Lent - Giving It All - St. Damien of Molokai

St. Damien of Molokai

Sacrifice is a large component of what Lent is all about.  Some of us give up something that is dear to our heart for the forty days as a sacrifice to discipline ourselves.  This is a good thing to do.  Some people are called to do more and they give all that there is to give.  Such was the man we now call St. Damien of Molokai.  In previous times leprosy was considered highly contagious and incurable.  Modern science has found that about five percent of the world is predisposed to the disease. Back in the 1800's, however, those afflicted were removed from society and strictly quarantined.  Damien was sent to Hawaii by his order and there he was ordained a priest. The authorities built a leper colony on Molokai and Damien volunteered to work there with the lepers. 

When he arrived on Molokai, he found a colony beset with problems.  There was a lot of alcoholism and lawlessness ruled the land. He immediately began to get things organized and he began to serve his flock of sick men, women, and children.  The authorities thought that they had performed a magnificent work by setting aside the land that the leper colony was on. They felt all warm and fuzzy inside because of their act of charity. They then proceeded to forget the people that were sent there.  Damien fought for his congregation.  He fought for medicines and better food.  His work was not appreciated so much by the authorities and some even spread lurid stories about the young priest.  Damien continued his battle day by day.  He embraced his flock and tenderly cared for them.  One day, he stepped into a pot of boiling water. He felt no pain. It was a sign that he had contracted the dreaded disease.  He continued his work with love and devotion. At mass that day he began his sermon with the words, "We lepers..."   He died on April 15, 1889. 

Damien was a man who gave all he had to give. He is an example to us all of what a Christian should be. He was given work to do and he did his job each day with the attitude that he was serving Christ.  

Not all of us have the privilege of giving up our life for our ministry but we are all called to live a life of ministry.  Our ministry may be raising our family or caring for a sick spouse or being there for someone who is lonely.  Whatever we are called to do, we are called to do it with the same determination of St. Damien the Leper.  We should minister with love and remember no matter what the face of the person we are ministering to looks like, it is the face of Christ. 

Lent - I've Never Been Good At Math

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,

"Lord, if my brother sins against me,

how often must I forgive him?

As many as seven times?"

Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times 

but seventy-seven times."

Okay, I will  admit it, I've never been good at math.  It all started around 1960 or 1961 when my alma mater, St. Joseph and St. Anne School decided to teach it's inmates, I mean students, "The New Math."  Even today when I think about The New Math I shake my head and wonder why humans have a tendency to want to fix things that ain't broke.  Back then I was considered stupid by the good Sisters of Saint Joseph and the transition from arithmetic to The New Math seemed to prove them correct in their assumption. In first and second grades, after my father gave up trying to help his dope of a son and my mother took over trying to help me understand math.  She was able to make wonderful progress.  Through her tutelage  I was able to master the art of adding and subtracting which included the concept of borrowing. Then, without warning came The New Math and everything went to hell in a handbasket.  In the modern world given the same circumstances, I would be recognized as having a learning disability and modern techniques would be used to help me understand what to my mind was gibberish. Sister Emerita, if you are out there somewhere, none of my employers over the last forty-something years has asked me to subtract two negative numbers, just saying.  Today I can add, subtract, multiply, and divide with the rest of humanity.  

In today's Gospel, we are told to forgive our brother seventy-seven times. That is a number I can wrap my hands around.  On a number line, it is seventy-seven places to the right of zero, it is not a prime number, it is odd, and only twenty-three places on the number line from one-hundred.  But, Jesus is not giving us a math lesson here. He is giving us a life lesson.  Peter is being generous and asks if he should forgive a person seven times.  That was a lot back then where the law was still an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  Peter may have been trying to score some points with Jesus by appearing generous.  Jesus wasn't having any of it.  I can imagine Him turning to Peter and saying ""I say to you, not seven times 

but seventy-seven times." 

