“Lord, show us your mercy and love” is
what the psalmist cries out today. There
are probably a lot of times when we cry out that same message from our hearts,
but we instead don’t see a lot of that love and mercy around us. We might be looking for certain specific
signs of God’s love and mercy in our lives, but his love and mercy might be
present to us in different ways that are not so evident and not so easy for us
to detect.
We celebrate the feast day of a
Lebanese priest today named St Sharbel Makhluf.
His was born in a small village in Lebanon in 1828 to a very humble
family. His father, a mule driver, died
when he was 3, so he was raised by an uncle.
He entered the Monastery of St Maron in Lebanon and was ordained a
priest. For the last 23 years of his
life, he lived as a hermit in the desert where he practiced a life of strict
fasting and of strong devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. People sought him out for his prayers due to
his reputation for holiness.
The life of a hermit is austere and
difficult, and it might be difficult for the average person to see God’s love
and mercy in such austerity and discipline.
Yet, God calls us all in different ways, and when we follow that call
and choose that life that is meant for us, it is a liberating and life-giving
experience. Finding where God’s love and
mercy exist in our lives is one of the main challenges we have as followers of
Christ.
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