Kahu's Manao

Keawala‘i Congregational Church
United Church of Christ (USA)

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Rev. Kealahou C. Alika

“Courage and Compassion”
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 & James 5:13-20

He was born on January 3, 1840 in the village of Tremeloo, Belgium and was baptized Joseph, the youngest son and seventh of the eight children of Frans and Anne-Catherine De Veuster. In the spring 1858 he left home to attend school. By the end of that year he was admitted as a postulant to the Congregation of the Sacred Heart. (Holy Man: Father Damien of Moloka‘i, Gavan Daws, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, Honolulu, 1973, page 6)

On February 2, 1858 he took the religious habit under the name Brother Damien. Six years later he came to Hawai‘i. In 1864 the settlement at Kalawao was established for men, women and children who became stricken with Hansen’s disease.

Damien lived and worked as a priest, “ready to serve the sick and to save their souls if he could – eventually as matters turned out, to take the mortal afflictions of others upon himself.” (Op. cit, page 5) But he also took upon himself the ravages of the disease and on April 15, 1889, Damien succumbed to the disease.

Damien was diagnose four and a half years earlier. He died at the age of 49 having spent the last twenty five years of his life in Kalaupapa.

On October 11, 2009 Father Damien will be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in Rome as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. On October 25, 2009 a celebration honoring Damien will be held in Wailuku.

In extending an invitation to various faith communities throughout Maui to join in the celebration that day, the Rev. Monsignor Terrence A.M. Watanabe wrote the following: “Blessed Damien of Moloka‘i, a missionary priest, ministered to victims of leprosy at Kalaupapa and worked alongside them to help build a community of love, care and pride. Contracting the disease himself, he continued to serve humankind and became an inspiration of hope and strength.”

I agree with Watanabe that Damien’s life is a source of hope and strength. But it is also a story of courage and compassion.

The story that comes to us from The Book of Esther is also a story about courage and compassion. The story is set in the court of King Ahasuerus, a ruler of “127 provinces from India to Ethiopia.” (Esther 1:1)

Esther and her cousin Mordecai are living in the community of Jewish exiles in the lands ruled by King Ahasuerus. When Queen Vashti is banished for her disobedience, Esther is chosen as the next queen.

Mordecai advises her not to reveal to the king that she is a Jew. Haman, the king’s chief advisor, is suspicious of Mordecai and insists that the Jews were dangerous because they kept their own customs. When Haman seeks approval from the king that Mordecai and the Jews must be destroyed, Esther puts her life at risk by declaring that she is a Jew.

Esther takes courageous action to preserve her community. When King Ahasuerus asks, “What is your petition?” Esther asks for her life and for the “lives of my people.” (Esther 7:3)

Out of their courage and compassion both Damien and Esther took tremendous risks. We may not see ourselves as Damiens or Esthers. But moments will come in our lives as they did in Damien’s life and Esther’s life when we will find ourselves having to take risks.

In some ways Esther had been prepared for her decision to speak to the king. It was Mordecai who said to her: “Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)

Most of us may not see ourselves as Esther – someone in a position of power and privilege who risked her very life for her people – or as Damien – someone not meant to be a king but a servant who did risk his very life for the people he had come to love at Kalawao and Kalaupapa. But there may well be a time in our lives when God will call each of us to take a risk for another person or a people. We take such risks in faith knowing that the God who created heaven and earth is with us.

The risks we take on behalf of others may trouble others. But we take them out of compassion for those who are at greater risk – the outcast, the downtrodden, the poor – those who are pushed to margins of societies in which we live.

Patrick Downes composed the song, “Damien the Blessed” in the Hawaiian slack key style in 1984. The song closes with the words, “May we, like you, be gifts of God’s abiding love.”

May it be so. Mahalo ke Akua.

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