unity is not our first thought? We want to stand often over and against and we see this over and against situation for all instances. We see it politically. Thank God I’m not one of those Democrats. Thank goodness I’m not a Republican. They’re evil.

We speak about one another in ways that we haven’t spoken in a long time about people. Sometimes we look at Muslims and say, “Well, they’re just radicals and terrorists and extremists.” We demonize those who come into this country seeking an opportunity, those so desperate that they’re willing to take the chance even still to come into this country for a better life and a better opportunity.

Saint Sharbel Makhlūf was known as the miracle monk of Lebanon. I love that name. I don’t know that I’ll ever be a miracle friar of Denver, but I’d like to be. But that gives us a lesson for today.

When we look at the readings today, how often is it that we think about what we want? We think about what God should be giving us because obviously it is the very right thing to do. But the readings today remind us that holiness doesn’t work that way. It’s interesting when we look at Moses.

Today he is experiencing the presence of God so that they may see the holiness both of Moses and God and the people may know that God is with Moses, so they may listen to him and trust him. But toward the end of his life, he strikes the rock twice and is not able to see the Holy Land, the Promised Land.

Now what is often not mentioned at that time is the reason. It was not about striking a rock once or twice. When God speaks to Moses, he says, “You did not manifest my holiness to the people.” So today he is manifesting the holiness of God, but at this moment he is not. He’s not showing forth the great holiness of God. It is a gift, but it’s a gift that we need to seek and ask and discover in our lives over and over again.

In the Gospel today, we encounter something quite similar, that this encounter with Jesus that the disciples have is different than what is available to others because they haven’t received the holiness of Jesus. They have not in their own lives been able to see and to hear, to listen or to understand because they did not avail themselves of the gift and the grace of holiness.

How often in our lives do we think, “Well, I’m going to develop this plan or that plan. I’m going to do these things because they will please God,” rather than asking ourselves, “What does God want? Do I place myself as Saint Sharbel Makhlūf did, as a hermit, in the silent presence of God?” Do we, in fact, imitate the example of Elijah, who heard God, as the New Revised Standard says, “because of the sound of sheer silence.” Do we place ourselves in God’s presence, waiting for God to enter into our hearts, our lives, and our souls? Today, let us ask God for the grace to look, to see, to hear, to listen, and to understand.

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