VIRTUE FOR MAY - LOVE OF NEIGHBOR

"The love of one's neighbor is essentially bound up with the love of God. St. John put the matter simply when he said: 'If any man say that he loves God and hateth his neighbor, that man is a liar and the truth is not in him.' Hence it would be a contradiction to profess love of God and at the same time to exclude a neighbor from our love. Therefore the love of neighbor imposes many positive duties upon us, such as almsgiving, correction, forgiveness, etc.each one of which is directed towards the well-being and happiness of our neighbor, at the same time it forbids certain sins which would bring unhappiness, spiritual or temporal, to a neighbor." (1)

SAINT FOR MAY:

BLESSED DAMIEN OF MOLOKAI - SERVANT OF HUMANITY

1840-1889

Feast Day: May 10

Future Patron of Lepers (when declared a saint)

Truly, Blessed Damien de Veuster, SS.CC. epitomizes love of neighbor with his many years of spiritual, pastoral, physical, and emotional care for the lepers entrusted to him. He is called the Apostle of Charity. "A man of enormous activity, Damien vigorously tackled every need, spiritual or physical, that he saw. He cleaned wounds, bandaged ulcers, even amputated gangrenous limbs. When a hurricane destroyed the exiles’ shabby huts, Damien petitioned the Board of Health for lumber and built three hundred houses for the sick. He laid a pipeline to a distant spring to supply water for the settlement. Previously, the dead had been thrown in a ravine or buried in graves so shallow that wild pigs ravaged the corpses. Damien dug graves, built coffins, and said funeral Masses. It is estimated that he built more than 1,600 coffins during his years at Molokai." (2)

Father Damien was born in Belgium. Young Jef, as his Flemish family called him, never anticipated a vocation of working with lepers whose noxious odor he initially tried to cover with tobacco fragrance from a pipe. He did consider a religious vocation as a young man. In his family of 9 siblings, 3 already had joined religious congregations. He followed one brother into the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and, in spite of his lack of proper education, became a candidate for the priesthood. When his own brother became ill prior to his departure as a missionary to the Hawaiian Islands, "Le bon gros Damien" begged to go in his brother's place. In four years he completed a ten year course of study and was ordained. Father Damien's first Hawaiian parish area took six weeks to cover by canoe and horseback. After 8 years converting Hawaiians, learning Hawaiian, Spanish, and Portuguese, his bishop assigned him along with 3 other priests a rotation of 3 months stay each to the leper colony in Molokai. (3)

"Damien was the first to volunteer. However, within days of his arrival, having seen the desperate needs of the eight hundred exiles at Kalawao, he wrote back: 'I am bent on devoting my life to the lepers. It is absolutely necessary for a priest to live here. The afflicted are coming here by the boatloads.' For sixteen years, Damien threw himself into his work. He went as a priest to serve the spiritual welfare of the Catholics at Kalawao, but once he arrived, he became a father to everyone, no matter what faith they professed." (4)

Our Lord worked amazing accomplishments through his humble priest. Fr. Damien did build churches and houses. He requested funds from Catholics and Protestants. He distributed food and clothing to all his lepers.

"He dressed the lepers' wounds, tried out new treatments, and built orphanages for boys and girls. In order to give the patients something to do, Damien organized bands and confraternities. When his people died, Father Damien not only said the prayers over their bodies, but often also built the coffins that held them." (5)

"Knowing the kanakas’ love for festivities, he organized processions for the feast days and formed a choir and band. In time, the musicians became famous as they performed a Mozart Mass for the visiting bishop and serenaded Queen Regent Liliuokalani when she visited the island. After her visit in 1881, the queen honored Damien with the title of Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Kalakaua.

" 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends' is engraved on a monument to Damien on Molokai. Damien’s presence there made the world realize that those afflicted with leprosy were not 'unclean outcasts,' but vulnerable human beings whom God deeply loved and who were worthy of the same respect and dignity as anyone else. Damien’s life of sacrifice turned attention to caring for these unfortunate men and women all around the world. Father Joseph Damien de Veuster was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 4, 1995, and the state of Hawaii has honored him with a statue which stands in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building." (6)

WORDS OF BLESSED FATHER DAMIEN

"...I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ. That is why, in preaching, I say 'we lepers'; not, 'my brethren....'" Letter to his brother 6 months after arriving on the island. (7)

"The Lord decorated me with his own particular cross—leprosy." Fr. Damien's response years after he had been decorated with the Cross of the Royal Order of Kalakaua by the Hawaiian government. He had accepted the award but rarely wore the medal. (8)

“It is the memory of having lain under the funeral pall twenty-five years ago--the day of my vows--that led me to brave the danger of contracting this terrible disease in doing my duty here and trying to die more and more to myself… the more the disease advances, I find myself content and happy at Kalawao.” Letter to his bishop in 1885. (9)

"Be severe toward yourself, indulgent toward others. Have scrupulous exactitude for everything regarding God: prayer, meditation, Mass, administration of the Sacraments. Unite your heart with God.... Remember always your three vows, by which you are dead to the things of the world. Remember always that God is eternal and work courageously in order one day to be united with him forever." Father Damien's spiritual counsel to himself, lacking a confessor and priest companion, until the last year of his life. (10)

PRAYERS FOR MAY

Father of mercy, in Blessed Damien, you have given a shining witness of love for the poorest and most abandoned. Grant that, by his intercession, as faithful witness of the heart of your Son Jesus, we too may be servants of the most needy and rejected.We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,One God, for ever and ever. (11)

Prayer to Blessed Damien: Oh Blessed Damien, enlightened by the Holy Spirit and moved by the sorrows of the poor, you dedicated yourself tirelessly to the service of the lepers and became one like them. In doing so, you enhanced their God-given dignity to the last minutes of your priestly life, regardless of many trials and sufferings. Since then, your name has become a great inspiration for countless people throughout the world. We, touched by your self-sacrifice, beseech you to help us follow your footsteps in sharing our time, energy, talents, and other God-endowed gifts with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Now you have been glorified with Jesus Christ in the Heavenly Kingdom. We ask you to continue interceding for us before our loving and caring God, that we may have the gift of faith in Him, humility and the courage to bring love and healing to our poor brothers and sisters in the world. AMEN (12)

ENDNOTES

1. Rev. Donald F. Miller, Catholic Treasures - Issue No. 88-89

2. Catholic Saints and Other Heroes On-line

3. Modern Saints, Ann Ball - Tan Books, 1983

4. Catholic Saints and Other Heroes

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Fransicans of St. Anthony Guild on www.ewtn.org

8. Ibid.

9. Catholic Saints and Other Heroes

10. Francisans of St. Anthony Guild on www.ewtn.org

11. Opening prayer for Blessed Damien's liturgy ( http://www.usccb.org/)
12. Archdiocese of Los Angeles Mission web-site