My Sisters and Brothers:
A few years ago a small crucifix once belonging to Saint Damien of Molokai was stolen from the Damien Museum in Waikiki, Hawaii. The saint, affectionately known to most by the name “Father Damien,” died in 1889 after a missionary life of service and dedication to people with leprosy. The stolen crucifix was described as having “little cash value.”
Father Damien is one of my personal heroes. He lived during a time when going to the missions really meant sacrificing one’s entire life. Such people would surely never return to their home countries, and they would never see friends and family members again. While in the missions of Hawaii (then known by many as the Sandwich Islands), and until the day he passed away, Father Damien gave his life in complete service to people with leprosy. This meant that he became a missionary within a mission, that’s to say, in going to the lepers, he could never leave the quarantined encampment in which they were settled. And so Father Damien gave his entire life to people who would have been considered “untouchable” and thought of by many as “the living dead.” He dearly embraced such a life because he fervently believed it was his calling as a baptized Christian, and that it was what God wanted him to do. With this in mind, there’s no doubt Father Damien understood the words of St. Paul in today’s Second Reading in which he wrote “we who were baptized into Christ Jesus have died with him, and we now live for God!” (cf. Romans 6:3-4, 8-11). I’m sure this is why Fr. Damien always strove to uphold the dignity of even those thought to be the most undesirable of persons. Father Damien undoubtedly knew the wisdom of today’s Gospel as well which says “whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (see Matthew 10:39). This is exactly what he did as he ardently strove to model his life after Jesus, the one who had definitely embraced the Most Holy Cross for all of us!
Our readings encourage us to remain faithful to whatever our vocations are in this life. As Christian people, sealed to an eternal promise given to us in baptism, those vocations must be characterized by our love for God and our never-ending lives of service to God’s people. But how do we apply this idea to our lives today? Are we called to be as heroic as Father Damien and give up everything–including our homelands, our families, and even our health in the service of the Gospel? There might be some among us who indeed have this call–and like Father Damien they likely model for us in a special way what is at the root of each of our own baptismal callings. But the truth is most of us are simply called to live our lives in manners that are not overly attached to materialistic “things” and to the worries of this world. In whatever ways we can, we’re supposed to embrace the Cross, and to live “in the world, but not of the world.” And so we’re called to have a certain amount of “detachment” from the values that are thrust on us by a society which unrelentingly tells us in order to be happy in life we must “put ourselves first” in order “to get ahead.” Oh, for sure, following the Gospel and remaining faithful to our baptismal callings aren’t always easy, but they are indeed the Christian ways of life! This is exactly why today’s Gospel tells us “whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me; whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (see Matthew 10:37-42). And so, let’s truly proclaim this Gospel as the rule of our lives!
It seems to me there’s a certain irony to the fact that Father Damien's crucifix was stolen. Modeling his own life after Jesus, he had given up everything in order to serve God and his people. In fact, it’s likely while alive he would have gladly given up even his crucifix–a mere material possession with “little cash value!” And so, may Father Damien, and each of us according to our own unique Christian vocations, continue to give witness to our baptisms, and to our values as people of faith in our contemporary world. And let’s hope Father Damien's crucifix will inspire faith in whoever has it today!
Praise God! Friar Timothy
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