Presence is the answer to isolation. Two people, each one separate and alone, are walking through a park. One, tired, sits on a bench. Later, the other feels inclined to do the same, and finds a space on the bench. After a while, they swap a few routine phrases ("What a summer!" - "Yes, isn"t it?...). Then one confides "I"m feeling so sad: my wife, you know...died last month!.: And the other replies "I"m so sorry, I know what you are feeling...." And the next day they meet again... Physical proximity opens out into personal presence. In fact, there is no real presence except that of persons; and this presence of persons to one another is only realized through a recognition of the other and a giving of oneself to that other, leading to the shared recognition and self-giving of friendship, provided that the movement is brought to fulfillment.

Of course God"s presence is something quite unique: an apparent absence that is really total presence. For with God, simply being and being present are one and the same. And so He"s closer to us than we are to ourselves, as Augustine says. But, paradoxically, we aren"t, and in the main can"t be, aware of this, at least directly. The marvelous signs and the prophetic word, coupled with the sages" reflections, are a first move towards closing this gap. But it"s only, I think, with the Incarnation that God becomes present for us. And it"s only through the gift of the Spirit that we can recognize this presence of God-with-us and respond to it, so that the all-present God becomes effectively present to us. For an unrecognized presence is not properly a presence: there needs to be mutuality. John"s gospel, in particular, reveals this presence in the full sense, and the wonders of it.

Charles, it is I think clear, was struck by this "presence" of the Beloved. In fact, he was seized by it, and it becomes the dominant note of his spiritual path. At first he finds this presence above all in the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus is "there", in front of him; and so he can "talk" with Jesus - speaking, listening, resting in silence... So he feels the urge to spend long moments simply "there", present to "the presence", present with love to the presence of Love.

For Charles this is the expression of an intensely personal relationship. And because personal it develops. If Jesus is present in the Sacrament, he"s also present in the word of the Gospels: there, and there alone, we can see him acting, hear his words, follow his journey.., and so are stimulated to join him and walk with him. Most of his meditations are gospel meditations; and some of his texts, such as "Le modele unique" are nothing but strings of gospel quotes, largely of Jesus" words. For, as he says, to love is to imitate..

This personal relationship with Jesus" presence in word and sacrament grows, at Beni-Abbes in particular, into the recognition of Jesus" presence in the person who comes, whoever that may be, and especially in "the least". In fact the Eucharistic presence and the Neighbor presence are explicitly connected: "the one who said "this is my body" said "whatever you do to the least of my brethren you do to Me" - no word of the gospel has more impressed me"...

Later, when in Tamanrasset, Charles is faced with the question: should he stay with the people, with the few local Touareg families, without the possibility of celebrating or reserving the Eucharist; or, on the contrary, should he return to Beni-Abbes, or somewhere further north, to have again the opportunity of the Mass with a server as then required, but leaving, perhaps permanently, the Touareg people whose lives he had come to share, and which he alone could do? "It"s hard to spend Christmas without Mass" (1907).

How does he reason? "Formerly I tended to see on one side the Infinite, the holy Sacrifice, and on the other the finite, everything apart from God, and was always ready to sacrifice anything to celebrate Holy Mass. But there must have been a mistake in my reasoning here, for from the time of the apostles the greatest saints have sometimes sacrificed the possibility of celebrating to works of spiritual charity, to make journeys and so on... It is good to live alone in the land (the Hoggar); one can do things the.re, even though they are of no great importance, for one becomes "at home" there - easily available to people and quite "ordinary: July l907 to Mgr Guerin).

What does this mean? It shows, I think, that the living presence of Jesus and his sacrifice, of which the Eucharist is the privileged sign, is personally internalised. Charles lives in Jesus and his love, in line with the words "I am the vine, you are the branches: abide in Me.., abide in my Love.." This is, or should be, the normal Christian experience. Is there anything proper to Charles in this? Perhaps two things. The simplicity of looking at Jesus, in himself and with others. And then, living this "simple looking" in the context of ordinary daily life and interpersonal contacts.

Charles "presence" to Jesus and to people corresponds to Jesus" "presence" to his Father and to the people. While an end in itself, as the presence leading to the intimacy of friendship, this presence, seen dynamically, is for the one sacrifice: "he offered himself: It is as "one of us", sharing our experiences and in solidarity with our human community and ultimate destiny, that Jesus offered himself. On the the cross, yes; but first day by day in the "ordinariness" of Nazareth... Charles had long felt urged to share in this saving "work" of Jesus. To begin with, he realizes this through monastic asceticism and the sacramental offering of the Eucharist. Later, while never putting aside the irreplaceable value of these things, he sees, more and more, the importance of assuming daily life as it comes, as it is "given", with all its ups and downs.., in brief, taking on our common joys and sorrows (cf. opening sentences of Gaudium et Spes). As always, Charles is here trying to follow the way of Jesus, who "assumed" our common human condition, so as, by doing so, to redeem it. And, as Charles is constantly telling himself, we are called to enter into his "work". By using the word "work" to express the redemption, Charles is linking up Jesus" work at Nazareth with his "work" as savior, both in the activities of his ministry and in the accepted sufferings of his death. This is in line with the "whatever the Father does, I do" Un 5, I9). As Charles Dodd remarks, this passage could be an echo of the boy Jesus watching his father Joseph at work, and learning to copy his actions; so "the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he himself does". From the beginning Jesus undertakes the Father"s work, consciously so at the age of twelve (Lk 5,20), and this work, with its various stages, is basically one.