leave no doubt

yesterday we celebrated the memorial of St. Sharbel Mahkluf.  

He was a Lebanese priest and became a hermit.  Wow!

Usually, when we think of hermits, we think of strange and bizarre men and women who abandon the world and enter into deserter places to focus completely on themselves and God. 

And, in deed Hermits are strangely beautiful persons who have a profound message for us. 

By their life choices and actions, in renouncing the world, they are sign for us and against us. They heard the words of Christ, "You, are lacking one thing, go sell all that you have, give to the poor, and come follow me, and you will have treasure in heaven." They hear and obey.

The hermit is the one who leaves no doubt about their association with Christ, because they choose not just to be associated with him but they choose to be committed to him completely.  

Thus, they remind us in our life filled with many things, that perhaps we are still lacking something.  Perhaps, we still have room to grow, and this is necessary for our spiritual awakening and conversion.  The recognition that we are missing something spurs us on to seek the one who seeks us.

The hermit stands against the world and for the world as a sign of contradiction.  They hate the world so much they want to change it; they love the world so much they think it worthy of change.  They make the change possibly by getting us to look again at ourselves. Here in lies the message of the Hermit. 

Is this not the message of Christ himself, who comes to set the world a blaze, hating it to change it, loving it to think it worthy of change.  As He tells us, " I have come to make all things new."  A new heaven and a new earth, the book of revelation points toward in the fulfillment of the kingdom to come.

May we embrace the Hermit and leave no doubt and truly make the change happen.