My Brothers and Sisters,

One hundred and thirty years ago today, January 31, 1880, St. Damien wrote two letters home. One letter was sent to his parents and the other to his Priest brother, Fr. Auguste Pamphile.  Little did St. Damien realize that 130 years later on this January 31^st 2010 we would be celebrating a Mass of Thanksgiving on World Leprosy Day at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in honor of his own canonization.   Saint Damien de Veuster the ninth saint recognized by the Catholic Church, to have lived, worked and died in what is now the United States.  He is venerated as a holy person and worthy of public veneration and invocation. St. Damien is also considered the spiritual patron of those afflicted with Hansen’s disease or leprosy patients, and all those stigmatized because society sees them as outcasts.

 St. Damien had already been on the Island of Molokai seven years when he wrote the January 31^st letter to his parents. The quotes from these letters give insight to who he was. He wrote: 

 “I am very happy to be able to continue to dedicate myself to the Leprosy patients,

 and I have no other desire in the whole world.”

 What a statement. The sentiment is from one who lived the Christ life. St. Damien learned that he was doing what he was supposed to be doing. He was at peace with the choice he made in following Christ. There were no regrets. He accepted his reality. He had spiritual joy.

 In the January 31^st letter to his brother Fr. Pamphile, St. Damien wrote:

 “I confess to you my dear brother, that the cemetery and the huts

of those dying around me are my very best books of meditation.”

 St. Damien didn’t need outside stimulation. He discovered that the kingdom of God was within. He fully lived his daily experiences. Life and death surrounded him. During the 16 years in the settlement there was an average of over 400 deaths a year.  St. Damien obtained wisdom and knowledge in the world he embraced. His experiences taught him profound spiritual truths.

 Today’s scripture readings speak loudly on this occasion of acknowledging the canonization of St. Damien.  I paraphrase the first reading, not using the words to Jeremiah but God speaking to Damien:

 “Damien, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born I dedicated you;

a missionary to Molokai, I dedicated you. A prophet to the nations, I appointed you.” (Jer.1:4)

Paraphrased words from Jeremiah can be applied to every human being. We have all been created through God’s love and dedicated for a special mission. We live that mission moment by moment, day by day with a great commandment to guide us that is to:

 “Love God with all your heart and soul, and your neighbor as ourselves.”

 There was one vocation in the life of St. Damien along with three “calls.” The first call was when he knew at an early age that he had a desire to follow Christ in the religious/priestly life. As early as eight years old he was found praying alone in the Church. He wrote in his notes:

 “The will of God is that I quit the world to embrace religious life. 

It is God who calls me and I must obey.”

 He entered the religious community of which his brother was a member, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. It was during these years that a foundation in Eucharistic spirituality was lived in a spirit of reparative adoration. This was to be one of the pillars of Damien’s spiritual life that would sustain him no matter what the challenges of life would bring. St. Damien wrote:

 “It is at the foot of the altar that I gain all the strength I need.”

 The second call was his missionary vocation.  Fr. Pamphile became ill before he was to sail to the missions in Hawaii. The young St. Damien, still a seminarian, requested and prayed fervently that he might take his brother’s place. Permission was given.  The young zealous missionary landed in Honolulu on March 19, 1864 and was Ordained at Queen of Peace Cathedral in Honolulu on May 21, 1864.  St. Damien was to write home:

 “I am a priest. How great my obligations are.

How great my apostolic zeal must be.”

  He was assigned to the big Island (Hawaii) for almost ten years, where he learned the language and endeared himself to the Hawaiian people with his friendliness, vigor and enthusiasm. He shared their food, built churches, preached the gospel and baptized hundreds. During these years the young St. Damien grew in his Congregation’s Charism of preaching and witnessing to God’s love. The lessons that he would have learned are contained in St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:

 “Love is patient, love is kind, it is not pompous, it is not rude,

 it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick tempered,

 it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing.

 Love bears all things, hopes all things, endure all things.”

 Such, was St. Damien’s love.

