A Lebanese bishop proposed Saint Charbel, patron saint of Lebanon, as an example of listening to the Word of God during a homily before the participants of the Synodality Synod.
Bishop Paul Rouhana, Maronite patriarchal vicar of the Sarba-Lebanon region, presided over the Mass in the Syro-Antiochean Maronite rite in St. Peter’s Basilica, in which he recalled that on a day like today, October 9, 1977, Pope Saint Paul VI canonized Saint Charbel, a Maronite monk and patron saint of Lebanon, in Rome.
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After citing Pope Francis’ recent letter to Middle Eastern Catholics calling for an end to the war in the Holy Land, the bishop highlighted that in the face of the atrocities of conflict, violence and other challenges, “the saints, in the apostolic life or contemplative like Saint Charbel, are in principle our teachers in listening to the Word of Godfoundation of our synodal path.”
“Whoever says collaboration also says synergy between the divine grace contained in the divine word and our human will, to the point where the disciple-missionary of Jesus will have this Word, like a musician, like a ‘tuning fork’, on which he tunes his thoughts and his behavior, even his entire being,” the prelate continued.
In his homily, the Maronite bishop also highlighted that, “nourished by the Word of God in the school of saints, Christians on the synodal path will also ceaselessly remember the revolutionary teaching of Jesus.”
According to this, he specified, “the love of God and the love of neighbor are inseparable and challenge each other permanently, both being the two sides of a single commandment.”
To conclude, Bishop Rouhana urged that, as “pilgrims of hope that never disappoints”, we pray to the risen Lord, present in his Church, as he has promised us, so that we continue under his gaze, today and throughout of the Jubilee of the year 2025, our synodal path of missionary disciples in times of crisis.”
The bishop also expressed his joy for the upcoming canonization, on October 20 in Rome, of 8 Franciscan religious of Spanish origin and three Maronite laymen, the Massabki brothers, known as the “martyrs of Damas.”
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.