The number seven, of course, is "God's Number" it is a number of the day that God rested from His work of creation when He saw that all of what He made was very good.  What Jesus is telling us to do, is to forgive an infinite amount of times. We are to strive to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect.  We are to forgive as many times as the Father forgives us.  We can throw sand in the face of God every day of our life and repent just before we die and be forgiven. There is no circumstance in life that precludes forgiveness.  I know, I know, it is hard to forgive what he did, what she said, what they did.  We are called to forgive and to bring ourselves the peace that forgiveness of those who offend us will bring here on earth.  It is not easy to be a Christian.  It is not easy to forgive.  But we must imitate Christ who, from the cross, said, "Father forgive them, they know not what they are doing."   If Jesus can do that from the Cross, can we not do it as well as safe on the ground, eating an apple, we watch Him die?

Ambition

Ambition can be a good thing. It can make the difference between being a drifter with a backpack and a person with a corner office and a decent job. Of course there can be ambitions that are not good for us to have. For example, the ruler of a country looks to expand his borders at the expense of his neighbor. 

For us Christians, we should have the ambition of doing what Jesus commanded us to do.  His command is simple, love one another as I have loved you. This command is a game changer and takes what it means to be a Christian to a whole higher level than any other religion the world has ever known. 

We are given many examples of what we should be doing by Jesus himself. Let's examine just a few of them: 

Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, always present in Heaven at the right hand of God the Father.  Jesus came to earth, humbling himself to take on the form of the creature he created.  This shows that he is most humble and most loving.  

Jesus obeyed his parents, the Bible first tells us this after he was found conversing with the doctors in the temple he went with them and was subject to them.  Also, at the request of his mother he started his public life early when he provided wine at a wedding. 

Jesus was content to work at a humble job during the years leading up to his public ministry. Jesus created the world yet he worked for his bread at the job of his earthly father, a carpenter. 

Jesus in all things conformed his will to the will of his Father. As a human in all things but sin, Jesus was tempted but he set his will aside and followed the will of the Father.  This led to the Cross and to death and the redeeming of all of us.

Jesus at the Last Supper showed us what we were to do. He, the God who created the universe took basin and towel and took on the role of the lowest servant in the household and washed the feet of his apostles. 

Jesus humbly accepted death on the cross. In the garden we see Jesus making the most human of prayers, one that each of us would have made and probably do make during the hard times of our life. "Father, take this cup away from me."  This is where most of us would stop. He added, "but not my will but yours."

So our ambition as Christians should be like our Master. We should be ready and willing to serve, to put our needs behind the needs of others.  It is this selfless giving that will attract people to give up their pagan ways and come home to God.  Jesus himself said that they would know his followers by the love that they showed. 

This week I am going to try and do at least one good turn to another in secret and thus try to be like my Lord and Savior and try to love others as He has loved us keeping ever in mind that he did not spare himself from the cross. 

Mother Teresa saw a man in the street  dirty, with sores, flies all about him. People were just passing him by. She immediately went to him and cradled him and began to pick the maggots off of his soars.  A man passing by said, "I wouldn't do that for a million dollars!"  Mother answered, "Neither would I." 

Martyrs

This week Islam in a show of just how it sows peace and love throughout the word created more Christian Martyrs in Yemen. At least four nuns who were working and taking care of the elderly were brutally shot and killed by these manly and brave jihadists. Why is it that these people always are going after those that cannot defend themselves? 

But let's move beyond the mayhem and talk a little bit about the martyrs themselves. I know that they have arrived in the bliss of heaven. These women had dedicated their very lives to working with poorest of the poor and caring for them in a land that is violently hostile to Christians.  They knew the chance that they were taking, but they stayed and did their work anyway. 

There have been so many martyrs of late giving us their example. The Coptic Christians come to mind. As they knelt waiting for their cowardly captives to execute them they were praying in the name of Jesus. One of those kneeling was not a Christian and he was asked if he would like to become a Muslim and he said simply that to his captives "Their God is my God." In joining his brothers in death, he secured for himself everlasting life. 

We in America have it good. Even though our society is becoming more and more anti-Christian we still have the right to worship as we want to. We do not have to live in fear that our churches will be set upon. Even Muslims in this country receive this protection. 

With all of the protection afforded us I have to ask myself if I, a Christian and a cradle Catholic would have the wherewithal to be a martyr for my faith.  I would like to think that I would but I just do not know. 

Let us pray this day for the defeat of ISIS and radical Islam. Let us pray for the day when we do not train for war anymore and be change our spears into pruning hooks.  Let us renew our prayers and ask God to protect our brother and sister Christians of all denominations in the Middle East from the evil of terror.