Those years on the Big Island had prepared St. Damien for the third call. The disease of leprosy was spreading throughout the Hawaiian Islands. In 1863 the official response from the Board of Health and King Kamehameha V, was to isolate the patients on the four square mile Kalaupapa peninsula on the Island of Molokai. In 1873, abandoned for nearly a decade, the patient community sent to the settlement had collapsed into chaos. The neglect had resulted in despair, drunken behavior, licentiousness and abuse.

 The priests on the Islands were invited to Maui for the blessing of a new Church. St. Damien took the several- hour boat ride from the big Island. At that time Bishop Maigret requested volunteers to go to Molokai on a rotation basis to meet the spiritual needs of the patients. St. Damien responded to the third call.  Immediately on the following day, May 10, 1873, Bishop Maigret and Damien landed on Molokai.  Unprepared for the decision he made, St. Damien arrived without luggage, wearing his clerical cassock and breviary in hand, two symbols of his priesthood. St. Damien was 33 years of age when he reached his destiny; he was never to leave the commitment he made. Bishop Maigret prophetically told patients:

 “Until now you have been alone, but you will no long be. I present to you a priest who

 loves you so much that for your happiness and salvation…there is no doubt that he wants

 to become one with you, to live and die with you.”

 It was not to be easy. New arrivals were often pressured by the elders to fit in, and he heard these words in the Hawaiian language:  ALOE KAANDI MA KEIA VAHI / In this place there is no law.  That expression said everything.  St. Damien had a life time work ahead of him. The secret of his success was his daily Mass, for he saw in it Calvary made present again on the altar. He wrote:

 “I put all my confidence in the Lord who nourishes me each day

with his Body and Blood in the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”

 Later, from his lived experience, St. Damien wrote:

 “Without the Holy Eucharist, a position such as mine would be untenable. But having the Lord at my side, I continue to be happy with cheerfulness of heart and a smile on my lips.”

 With that attitude St. Damien was able to be pastor, doctor, nurse, carpenter, plumber, supply procurer, grave digger, coffin maker and church builder.

 During this third call came the Calvary and Resurrection experience. In today’s Gospel reading, Christ says a prophet is not accepted in one’s own place. Rejection can be amongst the most painful experiences in life. A sense of abandonment and being alone is felt. In this passage, Jesus speaks about the many leprosy patients in the time of the prophet Elijah and not one of them was cleansed except Naaman.  For St. Damien there were many he could help and from others there was rejection. After contracting the disease, it brought restrictions for his own travel to Honolulu, and association with society.  He was isolated. There was not the support from the Church hierarchy, government officials, and members from his Congregation. St. Damien was standing on Calvary in his powerlessness.  Damien would say:

“God doesn’t ask the impossible.  I go briskly about everything without troubling myself.”

 At the end of his life he was able to identify with St. Paul:

 “I have been crucified with Christ, and I live now not with my own life,

but with the life of Christ, who lives in me.” (Gal.2:20)

 There was Consolation for Damien at the end of his life knowing that Blessed Mother Marianne Cope, a Franciscan Sister of Syracuse, and Joseph Dutton, a layman from Vermont, would continue the work.  As the end was approaching he wrote:

 “I try my best without complaining too much, and in a practical way for the sanctification of my soul,

 to bear the miseries of the disease which Providence is using to detach the heart of all earthy affection,

and at the same time to activate the desire of the Christian soul to be united, the sooner the better, to Him…

I can go in your company to contemplate the good God forever….

How great it is to die a child of the Sacred Hearts.”

 St. Damien had Resurrection joy in his life despite sickness, pain, and rejection. He could proclaim:

  “I am the happiest missionary in the world.”

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Special... St. Damien Mass of Thanksgiving photo gallery

Catholic TV video of St. Damien Mass

Acknowledgments

 I would like to express gratitude in two categories to those who have enriched our celebration of Thanksgiving in honor of St. Damien, a saint of the United States, Belgium and the world.

