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April 15, 2005

Blessed Fr. Damien

Damien De Veuster, a young Belgian priest, asked to serve at the leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. He hoped to instill in the patients a sense of self-worth and dignity. His first task was to restore dignity to death. When he preached, he called the people not “my brothers and sisters” but “we lepers” – a salutation that would eventually become true.

Damien died of leprosy on April 15, 1889. He was beatified in 1995 by Pope John Pail II.

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Despite his work among the lepers, Damien was not without detractors, one of whom claimed he contracted leprosy because of his relationship with women patients.

Deciding to learn the truth, author Robert Louis Stevenson (whose novels chronicled life in the South Seas) went to Molokai to investigate.

Over and over, Stevenson listened to firsthand reports of the priest’s courage and work among the lepers. When Dr. Charles Hyde, a former missionary to Molokai, wrote a letter saying the evil rumors were true, Stevenson leaped to Damien’s defense by writing Father Damien; An Open Letter to Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu.

Friday, Third Week of Easter

So the two disciples set out at once and returned to Jerusalem, where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”

Luke 24:33:34

Remember that this same morning, the women had told the other disciples about the empty tomb. But the disciples thought it was “nonsense and they did not believe them.”

Now they’re all bursting with good news. Before these two disciples can get a word out, they’re told: “The Lord has truly been raised!” Quite a switch in 12 hours.

The two disciples are told that the Lord appeared to Simon. This appearance is not described in any of the Gospels. But Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians (written before any of the Gospels) says that Christ appeared to Kephas (Peter), to the Twelve, and to many others.

“The Lord has truly been raised!” That’s all we have to hear. Which appearance was first, when did this one or that one happen – it doesn’t matter. It’s true! He has appeared!

That’s why the accounts are so different in all four Gospels. The evangelists weren’t interested in tracking a sequence. They’re bursting to tell the good news in all directions: “The Lord has truly been raised!”

These are the last words of the disciples in Luke’s Gospel. Maybe I should spend these last 30 days of the Easter Season letting them echo inside me: “The Lord has truly been raised!”

Spend some quiet time with the Risen Lord.