We’re all familiar with the phrase coined by the Holy Curé of Ars: ” Oh, the friends of the Good Lord are everywhere ! It is recounted by Brother Athanase and Brother Gabriel Taborin, and recalled in Father Nodet’s ” Thoughts of the Curé d’Ars “[1].

Thanks to the Holy Curé for being our guide again this Sunday. You know the story: Brother Gabriel Taborin, founder of the Brothers of the Holy Family, had come to meet the new, young Curé d’Ars to place himself at his service, for the glory of God and among the poorest of the poor. We know little about the conversation that took place, except that on leaving, recounting the event, Jean-Marie Vianney astonished those around him by situating the encounter at a height… worthy of that of Saint Paul in today’s passage from the Letter to the Corinthians[2], or responding perfectly to the astonishment of the disciples embarked (literally) with Jesus on the Lake of Galilee and surprised by the gust of wind while the ‘master’ slept… on the rudder!

How can we see in a former executioner of the first Christians (Saul), the one who now presents himself in the Letter to the Corinthians as an Apostle of Jesus Christ and bearer of the Good News (of the Resurrection and the forgiveness of sins), evangelizing the “nations”? He says it himself: If we have known Christ carnally, now we know him no longer so. In other words: some may have known Him and ‘pilgrimaged’ with Him to the Holy Land… but that doesn’t make them Apostles. Others may have ignored Him, or even fought Him, but the day they are overthrown (converted) by Christ the Savior, they will be able to speak of Him in a whole new way: the way of those who ” no longer have their lives centered on themselves ” (and their previous way of life) ” but on Him ” (from whom they receive new life through Him) ” who died and rose again for them “.

And so we measure the fear of the disciples in the boat, as the wind picks up and the boat takes on water… and Jesus Christ sleeps! Aren’t we hearing the same things today, when the torment of evil is spreading to the Middle East, Central Europe and many other places in Asia-Oceania and South America, and even here in our ‘good Christian civilization’, which has brought us such a rise in living standards and culture, and at the same time such tragedies, right up to the Shoah? ” Master, we’re lost! Don’t you care? “And we’d love to wake up the Lord who seems to be asleep in our eyes.

The Curé d’Ars, in his conscience inhabited by the Holy Spirit, never slept! He recognized God’s gift to him as Brother Gabriel rang the doorbell at the Presbytery. Just as 2 musicians recognize each other through the same art, so too will two ‘God-inhabited’ people recognize each other… Didn’t this happen at the Visitation of the Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth? “Do you not yet have faith? ” Jesus Christ asks.

[1] Pensées du Curé d’Ars ; NODET ; p 127/139

[2]^2nd Corinthians, 5, 14-17