When we have hope in eternal salvation the greatest sorrows and sufferings can be borne.
This morning, between 4:45am and 5:15am I had a very strange and unusual dream, which I remember in such vivid detail that I only wish I could paint so that I could show you what I saw.
As God has not given me any talent with a paint brush, I will instead use the small talents he has given me with words, to try to do this beauty justice…
In my dream, baby Charbel’s grandmother called me on the phone to ask me if her family could bring baby Charbel to my home so that I could feed them.
In my dream, I hesitated, thinking of logistics (What would I cook? What would my husband be doing? Would he be at home?) and then, without any doubt in my mind, I replied, “Yes, of course. You are all most welcome.” I then ran straight inside to ask my husband if this would be okay with him.
In my dream, my husband replied, “Yes. It will be good for our children to see this baby.”
I then went into my kitchen and started to prepare stuffed zucchini, coussa, to offer this family as food and yet before I had even really started my cooking, I had to go to open my front door because they had arrived.
There in the doorway, was little baby Charbel held by his maternal great uncle, up high and out in front, like a Monstrance during Benediction. He was carried by the uncle who had been leading many prayers for this child during his life. Behind him, were hundreds of people, Charbel’s parents, his grandparents, his family, and many many others – multitudes, thousands of souls.
These people stretched down my driveway and into the park across the road from my house and there were so many of them that they turned the corner of the park and stretched out along the street further than my eye could see.
And they were filled with Joy. Deep, enormous spiritual joy.
In my dream, it seemed the whole world gathered behind this most blessed child to pray.
As they passed under my front door frame, above which there is a small crucifix, I looked up at this blessed, blessed child being venerated before me, and there he was, with his hands raised up in blessing like that of the Infant Jesus of Prague and a smile on his beautiful face.
Baby Charbel was wearing a long white tunic on his beautiful body – and it was so beautiful. His tunic flowed out in that triangular shape, like a copy of the vestments worn by the Infant Jesus of Prague in the sacred image that we venerate – but where Christ wears red (to symbolise his suffering for us), Charbel wore white (to symbolise his peace).
Charbel’s body was perfectly beautiful and infused with a bright light. The light that resonated from his beautiful body was blinding, and yet I was not blinded. I could see him clearly. It was like rays of the sun and the child at the centre, with his round white face, reminded me of the Blessed Eucharist in the Monstrance.
Charbel was carried in through prayers and with him came all the Holy Souls. He blessed us in this house as he entered the Kingdom of God this morning at 5:02am.
And God, in his infinite mercy and love, allowed me to see all this, so that we would all know that God sends us the new Saint baby Charbel to bless us all.
In thinking of this dream, it seems to me, that I, like Saint Francis, who tried to use bricks and mortar when God asked him to build his Church, seem to have initially misinterpreted God’s request. It was not the Earthly food or comforts that I have been asked to prepare – but perhaps, the spiritual ones.
I read yesterday, that Our Lady, did not die of illness or old age. She died of LOVE, because she knew in entering Heaven she would be reunited for eternity with her Son.
When Our Blessed Mother said YES to the angel, the reason that God so loves her, is because she said yes to more than just a pregnancy. She said yes to more than motherhood. She, like baby Charbel’s mother, in saying Yes to the Will of God, said yes to the spiritual martyrdom that comes of watching a beloved child suffer and die. Our Blessed Mother set the example for all mothers, past, present and future, and baby Charbel’s mother (and father) followed it with dignity and grace.
Those parents, like Baby Charbel’s parents, bear the greatest burden, and the worst of martyrdoms in having to endure the agony of a child’s death, when they would gladly trade their own lives for that of their child. In return for their faith in Him, when those parents die, like Our Blessed Mother, they will not really die of illness or old age. Their deaths will be of LOVE, to see their precious child once again.
Because for God, these sacred martyrs, these sorrowing parents, are like his own Blessed Mother. They are his chosen ones…
Because in his few short months of life, inside a hospital the entire time, that blessed Saint baby Charbel, changed the entire world. How many of us here can say that we have done the same with all the years that God has given us?
For this great martyrdom, we must give thanks to God and the parents and family of this blessed child – most especially his mother, who chose to surrender to God’s own will, and offer her son for the redemption of the whole world.
For that is what his is. A tiny sacrificial lamb given to us with love, and with love, taken to God’s breast to sit on his knee on the Throne of Heaven.
Now, with prayers not FOR – but TO – baby Charbel, everything is clear. Here. At the foot of the Cross.