Isaac Scharbach, who has died at the age of 21, put prayer at the centre of his life even as a child. Family members remember finding the boy asleep on the floor by his open prayer book late at night. Later, his teachers at Mount St Joseph High School in Baltimore recalled frequently seeing the young man alone in the school’s darkened chapel, taking time away from a jam-packed schedule to pray quietly by himself.
Following his death in a road accident, friends and family have remembered Isaac as, in his father’s words, “a pure soul” who treated everyone with kindness.
Isaac Scharbach was born in 1999, the oldest son in a family of nine brothers and sisters. His father, Albert Scharbach, was an Anglican priest until 2009, when the family joined the Catholic Church. Albert was ordained a Catholic priest four years later.
“As his priest, I gave him Communion daily,” said Fr Scharbach, currently the pastor of Mount Calvary Catholic Church in Baltimore. “He always received the Eucharist as if it was his first time receiving, his last time receiving, his only time receiving,” he said. “This was evident in his face and his entire bodily posture: peace, joy and an apparent interior ecstasy that communicated there was no place else he would rather be.
“Isaac was always kind, he always thought the best of others and he was always trying to help people,” his father added. “And I mean always, without exception. There are very few other people I can say that about, if anyone.”
Clay Bonham, a religion teacher and director of campus ministry at Mount St Joseph, spoke of Isaac’s involvement in campus ministry. “He had a strong devotion to the Divine Mercy Chaplet and said we should do it on Fridays,” Bonham said. “We did, and he brought other students in on that.”
Bonham said Isaac displayed mature qualities at a young age and mentored his peers in their faith in an unassuming way. “He was this sweet little cherub boy who had pretty strong convictions,” Bonham said. “He was a quiet leader.”
Jason Ader, one of Isaac’s former science teachers, said he possessed rare humility and a great intellect. “As someone so intensely focused on the classics and the arts, you wouldn’t think he would focus on high-level science,” Ader said, “but Isaac jumped into chemistry and did incredibly well. He was an all-round world scholar. He could do it all – classics, math, the sciences. He was so talented, but never flashy. He was just quietly extraordinary.”
Fr Scharbach said his son had been considering a call to religious life, and was looking at graduate schools and considering a career that would enable him to combine his interest in art and philosophy. Isaac expressed his faith through the ancient practice of “writing” religious icons.
A double major in art and classical studies, Isaac was about to enter his senior year at Davidson College in North Carolina. He was involved in campus ministry there and was working to establish a Eucharistic adoration chapel on the campus of the Presbyterian college. While in college, Isaac regularly rode his bike several miles to spend time in adoration at a church in a nearby town.
Foivos, a hallmate from Davidson College, recalled in a tribute on the college website: “From the little I knew him, he was a kind-spirited person who stood as a genuine friend to me during a personal challenge.”
Fr Scharbach said: “I grieve when I think of the lost potential for Isaac’s earthly life, in his desire to pursue art, philosophy and theology, but above all in his potential to serve others.” He added that Isaac had a “seemingly irreplaceable role in our family, where he served as the primary balm who could soften, inspire and encourage each of us. But I know God wouldn’t take someone so devoted to him unless there was a great blessing intended.”
In a diary entry in 2014, published by his family, Isaac wrote: “O God, I don’t know when I will leave this world: any day, any hour. What a great goodbye that will be – all my relationships, all my work, all my longings, all my worldly joys. How soon this day will come. May I not store up any faith in a world I will leave so soon. May my only goal, my only faith, my only hope be in you, my Lord. May no hour pass without my offering thanksgiving. O Father, I am yours.”
This is an edited version of a piece which first appeared in the Catholic Review
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