Visit of St. Sharbel's relics is motivation for a Christian life, Maronite bishop tells Utah faithful

Friday, Dec. 11, 2015

MURRAY — A standing-room-only crowd greeted Bishop Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon as he escorted the relics of St. Sharbel into St. Jude Maronite Catholic Church Dec. 6.

The bishop and reliquary were accompanied by Fr. Joubran BouMerhi, the parish pastor, an honor guard of four Knights of Columbus in full regalia, ministers of the Divine Liturgy and altar servers. 

St. Sharbel, a hermit who lived in Lebanon in the 1800s, was beautified 50 years ago. Since his death in 1898, hundreds of miracles have been attributed to his intercession. He was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1977. 

Bishop Zaidan is taking the relics on a tour of the Maronite parishes in the United States; he was in Utah Dec. 6-8 and celebrated the Divine Liturgy all three days. The parish also was open for veneration of the relics.

“It is good to be together in the presence of the relics of St. Sharbel,” Bishop Zaidan said during his Dec. 6 homily at St. Jude Parish. “St. Sharbel was really a hero in his life, and especially in his eternal life. His presence among us is motivation for us to go beyond, to look at what is really essential in life.” 

Reflecting on the day’s Scripture readings, the bishop said all Christians should be joyful, just as the saints were. “Even with all the problems in life, we have what we call the eternal joy, the inner joy that no one can take away from us because it reflects Christ’s presence within us,” he said. 

The Gospel reading told of the father of St. John the Baptist, Zechariah, being struck mute because he didn’t believe the angel’s proclamation of John’s conception. The first thing Zechariah did when his mouth was opened at John’s birth was to praise God, Bishop Zaidan pointed out, and asked the congregation to consider how they pray.

“Is it ‘Lord, give me, give me, give me’ or ‘thank you, thank you, thank you’ and ‘praise you, praise you, praise you?’” he asked. “St. Sharbel knew how to really sing God’s praises in his life. He used to spend hours and hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament, praying.” 

Closing his homily, the bishop said he hopes the visitation of the relics “will be a beautiful motivation for us to look beyond, to really see God in the tabernacle, to see God in the Bible, to see God in each other, and I hope I can see God within me. And I hope that I will be able to reflect the true image of God. …”

He added, “I hope all of us, whatever our profession, will say … ‘We want to become a saint. We want to be the body of the Lord. We want to be God people in every way.’” 

Parishioners and non-parishioners alike attended the Divine Liturgy, which was open to the public. Among those at the celebration was parishioner Johnny Hakim, who said that he hopes St. Sharbel will “bless the community, bless Utah and give us peace.” 

The relics’ visitation is very meaningful to Hakim, who would pray every Friday at St. Sharbel’s church when he lived in Lebanon, where he often heard of miracles attributed to the saint, to whom he has a particular devotion, he said. “If there is a problem in my life, I will go pray to him. Even my kids, they do the same,” he added. 

Jackie Maas, a Cathedral of the Madeleine parishioner who visited St. Jude’s on Dec. 6 to see the relics and pray, said she thought it was “a wonderful opportunity to be in the presence of somebody who is holy.” The saints, she added, “give us so wonderful of an example of how to live our lives and they’re human. … It just makes us feel that we can attain what they have already attained.”