Understanding Compassion through the Life of St. Damien
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St. Damien of Molokai once said, “Turn all your thoughts and aspirations to heaven. Work hard to secure for yourself a place there forever.” Every day of his ordained life, he lived those words. And they are words we should ponder every day of our lives.
Jozef Damien De Veuster was born in Belgium in 1840. In 1859 he began his novitiate with the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and took the name Damien. It is said that he would pray before a picture of St. Francis Xavier every day to be sent on a mission. His prayers would soon be answered.
Five years later, in 1864, he took the place of his brother, who had fallen ill and could not go on a planned mission trip. Damien volunteered to go to the Island of Molokai, which had been designated a leper colony. He knew that he would likely contract the disease and die, but he was willing to serve, and if he felt any fear, he did not allow it to stop him from taking care of God’s people.
When Damien arrived on the island, he found a lawless society filled with people who cared little for others or even themselves. Many did not even eat with utensils and had only hastily built homes. He helped them build houses, started saying Mass, and taught them that they all had dignity, despite their disease.
People began to live as a community, and this holy priest converted many to the faith. All loved him. But as his superiors feared, Fr. Damien eventually contracted leprosy, and he died in April of 1889.
Fr. Damien’s life is an inspiration to us all, as we too must turn our thoughts and aspirations to heaven and work daily to secure a place there. We can do this through our actions and how we show God’s love to everyone around us.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus taught, “For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.”
It’s easy to care for and be kind to our friends, but Christ calls us to treat everyone with compassion and kindness, just as St. Damien did. This is how we create a culture of life. This is how we change hearts and minds and draw others to God. If we are only ever good to our friends, we change very little in the world.
So let us look around and determine who the “lepers” are in our lives. Maybe it’s the snarky person at work, the grumpy person in our family, the elderly or the sick person on our block, or the single mom in our parish.
All of these people have immense value and deserve to be treated with love and dignity. All need to understand their own value and worth, for only once they know that they are valued can they then value others.
If we find this difficult, we can pray for guidance and patience, asking God to help us see opportunities to help others.
After we determine how we can care for those around us, we should have frank conversations with our kids about what they can do for others as well. Oftentimes kids think they are too small or too young to effect change, but their words and actions have immense power, and there’s so much they can do to make their world a better place.
For instance, they can befriend the new or lonely kid at school. They can show respect to everyone in their class by not gossiping about or laughing in a mean way when someone makes a mistake. They can watch their tone of voice and their body language when upset or annoyed. They can offer to help a student who’s struggling with a difficult subject. They can donate their time to serve others or join a club geared toward service. And they can pray.
When done in love, all of these actions not only draw us closer to God, but they draw others to Him as well, as people will begin to see God’s light through us.
So today and every day let us ask St. Damien and all the saints in heaven for their intercession, and let us pray that we have the moral courage to do everything for the greater glory of God.
You can teach your kids about St. Damien with this beautiful lesson booklet about his life from the Culture of Life Studies Program.
Susan Lochner Ciancio has a BA in psychology and a BA in sociology from the University of Notre Dame and an MLS from Indiana University. She has worked as a writer and editor since 2003; nearly 17 of those years have been in the pro-life sector. Currently, she is the editor of American Life League’s Celebrate Life Magazine—the nation’s premier Catholic pro-life magazine. She is also the director and executive editor of ALL’s Culture of Life Studies Program—a pre-K-12 Catholic pro-life education organization. Susan has written hundreds of Catholic and secular articles and has edited nearly two dozen books.