First, the magnificence of this sacred space, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the liturgical beauty of the Mass was possible because of the Rector, Monsignor Walter Rossi, Fr. Vito Buonanno, Fr. Michael Weston, and the priests and staff of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.  To Mr. Peter Latona, the musical team, Jacquelyn Hayes, Dr. Geraldine Rohling and the Knights of Columbus honor guard, thank you all for assisting in spiritually nourishing and raising our hearts and minds to God.

The following sponsors are mentioned with profound gratitude:

v  -Supreme Knight Carl Anderson of the Knights of Columbus headquarters in New Haven Ct.

v  Damien Dutton Society of Bellmore, Long Island, New York.

v  Leprosy Relief, Montreal Canada.

v  Fr. Thomas Rosica, Salt and Light Catholic TV, Toronto, Canada

v  Catholic TV, Boston, Massachusetts and Mother Angelica, EWTN TV

v  The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

On the last Sunday of January, World Leprosy Day is commemorated throughout the world. Organizations who reach out to Hansen’s disease patients are present today with sincere appreciation.  Following the Mass you are invited to visit the exhibits of:

v   “IDEA” The International Association for Integration, Dignity and Economic Advancement

v  The Damien Dutton Society

v  The American Leprosy Mission

v  The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary

We are grateful for your presence in connection with St. Damien, the patron of Leprosy patients and all those stigmatized by society through disease, addiction, homelessness and poverty.                                           

Second:  Three months before the Rome canonization of Fr. Damien on Oct.11, 2009, a plan for a Mass of Thanksgiving was unintentionally conceived. This happened at the August Meeting of Major Superiors of Men of the United States at their national 2009 meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. The key note address was given by the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi.  The presentation was excellent, proven by the extended standing ovation. At noon the Provincial Superiors went to receive their box lunches and sat at the many tables set for 4.  Amongst the hundreds of tables and many vacant chairs, what a surprise when the empty seat next to me was taken by Archbishop Pietro Sambi. An immediate prayer went to Heaven. “What does this mean Lord?”  The inspiration received was immediate….”A Damien Mass on January 31^st 2010 World Leprosy Day”. Thank you, Archbishop Sambi for being present.  As Pope Benedict XVI’s ambassador to the USA, your presence unites us to the Holy Father in Rome and the universal Church. You have blessed the solemnity of this Eucharistic celebration.

St. Damien (Joseph) De Veuster, ss.cc.  was born and lived 23 years of his life in Belgium. In a national poll, the people of Belgium voted Fr. Damien as the most popular hero in the country’s history. Cardinal Danneels of Belgium, while visiting the Diocese of Honolulu for the installation of Damien’s relic said: “Fr. Damien is ours, but we gave him to Hawaii.” Yes both Belgium and the American Church claim Damien. For Belgium, a national hero and for the USA, it’s ninth Saint. Thank you for gracing this occasion General Consular Elie Loos, who is representing for us both the embassy and the people of Belgium.

In conclusion I bring to mind my personal experience of Blessed Mother Teresa’s love and devotion to Fr. Damien.  Mother Teresa wrote Pope John Paul II requesting his Beatification as a martyr of love. Fr. Damien was a role model for Mother Teresa in reaching out to tens of thousands of leprosy patients around the world. The Missionaries of Charity continue the leprosy work Mother Teresa started, filled with compassion and love for the poorest and those in some parts of the world who are wrongfully rejected by society.  When Mother Teresa attended the Beatification of Fr. Damien in 1995 she was accompanied by Sr. Nirmala.  Before Mother Teresa’s death on Sept 5, 1997, Sr. Nirmala was elected successor to Mother Teresa as Superior General. For 12 years Sr. Nirmala continued the growth of the Missionaries of Charity Charism and traveled the world following in the footsteps of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. What a privilege and an honor in having Sr. Nirmala present today as an expression of her love and devotion to St. Damien of Molokai.  Thank you, Sr. Nirmala.

God’s Blessings to pilgrims and all present who have shared in this prayer of gratitude to God remembering St. Damien of Molokai on January 31^st  World Leprosy Day.

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Special... St. Damien Mass of Thanksgiving photo gallery

Catholic TV video of St. Damien Mass