Vigils Reading – St Damien De Veuster

THE SPIRIT OF ST DAMIEN

The Leper Priest of Molokai, Hawaii4

<Fr Damien De Veuster> landed at the leprosy colony of Molokai on Saturday, May 10, 1873… Damien had entered a house of death. From the moment he arrived at the leprosy settlement, his faith and his intellect intuitively knew that this was the challenge for which his huge missionary’s heart was longing… “They are repugnant to look at, but they also have a soul redeemed at the price of the precious blood of our Divine Savior… If I cannot heal them, as he could, at least I can offer them comfort.” That was Damien’s choice: to look at the lepers with the loving eyes of Jesus…

Damien not only cared for the sick; he also gave them back their human dignity and self-respect by pointing out their own responsibility… Together with his sick companions, Damien entered the battle against meaninglessness, emptiness, and despair. He made sure that they did not waste their lives… If necessary, he could become angry. But he also offered them alternatives… He reconciled them, not only with one another, but with God. Through his pastoral work, his sermons, the liturgies at which he presided, and the sacraments he administered, he taught his flock that each one of them was valuable in the eyes of God…

Damien lived among the lepers for sixteen years. Those years made an enormous difference to the settlement… The condition he found in 1873 among the eight hundred lepers was one of great lawlessness and unrestrained behavior… The greatest gift he gave them was to succeed in transforming an orderless throng into a living community around Christ, where they learned to care for one another… The rare visitors to the island were often surprised by the music and the joyfulness… in the settlement.

Each week, he visited every house. From the beginning he learned to adapt his words to the situation… “In almost every house I have to change my tone. Sometimes I use soft words in order to console. Sometimes I add some vinegar, in order to make them understand the situation they are in. From time to time a real storm breaks loose. Then I threaten them with terrible punishments, whenever they would not change their heart.”… The lepers felt that the Belgian missionary, in his angry outbursts, was genuinely concerned about them. After all, he gratuitously and voluntarily gave his life for them. Many converted to Catholicism because of him. “Our two churches are very busy”, he recorded with satisfaction in 1879. “Last year we baptized 110… The great majority of the patients are not Catholic when they arrive, but they dieCatholic.”…

After it was determined with certainty that Damien had contracted leprosy, he lived nearly five years with what he called the “terrible disease”… In the fall of 1888 Damien felt his physical strength quickly fading… Monday, April 15, was the first day of Holy Week. Damien knew his hour had come. “The Lord is calling me to celebrate Easter with him.”… He… died in the arms of Father Conrardy and Brother Sinnett… “I have never seen a happier death”, Sinnett wrote… All the marks of leprosy had disappeared from his face…. Damien was buried, according to his long-expressed wish, near his church, on the spot where he had spent his first nights on Molokai, under the shade of his beloved pandanus tree